hope is the thing with feathers.

Hope is the thing with feathers-

that perches in the soul.

And sings the tune without the words-

and never stop at all.

Emily Dickinson

Today I redid two pieces of furniture that we've had for well over a year. 

A hope chest that we got on Craigslist last summer for $40 I think? 

Come to find out it was made by Lane and is actual a valuable antique.

Apparently, these have been made for at least a century and tell quite a story.

I didn't realize any of this when I bought it, or when I went out today to redo it.

You can see the inscriptions on the inside of the chest...

 And it still had the original tag, Lane Love Chest hanging on the inside...

 Regardless, it was certainly not our style, it didn't come from our family,

so I felt completely okay redoing it. As with all of my DIY projects, I have small windows 

of opportunity to work on things, so I have to work quick, eliminate tedious steps, 

and just hope for the best. I loosely followed a dry-brush technique with a glaze finish.

I didn't read, watch, or refer to anything while I was actually doing the project.

Before I bought my materials I read/watched this blog post, thanks to Haley's post.

I googled "how to glaze furniture" or "faux-antique, faux-glaze" just looking for how-to's.

In the end, I bought this clear mixing glaze by Valspar and two $2 sample size paint colors.

A blue and a dark chocolate brown. The brown was used to tint the glaze. 

The blue sample ended up being enough paint for the chest AND a bench. 

The instructions on the Mixing Glaze say to mix 4-8 parts glaze with 1 part paint.

That was Russian to me, so I just dump a little bit of brown paint into a pan 

and dumped about 3 times the amount of glaze on top and mixed it together. 

Not exact measurements AT ALL. But, I think you'll see that it worked great.

I rolled one coat of paint on with a small sponge roller. I didn't worry about coverage.

 It was fine with me if wood showed through. This is after my first coat. 

I let this dry for 30-minutes or so.

It's hard to tell in this picture, but I believe this is after it dried and I sanded over it.

I just used a fine sandpaper and went over the whole piece, rubbing more paint off on edges.

Then I grabbed some steel wool and used that to rub more distressed areas into the piece.

The sandpaper wasn't giving me that true aged feel I was wanting on the sides and top.

This is post sanding/steel wool...

Below you can see the color of my glaze mixture. 

I just used a small foam brush to slap it on to the chest. 

Nothing precise or pretty-- just stroke it on quickly and grab an old shirt to wipe as you go.

I was so nervous when I started painting this milky brown on my piece...

But alas, it wipes away and looks fabulous... don't give up!

Remember to NOT wait til the end to wipe. 

You have to glaze in sections and start wiping as you go. 

I'd say no more than 1 minute between sections or it will be harder to wipe color away.

Okay! Here's the hope chest all painted, sanded, and glazed... 

ready for hardware to be put back on.

There you have it! 

One last garage photo before I moved it (upstairs by myself) into CT's room.

 

Carson was so excited about his new toy box.

Yesterday, while he was at school I cleaned his room, 

put all of his books neatly back on his bookshelf.

Is that a daily battle at your house? The books are ALWAYS coming down, which is great, 

but it drives me nuts when they aren't all arranged by height on his shelf.

Anyhow, since Christmas, he's had a Box Creation ship in his room. 

I decided yesterday it was time for it to go... 

the timing was perfect and it made space for the new addition.

Ready for picture overload... here you have the finished product.

Love that it can "clean up" and be a little window seat as well.

Of course, we had to decide what to fill our Hope/Love Toy Chest with...
what better thing than the toy Carson LOVES more than anything?
ALL of his trucks, tractors, and cars!

Carson is very proud of the new addition to his room 

and even more excited about what lies beneath!

All of his prized possessions (ha) are in his little hope chest in his room.

  

After finishing, I had plenty of leftover paint and stain that I didn't want to go to waste.
So... we were given a bench a while back that was going to be tossed...
 It's been outside on our back patio for a while, so I went and grabbed it to redo it too!

Before...

During...

After...

And, his new home on our front porch for the time being...

That's all for today! I am so happy with how both pieces turned out...