Category Archives: DIY

Finished Trunk!

Thanks again to all the Healthy Heart participants!  I apologize for the picture heavy post below… well, not really apologize. I’ll just say it is a picture heavy post.

The Lady has been finished!  This was the second trunk I purchased. I haven’t done anything with the first one yet because it is in good shape and I actually am using it in my practice room… and I got a third one.  

First off, I have to say that this is probably one of the most interesting projects I have done to date. I think a lot of that comes just from what a unique item it is.  Pretty much everything about this restoration was new to me. This trunk probably was from the 1880s based on the barrel stave design and the trunk maker (J. Levy). Anyway, here are some before shots of the trunk.

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One thing about this trunk is that it smelled of mothballs on the inside, along with must. Peee-ew!! A lot of the mothball smell came from the pressboard cover on the tray and lid, plus the paper coating inside. Those were damaged beyond repair anyway, so they just went away (although I kept the lithographs).

To restore this trunk, I used a spritz of water and vinegar to remove the paper covering inside and out. The glue they used eons ago was water based, so this made removal fairly easy. Then I sanded down the wood and used wet sandpaper to sand off as much rust as I could from the hardware. It’s amazing how much better it looked just doing that. And smelled better.

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I used Rustoleum flat black enamel to paint the hardware with a small paintbrush.  Then I coated the inside and outside with Waterlox (including the hardware). I wanted a satin sheen on this and I still had Waterlox leftover from doing the counters, so it’s a win all around!

 I chose to line the trunk because the wood was a little rough despite the sanding and I wanted whomever has this to be able to use it for storage – not to mention just protect this very old wood. I talked about lining it in this post, so I won’t repeat that here.

The lithographs took some work to save. It was a lesson in patience, let me tell you. It was soaking with water and gently and slowly peeling it off the old pressboard.

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I wasn’t even sure I would be able to save them, but I did and that made me happy to be able to keep that original part. I dried them out in paper towels squished in books. Not sure if that is how the pros do it, but it worked pretty well.

The hardest thing on the whole trunk? The darn handles! I had the original hardware, but needed new straps. Of course, fitting modern straps into old hardware was a challenge, but so was attaching the handles to the box. I had to buy special nails of softer steel so that I could hammer them in and bend them over on the inside – like what was done when the trunk was made. Can’t do that with modern nails. Anyway, there are a few companies dedicated to parts for restoring trunks (because of course there would be, right?). I used Brettuns Village and was very happy with their service.

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Here is the finished product:

1880s trunk

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1880s trunk

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I mentioned on FB that I love how this still looks old, but now it doesn’t look decrepit and it can have a long and useful life instead of moldering in someones attic.

I am getting a lot of nice feedback on her from my vintage groups. I have had a nibble on someone wanting to purchase it, but we shall see.  I hope it sells as I now have another one to work on! 😀

Let it snow!

The first major snowfall of the season.  I hate to say first, because I know it won’t be the last. It’s not even winter yet, but it sure looks like it! The snow started later yesterday and continued overnight.  I took a peek outside in the morning and saw this:

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Yes, we do have a garage, but it is only a 1 car garage, so the car we don’t use much (the Saturn) went in there. Our driveway is only 1 car width wide, which makes it a pain to try to swap cars around.  So, poor Prius got the snow cover!

After breakfast, it was time to shovel.

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Our little snowblower had issues (John thinks it is a belt problem), so we had to do it by hand.  I got a stern warning from John about my back as we got started.  I had no desire to make it worse, so I created my own method of shoveling.  The no bend, no twist shoveling method.  It worked pretty well, although my arms did most of the work and they were tired.  I got out the measuring tape to check depth:

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That’s ridiculous for this early in the season. I am in trouble with my boots here:

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That’s a lot of snow, but we can handle it around here in the ADK.  We live on the main road in town and they do a great job at clearing the main roads around here.  Side streets are a problem, but the main roads were just wet by late morning. 

My winter flag fits right in now:

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The bobsled chute for 2013/14 is off to a good start!

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After doing our driveway and having lunch, we went over to my parents’ house.  They were stuck down in Saratoga at my sister’s house, so we went over and used their snowblower to clear the driveway for them.  It was nice have a snowblower and not having to do it by hand 😀   Two driveways is enough for one day. I will confess that we stopped at Dunkins on the way home and got a donut.

So, how about some table progress? It’s getting close! I brought the panel pieces in to stain:

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We spent time deciding on the layout of the panels and which boards would be which colors.  That was the hardest part about the whole thing LOL!  We are using 3 colors on the panel, which would be cherry, golden oak and unstained (guess that counts as a color).

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The frame is a dark walnut color.  This came inside and we will assemble that in here:

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I love how the grain comes out with the walnut stain.

Here is the final layout we decided on.  There is one piece missing because we actually had to cut a new one as a piece got really warped for whatever reason. All those scraps of paper are notes to myself about which panels went with which square and what order to put them in.

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Now I have to stain another piece, so we can’t assemble it until at least tomorrow, which may not happen because Mondays are really hectic around here.

After we put it together, then 4 coats of semi-gloss poly and then a few days of cure time before Christmas Eve dinner! 😀