Cedar Chest - One Man's Junk...

4 Materials
There is no reason for you to have to "live with" an old cruddy piece of furniture just because it's useful or an heirloom. Your style matters to you, no one else, and you need to be OK with declaring it through your creative style.
Take this old cedar chest...it was a hand me down from years ago. It is solid. It's useful. It's a good size and shape.
BUT.I.HATED. IT.
It's so ugly and beat up. How do you justify getting rid of an old ugly piece that works well for storage?
I find it amazing to see the transformation that a little paint can create! Oh baby, once it gets in your blood...
We call it flipping furniture. DIY'ers all over the world are taking charge and making their homes fit THEM...not decorating how others expect them to, but deciding what they like and remaking their home to fit their style.
The unfortunate thing is...few have the confidence to do such a thing or the know how to flip their furniture into beautiful pieces of art. Take this blanket chest for example. It really needed help.


But Michelle at Serendipity House offered to supply me with a couple of bottles of L'Essential Botanics furniture paint and glaze to give it a try, so I took her up on it and was pleased with the results. You can do this too!
The top was painted with L'Essentiel Botanics Paint "Ash" and stenciled with a French design. Stenciling is super easy! I was fortunate enough to be given the paint from Serendipity House to give it a try and review it. Oh boy did I L.O.V.E. it!


The bottom is painted with the color "Steel" and distressed.
After distressing I added a tinted glaze and new and some of the old hardware that I painted and distressed to match.
The end result turned an old cruddy blanket chest that I detested into a fine piece of furniture. I topped it off with clear glaze since the paint was a chalk type - the shimmer added dimension. To see details, go to Love My DIY Home for the more detailed tutorial.


I even have a couple of videos that show how the paint covered and how to sand out minor gouge marks. My DH starred in the sanding video!
I have a PDF download of homemade chalk paint if you don't want to buy a pre-made version.


One man's junk, as it turns out, is MY treasure!


Click on the Love My DIY Home link below and come for a visit.
Suggested materials:
  • L'Essentiel Botanics Furniture Paint   (Serendipity House)
  • Decor Art Stencil   (Amazon)
  • L'Essentiel Botanics Glaze   (Serendipity House)
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Val Frania {Love My DIY Home}
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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