Rescued - Reimagined - Reborn
I rescued this sad little lady at a garage sale. She’s by Lane Furniture Company, so her build quality is great. Her appearance, however, was not. While the cedar inside was pristine, and it even had the key to the lock, life had not been kind. Not only had the family dog used her as a chew toy (at least I HOPE it was the family dog and not the toddler 😉 ), but there had also been a flood or a leak of some kind, and there was a fair amount of water damage. The owner had no time and no desire to do what was needed to return her to being a beauty. I could see the potential under the wrecked varnish and chewed corners. She practically SCREAMED Phoenix Furniture!
Before beauty could even be considered, I needed to get a good look at everything to see what and how much repair was needed. As per usual once I turn my Phoenix projects inside, outside, and upside down, the damage was more significant than was first apparent.
But despite Fido’s obvious teething troubles and the flood, there was nothing on the main body of the chest that some glue, wood putty, and sandpaper couldn’t put right. It did mean, however, that paint was going to be a large part of the refinishing. In my experience, stainable wood putty may take the stain or it may not. If it does take the stain, the results are not attractive. 🙁
In looking at the top, I made the determination that the only way to make the Fido damage completely disappear was to upholster the lid of the chest, making her into a storage bench.
I fell in love with this fabric when I saw it in Joanne’s a few months ago. It ties in beautifully with the carvings on the front section of the cedar chest. At last! An excuse to use it! It also gave me a palette to work from in choosing the final colors for my reimagined storage bench. I removed the top and set it aside to upholster after the body was finished.
Laying the piece on its back gave me easier access to everything that needed to be addressed. While most of the chest is solid wood, the skirt at the bottom is particle board with veneer. The water had caused some of the veneer to separate, and some of the particle board chips to fall out. After removing all loose pieces, I filled it in with wood putty, clamping the veneer in place, hoping it would just stick to the wood putty as it dried. It didn’t, but it did hold the wood putty in the right shape until it dried. Then it was a simple matter of using superglue to adhere the veneer to the wood putty. While the wood putty was open, I went over the chest carefully, filling in any chips, gouges, or tooth marks that remained.
Once repairs were complete, the prep was pretty standard for any paint/stain project. I sanded everything down with 220 grit sandpaper. The carved front section was the only part I felt could stay a wood stain. The rest of the body needed to be painted to cover the damage repairs. I popped a couple of blocks under the chest so that as I painted I wouldn’t come into contact with the tarp it was on.
After priming, I chose a navy blue alkyd paint that I had gotten for $2 from the Oops paint section at Home Depot. Once the first coat was on and dry, however, I felt that it was too much of a country blue for the look I wanted. I keep both black and white alkyd paints on hand for just such scenarios. I added enough black to bring the blue more in line with what I thought would look right with my fabric.
Never be afraid to admit that you missed the mark with your initial color selection. Paint, in the big picture, is cheap. Even if you aren’t comfortable tweaking your paint colors the way I do, you aren’t locked into whatever color of paint you originally chose. Be brave enough to try something else!
After the paint was completely cured, I taped off the front and the lock button to protect everything that wasn’t going to be stained. There’s a reason I did the painted portion first. Paint is much more forgiving of the occasional Oops! than stain. Even with all of this protection, there were still spots that needed wiping & touch-up painting when I was done. I managed to miss the tape and hit the paint anyway. What can I say? It’s a gift!
I used two different stain products here: Minwax Early American penetrating stain and General Finishes Antique Walnut gel stain. Water had eaten down to the bare wood in spots. In other places the varnish topcoat was more or less intact. Using a gel stain meant I wouldn’t have to remove the remaining varnish. I just had to rough it up enough for the stain to stick. But the bare wood areas were a much lighter color than the rest . . . very, very visible if I went straight to my gel stain. Early American penetrating stain to the rescue! Because it affected only the bare wood, the overall color became more uniform. The Antique Walnut gel then took the entire front to the depth of color I thought looked best with the navy paint.
Here is my issue with gel stains: No matter how long you give them to dry, you can have problems with the stain lifting when you topcoat it. And when I say the stain CAN lift, I mean that for me, it DOES, even after waiting 2 or more weeks. ( As opposed to the 3 – 7 days recommended by the manufacturer ) The first time I encountered this, a quick consultation with Google told me I was not alone in my troubles. Several sources suggested using a spray-on shellac to seal the stain layer. While I didn’t have any shellac on hand for this project, I DID have a spray-on spar varnish I found on clearance. ( I’m ALL about the bargains! ) How different could it be, right? Yes, I knew I was playing with fire to have even THOUGHT, “How different could it be?” I decided to risk it. 🙂 AFTER, of course, taping and draping the heck out of everything so that the spray ONLY went on the stained wood section.
