Stinky Trunk To Cool Coffee Table

by Paige @ southerncurated

1 Material

3 Hours

Easy

A good friend gave me this old trunk a while ago but I have hesitated to do anything with it because it smelled bad both inside and out! I finally found a way around all that stink😊

Pretty sweet now, huh?

But it did not start out that way.

I loved the trunk on site but that smell had me running from it. I tried letting it sit out in the hot sun for several days and the smell got better but not by a lot.

So I marched my tail down to Walmart and bought eight cans of flat white spray paint at $1 each. The spray paint acted as a sealer on the inside of the trunk as well as the outside! As a side note, the trunk is mostly metal and the details really pop

now.

I use a snap on trigger type spray attachment that they sell at Lowes for cans of spray paint. It made this job go soooo much smoother! Plus it saved my index fingers:). Since this trunk is mostly metal it has made a lovely coffe table out on our covered front porch! If you would like to see the entire project just follow the link below:)

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3 of 6 questions

Fer8052962 on Sep 04, 2017

Beautiful job!! But how do you keep outside area so pristine? I live on 15 acres and if I left the rug and pillows 1 day I would have critters and insects making homes on the porch.

1
Lori Silva on Sep 09, 2017

how can I get rid of the mothball smell in my old trunk??

1
Retha on Oct 21, 2017

How could I use an antique metal suitcase (my father's ) and I d love to keep it, but don't know what to do with it. He would have been 108 yrs old. Thank you?

1

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2 of 24 comments

Wanda Extrom on Oct 11, 2017

Try sprinkling baking soda in and on it, leave for a day then vacuumn off.

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LaNell on Oct 15, 2017

I have 8 trunks, and paid no more than 25 or 30 dollars for any of them. I started collecting them to redo them for each of my 5 grandchildren, but have since lost a granddaughter. But today I gave one, totally rough, to my youngest granddaughter because that was the way she wanted it. I have two of the best ones inside my house, one as a coffee table and one just for storage in a bedroom. I still plan to redo them all. The last one I bought a month or so ago is my favorite as it has a lots of brads all along the metal. It will be gorgeous when redone.

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