Blanket Chest Makeover

When my grandmother died I inherited a blanket chest she had stored in her garage. My grandmother was a hoarder and no one in my family knew if the chest was hers or something she picked up through the years. Regardless, it is old. I did an online search and found it was made between 1930 and 1936.

I don’t have any pictures of what it looked like when Bill and I lugged it home and before we sanded and stained it that Scooby Doo orange color that was popular in the 1990s. For years it sat at the foot of the bed in a guest bedroom in our Pittsburgh house.

After we moved to Florida, we stored the chest in the garage for several years until we decided it might look good at the bottom of our bed and thought we’d try to rehab it. Since our move, the veneer had been damaged, and a tar-like substance had melted and been welded to the lid.

We lifted the chest onto a table in the garage and got to work. First, we gathered the supplies:

  • Klean Strip Liquid Sandpaper

  • Antibacterial Disinfecting Wipes

  • Krud Cutter Degreaser

  • 3M Stripping Pads

  • Rubber Gloves

I started by scrubbing the chest with Krud Cutter. I kept scrubbing until the towels I was using came back unsoiled.

After the chest was clean, I used a chip brush to spread Liquid Sandpaper over it, being careful to get it in all the corners and crevices. This was my first time using Liquid Sandpaper, and I wasn’t sure what to expect. The surface turned hazy almost immediately. I let it sit for about an hour.  

When I checked after 60 minutes, the surface of the chest was less glossy.  

Next, I brushed on a coat of primer. After it was dry I lightly sanded it.

That was followed by two coats of paint and sanding in between coats.

Once the paint was dry I used a piece of sandpaper to lightly distress the corners, edges, and any raised areas.

Since we couldn’t get the block goo that melted to the lid off the veneer we cut boards into 3-inch strips, stained them, and then nailed them to the lid, for a coastal-ish, rustic look.

The last step was covering the faded, worn velvet on the inside compartments with contact paper.

Ta-Da!

The cost for this project was $9.99 for the Liquid Sandpaper and $7.99 for a roll of contact paper, so about $18 total. All the other supplies - stain, paint, sandpaper, Krud Cutter, gloves, boards, and stripping pads - were leftover from other projects.

I know we painted over beautiful vintage wood, and I debated whether or not to do that, but, painting the chest better fit the vibe of the room we needed it for and I’m happy with how it turned out.










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