I have long been a fan of vintage shipping trunks and have kept my eye out for one for years. Whether they are stacked beside the bed as a bedside table or used in the lounge room as a coffee table I love their rustic look. I'd love to find a trunk in good original condition, I'd like to imagine all the stories that trunk could tell about its travels.
On a recent trip to my happy place we found the below trunk. Although this trunk seems to be a cheaply made one out of fairly thin chipboard and coated steel joinery rather than brass* I thought it had potential and for only $20 thought it was worth a DIY weekend to find out.
As much I would have loved to keep it as it was is, unfortunately it hadn't been looked after and had flaking paint along with the first signs of mould So I decided I would try and paint it to give it another lease on life. I decided on a gold and white stripe effect.
First I had to scrape off the flaking paint layer. The original joinery was in a decent condition so I covered these sections in masking tape to leave them as they were. I then painted the entire trunk in 3 coats of white paint leaving a few hours of drying time between each layer. I wanted to use fairly thick stripes so I measured each panel to determine the thickness of each stripe. These were then marked out with masking tape before spraying the gold sections with spray paint..
After a few hours of drying time, we now have a new trunk for our spare bedroom!
M xx
Images: here, here, here and here
* a quick test with a magnet will help you work this one out. If the magnet sticks it is not solid brass.
Looks great M!
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