Grandma's Wooden Chest

I get a lot of my belongings as hand-me-downs which I either treasure as heirlooms or fix up to make my own. My grandmother's wooden chest is an example of one that I fixed up to make my own. The original color was a baby blue which matched my grandmother's bedroom. My grandfather had painted it with oil paint to match. It was a real shame because the wood underneath was absolutely beautiful (you could see it at the edges. In fact, you can see the original blue of the chest in the background of my original Chii costume post here:

http://ginger710.blogspot.com/2008/11/halloween-2005.html

Anyhoo, most of my furniture is a dark cherry color. Since it was painted with oil paint, stripping it would have been a VERY daunting task since it is carved wood. I decided to repaint it with oil paint that matched the wood stain. Let me tell you how hard it is to find ANYONE who sells oil paint anymore! God Bless Ace Hardware!!

Once the chest was painted, I added a bit of copper and gold painting detail to the carved wood on top of the chest to make it stand out a little bit - just because the carving is absolutely beautiful. I topped the chest with a custom cut piece of glass I bought from a glass and mirror wholesaler in Warren and it became a beautiful coffee table to treasure!