My first home improvement project

I mentioned in my last post that I recently purchased a chest at a garage sale for $5.00, along with a few other treasures. I decided to go ahead and share with everyone my first home improvement project.
This the trunk (minus the lid) after Dad chemically removed the first 1 1/2 layers of paint with a chemical varnish remover. The chest is approximately 3 1/2 feet wide and 3 feet tall and I think its made of either cedar or pine under all the paint.

More close up picture of the chest, I created a mini carpenter's shack outside to work on my treasure. Mom and Dad bought me a hand sander and some other supplies to help me get started on my project. I was able to get down to the last blue layer with my hand sander and about 5 hours of work. It just so happened that I chose to do this work during our "wet season" and had to bring in the contents of my shack every night because of the overnight downpours.

The top of the chest was sanded, the old hinge screw holes were filled and I stained the lid a cherry stain with 2 coats. The little bits of blue paint that I couldn't remove with the sander just added some character to the lid, by making it look weathered and antiqued. The actual color of the trunk is not this red, its actually a claret wine color. However, the satin tone makes appear red with the flash of my camera.

This is actually a better representation of the actual color, the inside I found a pretty textured contact paper that is applied similarly to actual wall paper. I may choose to paint this eventually - but not for awhile. I also painted all the support boards the same red color and bought new screws.

This is the finished product. Obviously not perfect, but not bad for my first project. We decided to put it in the spare bedroom, and it matches very well with the brown comforter and curtains in this room. Eventually I plan to make a cushion pillow for the seat so guests can sit and tie their shoes, etc. on this. However, I do not own a sewing machine - so this project will have to wait.

I will admit, it will probably be awhile before I tackle another project - but I can finally say that I put all the skills I learned on the farm and the summer at the EXCEL plant to good use!