Outdated Jewelry Box Gets a Makeover

5 Materials
$30
6 Hours
Easy

I love boxes. More specifically I love boxes with drawers! Big boxes, little boxes, wide boxes, narrow boxes...as long as they have drawers, I love them!

I found this old jewelry box on FaceBook Marketplace and knew right away I needed to have it and the ideas started spinning on what I wanted to do with it.

I don't always know immediately what my plan is...sometimes they have to develop. But this box was going to be fabulous, I just knew it.

I love the wide slim drawers and since this box is quite large I knew it would be good for storing things in. I don't know what, but I'll come up with something!

Remove the velvet lining


This box may have been quite fancy in it's day...but at this point it's more of a wreck. Two of the drawers were already missing their lining so that made my job just a bit easier. Using needle nose pliers and a metal scraper I removed as much of the lining as I possibly could.

Sand the interior


I don't know what kind of NASA certified glue was originally used in this box but I was certainly not going to win this fight, so I sanded down what I couldn't remove and that was that.

Clean and Prep


After all the scraping and sanding I used my vacuum to really get all the dust out of it. I knew I would be lining the drawers so I wasn't too worried about residual glue but I wanted it as smooth as possible.

I recently discovered a line of products that I love working with. Amy Howard at Home has some fabulous paints and specialty items and I used them for this project. The first thing i did was applied a product called Cracked Patina to the outside of the box.

Apply Cracked Patina


This goes on clear and dries very shiny.

Applying the first coat of paint


After the Cracked Patina had dried for an hour I applied one coat of Amy Howard at Home paint in the color Java. Almost immediately it started to crack and the original stain color could be seen underneath.

Second coat of Cracked Patina


Because I wanted this box to look old with layered coats of paint, I applied one more coat of Cracked Patina, on top of the Java and allowed it to dry for about an hour.

Apply first coat of Blue


Now it's time for the blue top coat...this is when the fun really starts to happen. I used Amy Howard's Mai Dragon for this coat and as it started to dry, the Cracked Patina did it's job and I began to see the Java and the original stain underneath. To help this along I used my fingers and pressed on the paint in a few areas, this helps to pull the paint off and leave a very chippy effect.

I love the way these Amy Howard at Home products work together to give this outdated jewelry box an updated, aged and patina'd look.

Spray Paint the Hardware


I decided to use the original hardware so I spray painted it using Rust-Oleum Paint & Primer in Burnished Amber. It's a nice dark brown that goes well with the paint colors on the box.

Line the inside of the box


Remember all that sanding and scraping at the beginning? Well I decided since the outside of this box looks old and chippy that lining the drawers with old newspaper seemed appropriate!

I cut the paper and applied it with Mod Podge. Once the paper was all glued down with the Mod Podge I then applied a coat on top of the paper to seal it.

I am so happy with how this box turned out. I still don't know for sure what I'm going to store in it, but I'm just happy to have it proudly displayed in my living room.I absolutely love paint and the magical changes it can make.

If you haven't tried any of the Amy Howard products I would encourage you to do so, I know you'll love them. icon


Hop over to my blog for the full post and links to all the products used.




Happy Painting!


Cindy

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  2 questions
  • Dorothy Wirth Dorothy Wirth on Jul 31, 2020

    I’m inspired...to refinish a large silverware box with multiple drawers. My problem is that I want to keep the silverware dividers, but the “velvet” got moldy when the neighborhood was flooded and I want to recover it. Any suggestions?

  • Karen George Karen George on Aug 02, 2020

    Did you sand the outside before applying the cracked patina?


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2 of 27 comments
  • Connie Connie on Aug 09, 2020

    No question...this IS a jewelry box, as I have one just like it! Mine is in perfect condition, so I do not ever anticipate remodeling it . It is beautiful!

  • Barb Barb on Aug 18, 2020

    no

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