Two Toned Antique Chest

Childhood memories are powerful…

It’s why I try to include my children in my projects. To be intentional about our family traditions. To celebrate the little things.

When I feel like giving my father a hard time (which, if you ask him, is almost always 😉 ), I claim that he used us – my three brothers and myself – as his cheap manual labor. But really, we had the privilege of creating. Building. Evaluating. Improving.

And today, I love to create and build and improve because of him.

Recently, I worked with him on a small project. Just a little antique spool chest that came from my late grandmother’s home (she was a hoarder collector of rustic, farmhouse antiques – like the dresser in our nursery that came from her). And if you’re like me, your first thought is what the heck is a spool chest? Don’t worry, I wasn’t sure either.

A spool chest is a tiny chest of drawers, like the kind you could put your spools of thread in.

Complicated, I know.

But it’s more than that. Now wait for it, this is profound:

It’s where my dad stores small tools to work on his guns.

Ok, maybe that’t not the profound part. Honestly, it was so fun to work with him on another project. And his new three-car-garage workshop doesn’t hurt either. 😉

We started with this cute little spool chest. It was in rough shape, but the oak grain was too pretty to completely cover up.

On the other hand, we had to hide the old glue stains from where some sort of decorative plate used to be attached.

So it got a combination of Special Walnut stain by Minwax and Miss Mustard Seed’s Trophy. We put one coat of stain on the whole thing and let it dry. I touched a few spots with clear wax to create a resist (to cause the milk paint to chip), and gave the sides and edges of the drawers two coats of paint. I sanded a bit then finished with clear wax.

The final touch were these milk glass barrel knobs.

When trying to photograph it for you all, I moved it to the kitchen and had fun playing with some of my mother’s dishes. If my father ever gives it up as gun tool storage, I think my mother ought to claim it for unique kitchen storage, don’t you?

I thought so. 😉  By the way, how stunning is her kitchen? I had so much fun helping her design it when they built this home a few years ago. Which brings me back to my point in all this…

It’s not about a gorgeous painted antique chest or a beautiful kitchen (though those things are wonderful), it’s about the connections you can make with someone when you imagine, create, and build with them. So thank you, Dad, for instilling a joy for that in me.

If you like to create, who instilled that joy in you?