The Lane chest

The same client who had me redo the old church pew also had this Lane chest from when she was younger and wanted it updated.  It needed it - this must have been redone in the early 2000's originally.  I remember we bought our first house in 2004 - and these red's, gold's, and dark green's were so popular then.  My whole house was covered in these three colors!  Brings me back!  Anyway, they are not such "hot" colors anymore and this piece needed an update.

The room that houses this chest is a very shabby chic type room.  The bedding is white and light blue and walls tan.  When I was at the consult and determining our path for this piece I noticed a burlap pillow on the bed.  That is where I got the inspiration for the piece.  I suggested recovering the seat of the chest in burlap - and she loved the idea!  And of course what is the most shabby chic color - Duck Egg Blue!  :)

So my first step was to cover the gold color that the chest was originally painted.  I knew I would want to distress the piece slightly and I didn't want the gold to be what showed through the scuffing. 

So, the chest was giving a 2 coat base of Old White by Annie Sloan. 

 

Next, I painted 1 coat of Duck Egg Blue by Annie Sloan - I wanted to achieve a more antique look by allowing some of the white to shine through so I only did one coat of the Duck Egg.  

Once the piece was dry I just scuffed it up a tad.  I didn't want to go too crazy with this piece as the room isn't on shabby chic overload - just needed enough.  

As you can see I just hit the edges for this piece.  You can actually see a little bit of the gold shine through - but it actually gives the piece some dimension and pulls in the burlap color.

Once the scuffing was complete I clear waxed the piece and let it be to set.

While the wax was setting - I went ahead and spray painted the faux handles for the front of the chest - I did this in a brown bronze color - I wanted the hardware to still pop.

 

Notice around the hardware - I antiqued it a little bit using dark wax.  This again, adds dimension to the piece.  

I now had to reupholster the seat to the chest.  This was pretty straight forward - just think of it like a Christmas gift - wrap and tape....but in this case use a staple gun :)

Once I had the seat reupholstered I screwed it back on to the top and the piece is complete!  

I am taking these pieces to my client Tuesday - I will update you on how the pieces look when placed.

-Julie