HOW I UPDATED THIS RESTORE CEDAR CHEST IN SMOKY MOUNTAINS | YOUTUBE VIDEO

Hello beautiful and welcome back! Last week my friend Terry and I went thrift shopping at the Restore in Grimsby. I love checking out Restores in different cities. When I walked through the door this cedar chest was the first piece of furniture I saw. I posted it on Facebook to ask everyone’s opinion. Then I went to open it up and the backplate fell off – score! This cedar chest is perfect for today’s Furniture Fixer Uuppers tour because it needed fixing up.

I hope you join me in visiting the FFU’s before-and-afters at the bottom of today’s post. We are touring a week early as next week is Thanksgiving. We have some gorgeous pieces for you so I can’t wait to see what these talented ladies do.

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This cedar chest was selling for $69 but they reduced it to an even $50 because of the all work that needed to be done.

The backplate was falling off.

The sides needed a glue up. Some cosmetic repairs needed filling but overall a great piece of furniture.

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WHAT YOU’LL NEED

Thrift Cedar Chest  – SALVAGED
White Lightning Cleaner
Heat Gun | Painters Tool
Sanding Sponge
Bosch Sander (33% OFF as of writing!)
Bonding Boss Primer
Mud Wood Filler
Soft Rag/Towel
Smoky Mountains Silk Paint
2″ Mini Paint Brush
Smooth Roller

CEDAR CHEST MAKEOVER

Here’s how I changed the look of this chest and how it all came together…

REPAIRS AND PREP

The front side of this chest looked a little dated so I started pulling off the faux cabinet doors. It was quick and easy to pry off the wood doors with this pry bar tool and some leverage.

What did take some time was removing all the pin nails that were holding the doors on. The best way to do this (I found) was to hold onto the nails using a pair of pliers and then hammer them back in. Then using the pliers I pulled them out from the other side.

FILL HOLES

I had a ton of tiny holes to fill where all the nails had been. I also had some large holes to fill on the top of this cedar chest where the backplate dowels had been. I glued in some dowels and cut off the top of the dowels level with the chest. Then using Bondo I filled in the tiny spaces remaining and all the tiny holes on the front of this cedar chest.

 

GLUE UP

The sides that were coming apart were put back together using Wood Glue and furniture clamps.

I also removed the dated base by unscrewing it. Then I installed new black metal feet I purchased on Amazon.

CLEAN

After all my repairs were finished, I went ahead and gave this cedar chest a good cleaning on the inside and out. I let it dry 100% overnight before sanding.

SCUFF SAND

The next day when it was totally dry, I scuff-sanded with a flexible 220-grit sanding sponge around the edges and used my Bosch Sander (which is on sale for 33% OFF as of writing this post!… it just keeps getting cheaper!) to create some tooth to prepare it for primer adhesion.  In the pic below, you can see how wonderful the dowels worked at filling the holes and the Bondo filled any remaining gaps.

PRIME

I added one coat of Bonding Boss Primer to cover any bleedthrough and Bondo repairs. I used a foam roller to roll it on which I find much easier and faster than using a brush.

PAINTING SMOKEY MOUNTAIN

Now for the fun part. Painting! I choose to paint this set in Smoky Mountains – a dark gray with green/blue undertones. I used my brush it on / roll it smooth for a ‘sprayed’ finish… or as close as you can get to a spray finish without a sprayer. Working in sections, I used my 2″ mini synthetic brush to apply the paint.

Then immediately after I had full paint coverage using the brush, I would lightly roll over the wet paint with this foam roller. A light hand is all you need to smooth out the paint and eliminate any brush strokes.

I’m sharing the brush-on and roll technique in the YouTube video below. Previously, I also used it on this dresser using the above brush and roll technique.

FINAL TOUCH

The Silk-All-In-One Mineral Paint doesn’t require a topcoat so gave it ample dry time and called it a day. I love this paint because it’s such a time saver! So for the final touch, I put the original paperwork back inside the chest. The $500 guarantee probably isn’t valid anymore but it’s still fun to have. 🙂

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