Thursday, January 19, 2012

Mom's cedar chest

 This past fall I lost my mom after a 13+ year battle with colon cancer.  We had to clean out her house after we sold it, and at the very last minute, I decided I couldn't let this cedar chest go.  After all it had stored our christening gowns and other linens for all of my life.  It was ugly, but it had good bones and I knew I could make it pretty again.  Here is what it looked like when I started. 

The color was what I like to call three pack a day yellow.  My Dad had been a smoker and even through he's been gone over 25+ years the nicotine yellow remained.  

The top had long ago been covered in contact paper, to protect it or cover a damaged top, I am not sure!  Not very pretty though!

I've been dying to try out Annie Sloan Chalk paint.  One of the bloggers I follow at http://savvysouthernstyle.blogspot.com/ is always gushing about this paint.  Her furniture pieces are always to die for.  So I finally took the plunge and ordered some.  The color I ordered is french linen.  

After sanding down the chest, I painted flat black stripes in the grooves along the front of the doors.  I also painted the handles in a flat black.


After painting and sanding down the grooves to expose the black, I buffed in some Old English dark wood scratch cover over the entire piece.  This gave it a really nice depth.  I finished off the entire chest with a coat  of wax, buffing it when it was dry.  


So here's the finished piece.  It looks great in our newly finished basement, which I will feature another day.  I think Mom would be very proud of this piece, and me!

4 comments:

  1. Good job. I do love that color, too. You do know you don't have to sand first before using this paint. Thanks for the mention and welcome to blogging.

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  2. I am trying to add myself as a follower, but for some reason the thing comes up like you get if you are already a follower. Must be a darn blogger issue again. I will try again.

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  3. Welcome to blogging! My friend Kim just told me about your blog. I host a newbie party every Monday and would love for you to join in. THIS Monday however, is a magazine copy cat challenge that I host once a month so there will be no newbie party. Hope to see you soon. I love your makeover, you did a fantastic job.

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  4. I like the French Linen! What a great idea about using Old English. I like the Distressed look of your piece! I am your newest follower. Hope you can visit me sometime soon:)

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