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Saturday, September 8, 2012

Jewellery Box Re-Do

I picked up this jewellery box recently at our local Salvation Army Thrift Shop. My husband must have thought I was crazy but I could see beyond the busted mesh, the scratches and dust, and the horrendous mustard yellow velvet inside.

But my hubby has faith in my eye for treasures so he was a sweetie and dismantled it all for me and started sanding it. I pulled out the dusty velvet from all the nooks and he scraped all the old glue away. (Have I mentioned how much I love this man?)

I set up all the pieces in an assembly line fashion in my basement work space. First came a few coats of primer, then the door and drawers were painted turquoise, the body was painted aqua, and the hardware was painted in my favourite Oil Rubbed Bronze. Everything then received a few coats of protective finish. This all took the better part of a week since it was done during the evening and early morning.

The next step was re-attaching the hardware and re-lining all the drawers, the door and the cubby behind the door. I've done this sort of thing a few times so I have a big bin of cardboard which I saved from old cereal boxes. I measured each opening carefully and cut 30 pieces of cardboard in all. Each one was sprayed with adhesive and placed on the fabric, which is the gorgeous Mandarin print from Amy Butler's Lark line. The colours go perfectly with the blues I chose for the jewellery box.

Then the fabric was cut and the edges were folded over and glued to the backs of the cardboard. Then the pieces were each glued into place inside the drawers. The finishing touch was to add small cork pads to the bottom of the box.

 
I'm in love with it and will be sad to part with it when it sells but I know that will mean that somebody else fell in love with it too.






4 comments:

  1. How many of these old jewellery boxes have I seen at thrift stores yours is a real inspiration

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  2. Thanks so much! It was a fun re-do. I picture everything now with a new coat of paint on it. :)

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  3. where do you sell ur stuff? i love it too and i pass these up at garage sales all the time i bet i will be buying the next one

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  4. Thanks Lisa! We sell on our Facebook page, online classifieds (like Kijiji) and at local craft shows. You should definitely give it a try. These things end up in landfill because they are outdated but usually still solid.

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