A New, Old Chest

My wife had wanted a chest for quite some time, so I decided I would make her one for Christmas. I’ve never made one before so it gave me a good opportunity to try something different.

A few years ago, one of my neighbors gave me some old, rustic, shiplap style barn doors, complete with worm holes and rusty nail stains. The last pic shows some of the wood from the door after being dismantled. My wife loved the look of the old wood and wanted to use it in a project around the house. I figured this would be as good a project as any.

After cleaning up the wood and cutting away the rotten areas, there wasn’t as much wood left as I would have liked to make a sizable chest. The biggest challenge was trying to keep the grain patterns from the different pieces consistent with one another and having enough length of each piece to wrap the grains from the front to the sides at least. Unfortunately, there just wasn’t enough to continue around to the back. The final size is 34” l, 16” h and 19” w.

I ordered the handles and strapping online and attached the strapping with copper tacks from Lowes. The strapping isn’t normally used this way, but I wanted something to strengthen and decorate the miter joints a bit. I replaced the new mounting hardware for the handles with old hardware a coworker gave me. The steel, powder coated, faux strap hinges on the lid came from a garage kit at Home Depot. They’re fastened with screws and covered with heavy duty, bronze, upholstery tacks. I cut off the tack stem and epoxied the dome over the screw heads. Another first for me was making my own hinges. They’re made from oak and slightly distressed. I kept them simple and tried to make them look like they might have come with the chest. Not sure if I completely accomplished that or not. The bottom is made from some old tongue and groove given to me by a Finance Manager and that I also used on my entertainment center project. The finish is Early American from Minwax with many coats of satin Deft lacquer spray.

I wasn’t going for any particular style, just tried to keep it old and rustic looking and something I hoped she would like. As it turned out, she was very happy and was way more excited about it than I hoped. I apologize for the quality of the photos. I took them in different light settings, some are better than others. Thanks for looking and any comments/critiques are welcome.

-- Brad, Oregon- The things that come to those who wait, may be the things left by those who got there first.