My wife and I found this old kist almost hidden away in an antique shop. We wanted to do something special for her son. He is having an engagement party in September. Something in the old tradition of the dowry wheelhouse.
New to the DIY / up-cycle world, but enthusiasm got the better of us. This was what we wanted to do.
The first mistake we made is that we didn't look closely at the kist in the shop. We just bought it and rushed home to take it a part and start working on it.
We realised it was old as it was nailed together with so many of those old - what I called "coffin nails". Those square nails I think they also use them for shoe-ing horses. Anyway - it was very light so thought it was an Oregon pine of some sort. When we took the inside thin wooden panels out, we could see that white ants had been at it and their trails were almost everywhere. The base was also virtually rotten, so that was needed to be replaced.
No matter, we were going to be decoupaging the inside. Loved the old simple metal handles and hinges, which we were simply going to clean and spray paint a gold colour. It sanded down beautifully, the difficulty was knowing when to stop.
So I got to sanding and cutting out new inside panels - my wife was keen to decoupage. The 2 things we learned about decoupage - is paint white under the material so that the colour of the substrate doesn't show through and the other thing is that slightly watered down wood glue works wonders - really good.
Other things we learnt along the way are make sure you keep a little container of re-usable screws. The screws I took out of the hinges and handles were really old and really good. I actually battled to find replacement screws that fulfilled the requirements. Also the old classic - it really is worth sanding with a rougher grit first and finishing with a fine grit. Was truly happy with the result of hours and hours of sanding. Couple of pics below showing the results.
Just have to say, we watched tons of shorts about fixing up old furniture, they never tell you or show how long it takes to do anything ... well let me tell you ... it takes days ... we decided on using a wax with a slight colour in it and that takes up to 8 hours to sink in or dry, so allow time for projects like this. You can start sanding and find yourself having missed lunch and the sun is going down.
My wife made this beautiful silk thin cushion for the bottom and the base of the candle holder to the one side. Turned out beautifully.
All in all a truely rewarding project if you enjoy tuning out for a period of time and focusing on something specific like this, from hunting to photographing the finished product. Truly happy and can't wait to see the reaction of the recipients.
Blessings and warmth.
