I needed a spot with plenty of storage and good light to put on makeup, so I created my own makeup table with a glamorous vanity mirror. I actually started this project a couple of years ago, but it gradually evolved into its current form, which I’m really happy with. Want to make your own makeup table? I have a bunch of tips and sources to share, and with my advice, you can put one together much more quickly than I did!


There are basically three components to this makeup table:

A desk or console with storage

A big mirror

Lights

 

I used this West Elm console, but this desk or this mini desk would also work well. I’ve also seen several cute makeup tables made with Ikea desks and consoles. There are tons of other desks and consoles out there that would work, it just depends on the look you’re aiming for. If you don’t care about storage drawers, you could even use a narrow table. The drawers are really useful for storing makeup and beauty products, though.

For the mirror, I used a vintage one that came with an old vanity I bought on Craigslist. I originally intended to use the whole thing, but it didn’t fit the room well, so I got rid of the vanity itself and kept the mirror. You could go that route and hunt down a vintage mirror, or buy a new big round one. Because of the cords for the lights, I feel like a frameless one (like this one) is probably your best bet, unless you find one with a thick frame that the lights will fit on.

The lights were the part of this makeup table that took me the longest to figure out. For years, I did my makeup by this big tree lamp. It’s one I found on clearance at Anthropologie several homes ago, and while I love it dearly, it doesn’t fit this space. It’s too big, and since it’s only on one side of the mirror, the other half of my face was pretty poorly-lit. So it was time to find a better solution.

But what? Obviously any other lamp would have the same problem, and I didn’t want to go with a matching set of wall-mounted sconces on either side of the mirror because we already have a set on either side of the bed a few feet away, so it might look weird.

Lots of googling for “best makeup lighting,” later, and I had found stick-on LED vanity lights. Bright, even, neutral-colored, energy efficient light? Yes please!

So I ordered a string, and then stuck them to my mirror. They come with sticky mounting tape on the bottom of each light, and I pulled the cords between the lights to the back of the mirror, and taped them flat with brown duct tape. (My mirror is backed with wood, but it occurs to me that duct tape could pull off or react with the coating on the back of a mirror if you’re taping it directly, so do some research if that’s your situation.)

The light set I used has a little on-off/dimmer switch, which I cleverly hit behind some stuff. It’s held onto the surface with a little stick-on cord holder I happened to have.

So that’s my makeup table. The light is nice and bright and even, and great for putting on makeup. Even though it took a while to work out the kinks of the idea, I love the solution that I finally settled on!