Cheboygan County Habitat for Humanity

A simple wood chest that was anything but…

10/18/2024

My guest bedroom vanity project was nearly done and I knew that I needed a “Next” project. Luckily, I work at a place where there is never an end to the great project pieces to choose from. And to my delight, a small, simple wood chest came in as a donation. Sometimes you pick a project piece and sometimes it picks you. This chest
definitely picked me. This time I didn’t intend to keep this project for myself when it was done.

I knew the chest would be a gift to my daughter and her senior/special needs cat, Pudding. Pudding is at least 16 years old with a thyroid disorder, a shelter rescue that was going to euthanized She was my mother’s cat, but now belongs to my daughter because my mom isn’t able to care for her anymore. Miss Pudding can’t get up onto the bed without some kind of middle step and the chest was the right size and height for that job.

It couldn’t be more perfect. It was on the small size for a wood chest, had simple, straight lines and wouldn’t take long to do at all. It was stained, not painted which would only require some simple sanding to prep it for paint. I already knew that I would be using Dixie Belle Silk paint again, since it worked so well for me on the vanity project.

In my haste to get started, I forgot to get “before” pictures and my “during” pictures leave a lot to be desired, but here we go! The plan was to take it apart, sand it, paint it and possibly add some transfers to the top as the finishing touch. It wasn’t going to take long at all. Little did I know…

First step, take it apart. A lid and a bottom held together by 2 hinges and some screws seemed simple enough. I purchased a magnetic tray at the ReStore to hold the hardware I would have to remove. Thank goodness I did, because this hardware was old, the screws for the hinges and lock parts were tiny and had minds of their own (and legs, too I swear) and not easy to replace.

Second step, sand the lid. I had an orbital sander so this was going to be a breeze. But wait, something about the lid didn’t look quite right. The wood was so old and dry that the long, back piece on the lid that held the hinges had warped over time. So what do I do about that? Internet research commenced and through a blog or two, I learned that I could cover the warped parts with a wet towel and use clamps to slowly bring it back to its original position. That sounded easy enough. I found long clamps in my husband’s tool chest in the garage and got to work.

Round 1: This looks great. I can start sanding tomorrow.

Round 2: Wait!! It went right back to the way it was. Let’s try this again and check it in a day or two.

This time I had to find some small finish nails that wouldn’t stand out too much or split the wood, but were long enough to hold it in place. Here I would like to thank my husband who has a garage full of useful things, ultra-organized and labeled, exactly where they should be with many options to choose from. He is the ultra-organized one and I am more of the creative chaos type. I opened the drawer labeled hammers and chose one out of about 15 – I’m not kidding. Success!! Nailing was done. Let the sanding finally begin.

I finished the sanding after a few days in a garage so hot that Hades would have been impressed. A thorough cleaning and painting was next. My daughter went to the Dixie Belle website and chose Yellowstone, a deep yet bright yellow color, which I bought at the ReStore.

I started with a coat of Bonding Boss. It was not a required step, but I wanted the paint to stand up to kitty paws and claws. I gave it 2 coats of Yellowstone with lots of drying time between coats. One 4 oz jar of Silk was enough for 2 coats and touch-ups (I have 2 cats of my own that added their own special touches to the paint – a whisker dried in, a paw mark or two and a spot where the garbage can hit it when Dexter the orange menace knocked it over). I added 2 top coats (paws and claws) and the painting was finished or so I thought.

During the sanding and painting process, I worked on the hardware. The hinges and screws were old, but sound and would be reused. A good soaking in white vinegar and buffing with a Dremel tool did the trick. The side handles had been hand carved and one was missing a big splinter of wood. I measured between the screw holes and realized that the distance was not standard for handles. I needed to find some custom or adjustable handles.

The chest had a lock, but the key was missing, I have a collection of old skeleton style keys I tried, but nothing would fit. I went to Etsy, you can find anything on Etsy, and ordered a chest lock set with a key, 2 custom made leather strap handles for the sides and a decorative keyhole cover to jazz up the front. My order came and the custom length handles were perfect. The lock was another matter. It was slightly too large to fit in the hand carved space and too wide so the lock parts on the bottom and lid would not be able to line up. I thought maybe some work with my Dremel would do the trick but realized taking out any more wood would only weaken the integrity of the front.

Do you believe in Providence, karma, fate or whatever you choose to call it? I sure do. I was out enjoying a day of garage sales, looking for future projects and other treasures, and spent the better part of an hour talking to a Vietnam vet about a dozen or more topics when I casually mentioned that I needed to find a key for a chest lock to finish my project. He grabbed a small paper envelope from a shelf and handed it to me. It was a packet of small keys. He told me that they had survived a fire and were meant to be mine. Inside I found 3 keys that looked to be about the right size and shape that I needed for the lock.

I got the keys home and tried them one by one. The first and second were too big around for the barrels to fit in the keyhole. The third fit in the lock, but the bit was too tall and cut wrong to turn the latch. With some determination, a Dremel and a little luck, I made it work. The key engaged the lock. Success!!

I put the chest back together and tried the lock but I just couldn’t get the key in the keyhole straight enough to make it work. With my Dremel to the rescue, I open the wood around the hole to fix the problem and could add the keyhole cover.

After one last once over of the chest, I decided to paint the inside top and bottom with Badlands gray I had used on the inside of the drawers of the vanity.

Finally finished and completely dry, it was time to take it on a 7-hour car trip through the UP, down into Wisconsin just north of Milwaukee to my daughter and her special furry friend, Pudding.

This project was a labor of love, full of small and not so small hiccups. I tackled them one-by-one even when I didn’t think I could. Sometimes it pays to be stubborn and good at internet research.

I hope you enjoyed the tales of this journey as much as I enjoyed taking it and sharing it. The “during” and “after” pictures of this project are not the best due to lighting (I mostly worked on it in the evenings) but the final picture is of it in its new home. By the way, Pudding finds it quite handy and sometimes takes a nap on it.

-Melissa Tallman, Operations Manager

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