Cedar Chest

While surfing Craig's List one day recently, I came across a cedar chest. The price was really good so I bought it. The inside was immaculate. The girl I bought it from said it belonged to her mom and she definitely took excellent care of it. The top however had been used to set drinks on by this girl I believe. There were several places where the veneer was coming off, was chipped or was already off.






I decided to completely sand the top down and refinish it completely. Everyone that saw it told me I shouldn't do that. They kept saying that I should just repair the veneer. That wasn't part of my vision. I used a belt sander and a lot of sandpaper and completely took off the top layer of junk. I was pleasantly surprised to find this gorgeous wood underneath. There were several places on the bottom part that needed to be repaired. I decided to just fix them with wood filler. I was planning on painting the bottom part anyway.



I used Rustoleum's Kona Wood Stain for the top. I put 4 coats on, then applied polyurethane. After the poly, I used steel wool and then applied more poly. I did this several times, per my father's instruction, and had it looking quite lovely (if I do say so myself). Since this piece has the waterfall edge though, some of the poly decided to drip down the edge. So back to fixing that. Anyway, a lot of work later and here it is. I bought a new key for the lock, some new cedar blocks to freshen up the inside, stained the top, painted the entire outside with Annie Sloan's Aubusson Blue, clear wax & dark wax. I have to say, it looks marvelous now!! It's currently for sale for $175.