A Family Treasure

Has anyone seen this at Restoration Hardware for $1,695....

...or this one from Pottery Barn for 1,299?

Using vintage (or vintage-looking) trunks as coffee tables seems to be the new "it."

My grandma reads as many home decorating magazines as I do. She called me one day and said that she saw a picture of a trunk coffee table in a magazine, and she also had a trunk in her basement. She was wondering if I wanted it.

Of. course. I. do!

When I went to her house, this is what met me:

An old, ugly, painted trunk that's lid didn't fit properly...

...with 100 year old fabric nailed to the top.

I can't even describe to you the smell this trunk was emitting....

Upon further inspection, however, I noticed the potential beauty this old trunk had.

Those are hand-cut decorative L-brackets.

I was swooning.

This was my great-grandfather Reis's trunk. I had never met him. I've heard many stories of him.

He came to the States from Russia in the early 1900's. He made this trunk, and it held everything near and dear to him on his journey.

....hey....maybe that's where I get my skills from...

;)

Do you see why I was so excited about this restoration project?

After 2 days of stripping paint, fixing the old hinges, removing rust off metal, trying to get that 100 year old musty smell out, and putting 5 (yes...5) coats of polyurethane on, I finally had my coffee table.

It goes great with the rest of the living room.

It now holds board games. The kids can just pop open the trunk and get some impromptu gaming on!

I am in love with the little details. Who knew such beauty could have been covered up by all that paint?

My grandma couldn't believe that was the same trunk. She was so proud of me for restoring her dad's trunk.

I will soon be stopping by her house to pick up a picture of her dad. She wrote all the facts about where he had lived in Russia, what year he came to the States, when he was married to my great-grandma, etc. on the back.

It's so nice to have such a functional family treasure in the house.

<3

Cost: about $15 of spray paint-stripper. I already had the polyurethane.

It might be a while until my next project post. My husband is going back to school on Thursday, and we are desperately trying to clean out the basement while we still have time at home. The finished part of the basement will be my new craft room. Yay! We have been doing small projects (like moving furniture), but nothing worth posting. I might have a furniture re-do to show you. I might do it on Saturday. I don't work, and there's no classes because of Labor Day, so as long as the weather holds up, I will get that done!

I will try to throw some recipes out there so that you don't get bored with me!

;)