old trunk updated...

A couple of years ago, my neighbors across the street were cleaning out their basement and asked me if I wanted anything. There were a TON of things that I wanted!  But you can really only take so much, right?

They gave me a couple of trunks; one was a foot locker of her brother and one was an old camelback traveler's trunk.

As with old stuff, there was a musty smell.  So, you really wouldn't want to store anything in it, especially if it was something like blankets and pillows...no way.

I planned on trying to get rid of the smell and eventually I'd give it to my daughter-in-law.

I tried putting kitty litter in there.  Coffee.  Charcoal.  Nothing worked.  I ended up white-washing the inside with an oil-based paint which hides the musty smell and leaves an oil-based paint smell :-)

I would suggest to anyone who is trying to get rid of this smell, store all of your candles in it or those cinnamon smelling pinecones they sell at Michael's during the Christmas holiday.  Eventually it will smell much better.

I'm not sure that I did all that much to it that 'improved' it but it's sort of updated now.  I had Jerome install a couple of hinges so the lid wouldn't come slamming down and guillotine off my granddaughters fingers.

I was able to finally (after 2+ years) give it to my daughter-in-law this weekend for her birthday.  I had told her a long time ago it was for her...I'm sure she never thought it was ever coming.

The day we received the trunk from our neighbor - Smokey was the inspector

I started by scraping off the paper that was already chipping off

I white-washed the inside with oil-based paint.  Then I made some upholstered (in)sides with buttons

...just to add some softness and interest.  Jerome added the hinges

I added some stenciling to the top, front and some for the inside using chalk paint.  I distressed the metal embellishments by using an electric sander 

It was not very easy to do the stenciling on the inside, so I admit, it's a little messy...I wanted to keep the original paper sticker of the children.

Once everything was dry, I used a very fine sandpaper to smooth out the chalk paint and then brought it to my DIL