I took the item home and began to work on it. The item appeared to have two coats of colors, one white and one red. As I began to strip the paint, I noticed there was some very cool brass embellishments. I could see this beauty come to life! Because the paint was pretty old it came off fairly easy with some paint stripper I had laying around. (I used masks when stripping...saftey first). The layers just peeled away. When I was done I could see some areas where there were deep marks, but I felt this was all part of the character and man if this old trunk could talk what tales would it say. I sanded a bit to get the remnants of the remaining paint gone.

Now that I had all the paint off, and the brass embellishments were all showing thru, I felt I could give it a little kick by adding a touch of color to the worn wood. I purchased a small can of "Traditional Cherry" Varathane Wood Stain. I only used a very light coat, just enough to give that true cherry color a little revitalizing. As for the embellishments, they were pretty tatter and scratched, so I opted to use a can of Rust-oleum “hammered bronze” paint. Boy did this make the embellishments POP!!

Next step I applied 3 coats (letting each coat dry for a minimum of 4 hours to overnight) of fast drying semi-gloss polyurethane to give it that good protection it deserved.

Now you would think the project is done, however I wanted to kick it up a notch just one more level and decided to add a base. Yes the chest would have looked nice if I stopped here, however my friend wanted to put it at the foot of his bed and it doing so the cedar chest needed to be just a little bit higher. I kicked around the idea of added some twist on legs, but my head was just saying no, that won’t work. So I began to brainstorm a plan and this is what I came up with.

I took some ¾ inch sanded plywood and cut a piece to the size of the bottom of the cedar chest, this will become the top of my base. I then took some more ¾ inch plywood and drew a design for the legs. After doing so I cut the legs out on the bandsaw. (2) flat pieces L shaped angled together to make one leg. I brad nailed the (2) pieces together and then attached to the bottom of the base piece I just cut out earlier. Once all 4 legs were attached I added 1” round quarter round trim around the entire edge of the base to make it stick out just slightly making it look like a fancy decorative edge piece. I took the “Traditional Cherry” stain and stained the entire piece. To allow the piece to blend in further I took some black stain and rubbed in various areas. I then added 3 coats of polyurethane. Now for the finally all I have to do is set the chest on the base and WALAHA!! The base can be attached to the cedar chest but I decided not to, so the integrity of the base stayed in tacked.

I think this is one of my favorite upcycle/redos pieces ever! Let me know what you think!

Family Heirloom Restore