LITTLERED MOMENTS . . .: Steamer Trunk.

After, fitting in my room perfectly!

We went yard selling a few weeks ago. . . what a mistake. Caecee and Zach found a cute end table/small entertainment center thingy that we painted up real cute and retro! I don't have pictures of it though, darn! Anyway, we discovered that yard sale hunting is way too much fun! I LOVE junk!! We went for most of the day and found some sweet stuff. We wandered upon an antique sale and I was so in love with a steamer wardrobe trunk that I saw. Here's the thing, I'm cheap and antiques aren't. He was selling the trunk for $80 and I know for an antique, that's a good price but like I said, I'm cheap. I thought about it all day and finally decided to splurge. . . but I talked him down to $60. After all, someone had ruined this beautiful wardrobe trunk. They had spray painted the outside black and they painted over the brass and iron casings and buckles! ARG! I could just slap them. They also painted over the original fabric lined drawers. . . I could slap them and kick them! I was so excited to find this because first of all, I'm in love with anything vintage and this even had the original hangers. Second, I needed more drawer space in my room for all of the clothes that I never wear. And third, I already have a smaller steamer trunk that holds my shoes that I restored last year. This one was perfect, and not to mention, it was a wardrobe trunk!

It was a TON of work. I had to strip all of the paint off of the outside and try to get the nasty black paint off of the brass and iron casings and buckles. I learned that you should probably follow the directions when dealing with harsh chemicals such as paint stripper. It gets on your skin and burns like a . . . bad word! It took me so long to scrape all the old paint off, but I finally got it! I then taped off all of the iron and brass buckles and framework which takes another 2 days at least. Then I went to town with spray paint!! I painted it satin white to match the trunk that I already have. Then the inside. . . I scraped off all of the blue paint that the ruined the fabric with on the drawers. I had to add quite a few nails to the drawers because they were falling apart. Then I taped off the drawers, saved as much of the original fabric that I could and repainted the face of the drawers a nickel/silver color. Finished! It took me a few weeks and lots of frustration because every store in Utah county was out of the color of spray paint that I needed but I finally found it and finished my project. Whew!! Lots of work that I had no time for but I love projects. . . it's such a good stress reliever for me. And heaven knows that I need all of the stress-relief that I can get! I'm very pleased with they way it turned out and it fits perfectly in the corner of my bedroom, standing up and open, it looks so good! I've already filled the drawers up with my junk. I just love it!! I did some research and it was made in Texas in 1916. AMAZING. I would love to know it's story. Anyway, here are some of the pictures, enjoy!