Old World Blanket Chest

I had so much fun working on this piece even though it was over 100 degrees in the shade!  I can't wait to share it with you, but before I do I'd like to remind you of the Totally Transformed Tuesday linky party! The party is still going strong so hop on over and link up we would love to see what you have been up to!

Now here is the finished blanket chest!

I have been wanting to do something in the Old World style for some time now and when I saw this chest in Canton, Texas at First Monday Trade Days, I knew it was just the piece for the design I had running through my head.

Here is what she looked like when I bought her.

She did not have much going for her except that she was solid wood, fairly large, and had pretty little legs.

Here are the details of how I achieved that gorgeous finish.

First, I picked out three images that I thought would work together. In the beginning I thought I wanted a large old world  scene that I could split into three parts, but after a lot of thought I decided on two pictures of 18th century women (one I know is Marie Antoinette) and one with a mother and her children.  

The portraits of the two women came from the Graphics Fairy and the center image with the children is from my free graphics archive. I took the images and had them enlarged to fit the three panels in front.  

To start I painted different areas of the chest with layers of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Greek Blue, Louis Blue, and Paris Gray focusing on sections I knew later would be distressed. By doing so I created the illusion that it had been painted many times over the years, and in painting only certain areas I saved a lot of time and paint.  I then covered the back and all edges, center strips, and legs with Old White.  On the side panels I used Louis Blue. 

Now it looks like this:

Once that was dry I took a brush loaded with Greek Blue and painted around the outside edges of the side panel over the Louis Blue. I then added more Louis Blue, wet on wet, and using a damp rag blended and soften the colors into each other.

Once that was dry I chose one of my larger stencils that fit almost perfectly into the panel and painted it with a silver metallic acrylic.

While that was drying I very carefully decoupaged my images to the front of the chest.  I sealed them with two coats of Mod Podge.

I then applied a thin coat of clear wax to the entire piece and distressed. Once the was was dry I mixed my favorite Expresso glaze and applied it to the chest in large areas wiping it off with a dry cloth. I also waxed and glazed the images to help age them.  

The back of the chest was painted, glazed, and distressed also in case one wanted to place it in an open area. Next, I applied dark wax, very lightly, to the feet and any other area I wanted to have a more antiqued look.

The top was stripped and stained with dark walnut and sealed with three coats of matte polyurethane.

And there you have it! I hope you like it as much as I do. I'm having a hard time thinking about carrying it to the shop. :-)

Here are some closeups of the distressed areas.

This piece is sold.

I hope I have inspired you today.  Have a wonderful weekend!

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