My dad made this chest of drawers for me in about 1963 when we moved into the house in New Carlisle. One of the drawers has a bottom in it that is made from a scrap of panelling from the lake cottage in Indiana. So this has been around a while.
I used it in my room during high school . . . and painted it yellow. I lined the drawers with some 60's kind of contact paper in turquoise and pink with big flowers. It was psychedelic!! Later, I painted it pale green to go with baby stuff and used the chest for my kids things. When Emily got her own bedroom furniture, it moved to another room; and I used it to store sewing projects. Eventually, Melanie borrowed it for her clothes in an apartment at college. It kind of has a legacy with the family, don't you think?
Melanie brought the chest of drawers home a few months ago. She didn't need it anymore. It sat in the garage with it's pathetic, flat latex finish in pale green and it's ugly contact paper in the drawers. With so much of my life in it, I wanted to keep it.
I went to Home Depot and found a technique they call "Crackle" which looked kind of neat. I stripped off several layers of paint and took the contact paper out. Next came the crackling technique.
Here's the result. The chest is in the foyer awaiting hats and gloves and the card games we play when the family is around. I kind of like it. Greg is not so sure. He can't believe I did this on purpose!
3 comments:
I like it - I'd be curious to hear how you did that. And it's funny, because when Granny and Grandpa mentioned that they had an extra dresser for us, I was picturing this one, in green. I'm happy with the plain wood one they gave us. :)
The Crackle technique is a base coat of something dark (navy blue in this case) with a thin coat of glaze that resembles egg whites. You wait 2-4 hours after applying the glaze and then paint a white latex on top. The instructions tell you how to put it together for certain effects.
I bought the new knobs on eBay for about $12. New ones that I like were $7-$8 each. I needed 10! I don't think so!
Mmmm, I'm on the fence with Greg. It looks like you did a great job though - very artsy!
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