Treasures

So I have been on the hunt for a project to do, I'm itching to create something, and preferably something that Andy and I can do together.  I really want to make a bed and a couple of nightstands, but funds are too tight right now so that project will have to wait.  I am obsessed with antiques, I've always appreciated the work and craftsmanship that went into most of them and the awareness that that kind of work just does not exist on a commercial scale in our current world, and so I have taken to browsing through the antique section of ksl.com.  I have found a new obsession.  I want an old wooden chest.  I found one on the cheap side and needing a lot of TLC, but what a great project!  Restoring on old wooden storage/travel chest!  I called the guy and found it was still available, so I dragged my poor husband out to this guy's house with me to take a look.

This is the chest we went and looked at

It was really sad.  It made me mad.  I knew it was in bad shape, but wow, it was in a lot worse shape than the pictures showed.  This once beautiful piece has spent far too much of it's life outside (who would leave something like this outside?!).  Every bit of hardware and all the metal on it were rusted through, too far gone to even bother trying to polish it and work through the rust.  The wood was thin and rotted.  I placed my hand, without all that much pressure, on top of the trunk and it sunk and crunched (you can't tell from the picture very well, but the entire dome is covered in a thin sheet of metal).  You could see the beauty that was once there, but it was far too gone to even attempt a restoration.  At least for someone inexperienced in it like me.

If anyone that reads this knows anyone that has one of these (or even a flat top one, as long as it's wood) that might be willing to part with it, let me know.  I don't really care what shape it's in as long as it isn't rotted and rusted through like this one.

I would so have loved to polish this one up and have it in the living room to put all our blankets in. It was far bigger than I thought, probably 30-36" long, 20-24" deep and tall.  It would have been perfect.