Restoration Projects

I recently received an old cedar chest that my grandparents had originally planned on throwing away before deciding that it would be interesting for me to try my hand at restoring it. I'll admit I had my doubts; the finish was cracked and peeling, the brass black and green. It had been sitting in a basement for years so the condition didn't surprise me, but I didn't really think there was much I could do. In any case, I took it figuring I could just throw it away if I couldn't fix it.

The wood turned out to be much easier to restore than I anticipated. A couple of hours with my orbital sander and the old finish was gone. I purposely left some nicks on the trim to give it a more rustic look. Finally, I just coated it in a semigloss lacquer from Minwax and buffed it with steel wool. I did this maybe three times to achieve a perfectly smooth finish. The chest itself only took three to four hours to restore.

The brass was definitely trickier to restore as I do not know much about metalwork. I have been pretty obsessed with restoration videos lately. There's one specific Youtube channel that I frequently watch that combines woodworking and metalwork in restoration projects. His work with brass is what ultimately intrigued me with the chest project. I've seen him restore brass dozens of time so I decided to put his methods to practice. All it took was a few hours in a mixture of salt, vinegar, and flour to make the brass yellow again. All that was left was to clean it with Brillo and polish it. All said and done, the process took a day and a half.

The finished product turned out to be one of the best things I've done. After restoring the old handles, I opted to swap them for more modern ones which I think make it so much better. I fully intend on putting this in my apartment when I get down to Florida. This restoration project was definitely a new foray for me, but I enjoyed it so much that I fully intend on doing more. If you have any old furniture you want restored, let me know!