Sharon's blog: The old wooden trunk makeover

I found this old wooden hand-made trunk in the estate of an older artist friend of mine who had passed more than 15 years ago. The wooden trunk had remained untouched for all that time until I picked it up about 4 years ago. It was a mess. It was in his storage building and it contained cans of linseed oil and other cleaning agents. I threw the old oil cans out and set it in my garage to air out. It was truly a mess. I promptly forgot about it, covered as it became by other garage debris.

A few months ago my 7 year old grandson told me he needed a new toy chest, but what he really wanted was an old treasure chest for his toys. Nanas are supposed to be magic but I had no idea where to find an old treasure chest. A few weeks ago I happened to be searching in my garage for some other lost item and ran across my wooden trunk.

Four years in the depths of my garage hadn't done a thing to help it. It was still a mess. I dragged it out and cleaned it up. I realized it had layers and layers of old paint on it. I really couldn't for the life of me see a treasure chest when I looked at it, but I started sanding. I remembered that Ethan said he wanted an OLD treasure chest. I wondered if the pitiful old trunk could become a treasure at all but it for sure was old.

I cleaned and I cleaned and I cleaned. It didn't help much. But I had some ivory colored latex paint.  How do I make an old wooden trunk look older? I had a plan to sand it down a lot, even after painting, so I thought the latex might work. I had no idea what the other layers were, oil based or not, only that they were black over gray over brown over some kind of green.  Ugly.

So I cleaned then I painted. And I painted. And I painted, then I sanded. And sanded. It looked rather blah, certainly nothing like a treasure chest, but it did look old. Very old.

My grandson and his dad are big boaters and love the lakes. Seven years old is too old for childish drawings on a toy chest, he'd already outgrown the train on his old one. I thought of the Compass Rose; some may know it as the Nautical Rose, too. So that became my design.

I think it might work. If it doesn't, I am sure he'll know what changes he wants. After all, little boys know that with their help, Nanas are magic.

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