Renovating the Little Green Chest

I was asked about the little green chest that I have just renovated, so here it is.

I was a bad blogger and totally forgot to get a 'Before' photo, but I remembered just in time to take a interior shot so you could sort of see what the original colour of the wood was.  This photo shows the grey of the undercoat, I had just enough in old tin to do all of the chest.

The outside was a deep mahogany colour, just like the inside of the lid, but it didn't look nice, it just looked old and cheap.  This photo was taken just as I was starting the first coat of the green paint.

I originally got this as a swap when Alan decided he didn't want his butchers block anymore, it was taking up too much room in the Man Cave and was far too heavy to move around.  We tried to sell it on Facebook Market place but there was no interest, so we went back to the Old Auction Rooms where we had bought it from originally and asked the lovely guy there if he would do a swap for something else ... and he said yes.  We chose a little cast iron bedroom fireplace and this old blanket box.  We were going to put the fireplace in the spare room but the photos for the sale of the house were taken before we installed it, so we decided to sell it instead and made an easy £55.

Anyway after it sitting in Alan's Man Cave for over a year I finally set to and started it's renovation.  Lots of sanding and then three coats of a paint, one undercoat in grey and two coats of the green paint that we have had since we lived at Jointers Farm, and the chest was starting to look as I had envisioned.

I don't know why but I didn't just want to paint the inside, so I decided to line it with fabric instead.  The bottom had three of the four screws that hold the legs on sticking up in the corners, and being so old and totally rusted up I couldn't screw them in any further or or get them out, so I had to find a solution or risk hurting myself if I forgot they were there.

Then an Amazon delivery arrived and in it some padded foam rectangles ... fate!!

They were quickly cut to size and I could get on with the lining.

The material is the king-size bed 'foot runner' that came on the Van bed when we bought it, and matches the bedroom curtains there.  I had brought it home to turn it into a cushion cover, but that had never happened and then I thought it looked pretty good against the soft green of the blanket box.  

Unfortunately, there was not enough to do the sides, base and  lid, so I decided to do the base rather than the lid with the fabric.  I have no plan for lining the lid yet ... something will happen at the right time, it usually does  😃

To attach the fabric I totally cheated and bought a can of spray glue from Amazon and it was all cut to size and stuck in place before I knew it.

It spent a long time balanced on a cardboard box while I gave it the three coats of paint it took to perfectly cover the dark brown.

But I love how it turned out and I love the soft green.

And I also love that somehow it reminds me of a friendly little alien face.

I'm not completely sure of it final purpose yet, but in the back of my mind it may be used to store my Christmas decorations and have my small television and DVD player stood on top in my new home.  Perhaps in the spare bedroom if I have one, so I can  have it permanently set up to play my exercise DVDs, and then only have to lift the tv and player off twice a year to get decorations out and then put them away again.

Sue xx