Chest Redo

I am many things in this world... but a furniture re-finisher is not one of the things I'm best at.  I've made a few meager attempts at it, but it takes practice.  Thank goodness for thrift store furniture! 

I've been working on a piece I've had stashed away in the basement for quite a while.  When I first got it (MANY moons ago) it was just a plain old brown ugly thing I got from the thrift store.  I don't recall how much it was, but back then things were priced pretty well.  That was way before thrifting became so popular and prices starting skyrocketing!  (But that's a whole other topic!)

I am excellent at painting walls... so why not this?  I thought I'd try my hand at it.  At the time (again, MANY moons ago), crackle finish was all the rage.  I didn't want to put it all over my walls, so this was the perfect opportunity to try it out.  Who knows what I was thinking because this is how it turned out.

I KNOW!  Hideous right?  Okay, so do-over time! 

Anyway, it really is a good solid piece of furniture and just the right size to store all of our extra winter blankets.  I wanted to try something a little different and I've seen a few ideas in the blogoshpere that looked interesting.  I had never stained wood over paint, but apparently it can be done. 

So I started with some old paint I had in the garage... I was surprised it could still be mixed up.  But I'm cheap and didn't want to go buy anything special for it.  So it would have to do.  It's just a creamy whitish tan color.  Two coats of that and left to dry.

Next I used Minwax stain in Ebony.  I wanted something different.  Once I got it on there and started to wipe it off, it just looked too gray for my taste.  So I experimented and put some Dark Walnut stain over the top of that.  Ooooh... that looks cool!

I basically had to play around with it and work it onto the surface to get the look I wanted.  So I applied it on with a brush and then wiped it off with an old t-shirt.  Then took a dry brush and worked it in some more.  

When it was FINALLY dry... like after 2 days!... I applied a thin coat of satin poly and added some cute knobs from Hobby Lobby.  Here's how my second attempt turned out.

I love how some of the previous crackle still shows through! 

I think it looks MUCH better!  But I've contemplated adding just a little something else on the top.  Maybe a monogram?  Or a stencil of some sort?  What do you think?  Any suggestions would be awesome!

And as always, I was born to party!  Click here to link back to one of the many great link-up parties I join each week.