Success!! After two thin coats of the spray varnish, I gave it a light sanding. Then I switched to my personal topcoat of choice: wipe-on polyurethane, with NO lifting of the gel stain! Whoo hoo!! A few coats of that on top of the spray varnish, and I had the smooth finish I love.
Now that the body was looking the way I wanted it to, it was time to upholster the top.
Rather than doing this part during some of the down time while waiting for paint, stain, or poly to dry on the body, I saved it for last. I wanted to be able to place the lid back on and see what it was going to look like with my chosen fabric and thickness of foam padding BEFORE taking the drastic action of stapling everything down. I haven’t done enough upholstering yet to fully trust my mind’s eye. And frankly, I wasn’t organized enough to have done it before starting all of the rest. I wish I had. It would have saved me some time!
Foam comes in several thicknesses and materials. It’s sold in fabric stores by the yard. Obviously the thicker and/or higher the quality of foam, the more expensive it is.
I originally went with a 2 inch piece of foam, but decided that it was out of scale with the rest of the piece. ( So glad I trusted my gut and waited! ) I also really struggled to get it cut straight all the way through. My mom, wise and experienced DIY mentor that she is, recommended using an electric carving knife. Goodwill thoughtfully had 3 to choose from in my hour of need. $2.99 later I was ready to give it a shot.
I tried it with the 1 inch foam I bought and WOW! I will never use scissors or a razor blade to cut foam ever again! It was incredible! Fast, easy, and STRAIGHT!
Next up: adhering the foam to the wood top. Technically you don’t HAVE to do this step. The batting and fabric wrapped over will hold it in place. But on projects where I didn’t, the foam pops up just a bit in the middle. I’m not a fan, so I now use spray adhesive to keep it in place. That also makes wrapping the batting and fabric easier, since the foam isn’t trying to shift around. The Elmers brand in the picture is just one of MANY spray adhesives on the market. I buy whatever is on sale. ( Did I mention how much I love a bargain?! )
Why wrap it in batting rather than just putting fabric over the foam? Comfort! The batting softens the hard edges so it feels nicer on the backs of legs. It also makes the profile on the sides nice and smooth, rather than being able to see a line between foam and base. It can be purchased as a package or by the yard.
Time to finish this baby up! Just have to wrap the batting and fabric over the foam, staple it in place, and she’ll be DONE!
I use an air-powered staple gun on my upholstery projects. It’s sooooooo much easier than using a regular, Erin-powered staple gun. When I went to do this final step, I found that the pressure control on the air compressor had died. SIGH. I went from being a matter of a couple of hours, at most, from being done, to being on hold for over a week whilst waiting for the replacement part to arrive.
On most upholstered seats, you can just wrap everything underneath, staple, and forget about it. It doesn’t have to be pretty. Really, how often are you going to look under there? Out of sight, out of mind. In this case, however, I needed to be a little more creative. Since this is a lid that opens and can stay open without being held up ( Cool, right? ), I wanted the underside to look as nice as possible.
Since this is a cedar chest, I also wanted to be able to maintain the seal that helps make a cedar chest protective of fabrics stored inside. The metal seal gave me an easy guide for how far under the batting and fabric could be wrapped. Since the edges were all going to visible at some point, I tucked and folded them under before stapling for a nice, smooth edge.
I also didn’t want to risk messing up the working of the hinges, so I chose not to wrap it under in the back at all. Instead I did my tuck, fold, and staple about halfway down the back edge. Bonus . . .the cool slot for the key remained accessible!
After the top was smoothed, tucked, and stapled to my satisfaction, it was time to reattach it! The moment of truth. Will the results live up to my vision?
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I’ll say! Despite Fido & flood, she is a sad cedar chest no more! Just LOOK at this sweet storage bench!
OK, friends . . . any thoughts, comments, or questions? Wondering why I did something this way or didn’t do something that way? Trying to do something similar but are having a problem I might be able to help you with? Wondering why I keep referring to inanimate objects as “he” or “she”? Cat person or dog person? Chocolate or vanilla? Feel free to comment below. The floor is yours!