1940's Cedar Chest Makeover Adventure With Colors! #SPiTchallenge

Laryl Hancock
by Laryl Hancock
I found this sad little brown cedar chest at a church rummage sale. The veneer was coming off everywhere, but it was so cute, or could be! It managed to drive me crazy along the way. I wanted to share my journey with this darling thing. I was in over my head from the moment I got it home, but it all turned out in the end! I am not a furniture re-finisher, I hope this encourages someone to try new things, especially Unicorn Spit where you least expect it.
The before shot.
I cleaned it up and decided I would take the damaged veneer off the top. A new experience but I thought hey I can figure it out as I go. I noted the stamp inside, it's a ED Roos Chest. A company that went out of business in 1951. I'm guessing this one was from the 1940's. It was not something I could restore, but I wanted it to be loved.
I read you could use stripper by putting plastic wrap over it. A new thing for me. I didn't realize it was going to dry quickly. Tip, don't let it dry! What a mess. Lots of scraping and sanding, I did finally get it stripped.
I planned to use stain on the top. Oh great, I learned furniture often has mismatched scrap wood under it's veneer. I also learned the soft old wood wanted to fall apart. I had to be very careful especially with that trim.
I primed the entire chest with BIN primer. Then I made a blend of some white and almost orange and cream chalk type paints. Well it sure looked fresh and clean now! The primer was put on in the direction of the grain and had a lot of brush strokes. There were two molding pieces missing on the front sides, so I added simple trim pieces.


The top was damaged with dings and I wanted a textured top, because I think they have character. I put the chalk type paint on going across, giving the top a cross hatch texture. Here's a close up of that
close of up texture on the top
Now continues the "Oh what am I doing!" adventure. I am very new to the awesome Unicorn Spit Gel & Stain In One. It's online at http://www.unicornspit.com So diving right in I tried an aurora. Not enough coverage so I put on more Spit. No clue what I was doing but it was fun to fingerpaint it on the top! I learned a bit about what I liked and didn't. I didn't like the result, didn't even take a photo of it.
So not liking the muddy result this newbie got, I washed it all off. Unicorn Spit is a water base product and that's awesome because you can start over. Now what am I going to do, I asked myself, ..and seriously?...the primer came off with it huh?!
Yep, starting over with a rather fun hot mess of raw wood with spotty primer. I'm feeling the rebel in me rise up. Why sand it all off when I can play with what's happening and see where it takes me! Yeah that's the spirit! I did put a fresh coat of chalk paint over this, using random strokes in all directions. The top had great strokes and textures!
What's this you ask? Well. I was reading how you could thin GF Java Gel and use it as a glaze. Hmm that sounds like fun, let's try it on the ..TRIM! It was interesting and so pretty. I put it on the back, shown here, just to give it a fresh color. BUT then I liked that so much that without thinking, I put it all over the chest. umm java is oil base. put it over water base that was going to have waterbase stain going on next. OOPS not real smart, let's call it art and see if I can get away with it. Sanded a bit, and let it cure for days.
I sanded well, then I applied Zia Teal Unicorn Spit over the Java Gel, and wiped it back. Sanded it back. Washed it back/off. Seeing through all the layers of cream, brown and now teal I rather liked the look on the body. My arms were sore but I was liking it. Now to tackle that top again.
I used Zia Teal, White Ning, Purple Hill Majesty, Blue Thunder and Dragonsbelly. The smell of Jasmine this stain has is so wonderful I didn't want to quit! I let it dry a bit and wiped it down hard. Then I sanded it to bring out the textured white strokes.


About 4 coats of Minwax Satin Rub-On Poly were put on after the chest sat to cure for a week.
There was no overhead light source in the first front view photo, the top isn't that dark. I was shocked to see the grain of the original veneer come through. It's subtle but very visable.. how fun is that!
A close up of the top, done with side by side strokes that were blended with my bare hands.
Because of all the damage, I let the sides go funky with rough finished look. It is really different and I love it. I love the entire finished project but boy did I have an adventure creating it!
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