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So I came up with an (in my opinion) incredibly cute solution for snack food storage.
I bought an unfinished wooden treasure chest. It's smallish, but I can fit snacks and granola and whatnot in it.
I want to make it look like an old pirate chest. I'm guessing I need to stain it, and I was thinking of putting gold beads and Gasparilla coins somewhere so that they're kind of hanging out of it. I kind of want to paint a skull and crossbones. But I don't know much about staining. Should I paint the skull and crossbones first and then do the stain? Any ideas on how to make it look old? One person suggested staining it and then going over certain parts with sandpaper.
I also got a wooden shelf/coat rack thing. I don't know if I should stain it or paint it or what. My house is starting to look nice, though. I finally got rid of most of the old stuff from the lady who used to live here.
posted
To make it look old, you could distress the wood with the end of a belt or a hammer wrapped in cloth. Then stain it. Staining isn't hard, just smelly. You could sand the corners then, to give it a well worn look. Paint or decopage the skull and cross bones. Personally, I would decopage it, just because I'm not that good a painter, and it would bug me that it didn't look exactly like what I pictured in my head. So I'd find a picture of a skull and crossbones that I liked, then modge podge it on there. You could then experiment with laying a very thin layer of stain over the top to give it an additional aged look. Then hot glue gun your gold beads and coins. You could also use plastic jewels. If you want to go really fancy, you could use faceted crystals instead. Consider lining the box with scarlet velvet if your snacks are going to be sealed. It will add to the richness of the box. If the snacks won't be sealed, I'd probably skip that and line it in plastic for easy cleanup.
Sounds like fun! It makes me want to make one. Posts: 5948 | Registered: Jun 2001
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posted
I would distress it as jeniwren said, then stain it twice, once all over and then in a darker colour in places you think it might show signs of age, like around the hinges and the clasp and in the gaps.
Posts: 8473 | Registered: Apr 2003
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I got a rosewood stain...I've done most of the chest, except the bottom. And I need to touch up some spots.
I also got a liquid bronze leaf thing and put it along the little pegs on the top of the box at either side (you know...the tops of treasure chests are different pieces of wood lengthwise, and on the sides they always have two dots where they're connected to the rest of the box...). And I also did the rim of the box as well, and the front handle. I'm waiting for everything to dry. I still need to find a fabric store for the velvet....but I think it's looking really nice so far. Pics soon.
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I finally got rid of most of the old stuff from the lady who used to live here.
