A French Inspired Trunk

I am a little behind an getting things posted.  Last weekend we took a blanket chest/truck/coffee table up to the booth.  It was hand made by my dad (http://stevesbunkbedsandmore.blogspot.com).  He thought it would be best to leave it unfinished so whom ever purchased it, could finish the way they would like it.  What I have learned....most people don't want to do this.  They want to "cash and carry"....guess that's why they are shopping in the first place.  So we left it unfinished for almost 6 months.  I finally decided, since it has warmed up and I could get back to my unheated garage (jealous of those that have a heated one), to bring it home and paint it out.  Inspired by Miss Mustard Seed's signs, I decided to make it a "french trunk". I know, you are thinking, French?  There is nothing "french" about that trunk.  Scroll down.....

Before in it's unfinished state

Here is the after.  Now, does the "french" make sense? I was a bad blogger and didn't take pics of the process.  Mostly because my batteries were dead in my camera and I wanted to get it finished.  I was excited to see the end product.  So I will try to explain what I did.  If you have questions, you can always email me.

I stained the top and the base in Minwax Ebony.  The wood is furniture grade yellow pine and it has a lot of natural graining.  So the variations in color is were the grain is.  I think it kind of looks like zebra wood (which I dearly love and can't afford), but a little more random in pattern.

The body, I painted in a creamy white (my own custom mix from a can of stark white paint and some tan paint I had left from another project). I transferred my design using good old fashioned transfer paper and a pencil. I then painted this with basic black acrylic. After that, I dry brushed a miss tint from Lowes in gray over the entire body of the trunk including the design.  Once this was dry, I antiqued it with a mix of raw umber acrylic and antiquing glaze and lightly distressed with a palm sander. Then I sealed the whole thing with wax.  Got to use the buffer for the first time on this....LOVE that piece of machinery!

 Please don't ask me what this says....I HAVE NO IDEA....but I liked the look.

So....I have done the work for the right person, now it will either find a home rather quickly or it will continue to sit.  Hopefully the right person will come along.

Ciao! and good night!