DIY Chest Reveal

Remember when I snagged an awesome chest from Craigslist for $30? (I still think I could've got the lady down to $25 . . .)

Well the chest was great looking. I loved the lines of it and the legs. It just didn't match our bedroom.

After some Photoshopping, I decided it would look best in black with a teal cushion.

Pajamas on the floor on both mine & Tris's sides of the bed? Classy.

What does that mean? Well, it means I got painting. I used Rust-oliem Painter's Touch paint in glossy black (I spray painted the legs with Rust-Oliem flat black just for a tiny bit of contrast).

I used a roller that a Home Depot guy recommended for a smooth finish. Unfortunately, it left me with a billion tiny bubbles on the chest. Looking back, I think maybe I just didn't get enough paint on the roller? Anyway, I ended up using a $.97 brush to just brush over some paint for about two coats. This way I got some soft brush marks, but they actually look nice and they covered up all those weird (and kind of ugly bubbles).

This was my first project using a roller instead of spray paint, and even though it didn't come out as smooth (literally and figuratively) as I'd hoped, I'd be willing to try it again. For smooth flat surfaces, it seems way more cost effective to use regular paint instead of spray paint. And, even though spray paint comes in a huge array of colors, sometimes you can't get exactly what you want, and that's another plus to regular paint. I hope I have more success with it next time.

After the painting, I headed off to JoAnn's to buy fabric. I took my mom with me because I'm hopeless with a sewing machine (I really want to learn, though!).

I wanted to find the perfect fabric and saw a couple that were almost perfect and decided to settle. As I was leaving the aisle,I saw the perfect one hidden on a bottom shelf! There wasn't very much left, but there was enough for what I needed! Score! I was so excited. I love pattern, but knew I had to find a fabric with a small pattern so it wouldn't compete with the giant pattern on our comforter. Long story short: It is nearly ridiculous how excited I was about the fabric.

The cushion was more for looks and a little comfort (I just sit on the chest when putting on my socks/early in the morning/etc) so we bought batting instead of foam. Batting was cheap (and on sale!) in comparison so we bought a medium price one, cut it to size, and stacked four layers on top of each other.)

My Mom helped my pin and sew. I'm not really sure what we did. Sewing machines are way beyond me. And yet, I still insisted on a picture so I could at least look like I knew what I was doing. . .

We've since rearranged our bedroom, and I'm much happier with the placement of everything. It makes the room feel less long-and-skinny and more actual-room-sized. Love it. Anyway, we relocated the chest from the foot of the bed to under the window, and I think it works here quite well.

Not bad for $30. . . Well, the chest was $30, the roller $6, the paint $7ish, the fabric was a couple bucks and was the batting (primer & spray paint were all ready owned). . .  But still, way cheaper than buying something in stores!

See that sucker? A similar top-opening black hope chest from Fast Furnishings is a whopping $249 (on sale!) - it definitely makes me feel better about my total! And probably I couldn't even find a new one with those adorable mid century legs, even if I wanted to!

This chest officially makes me happy. I love having it in our room and I love how well it matches. I also may or may not love the fact my sister told me she was jealous of it and wants a pink one for her house ;-).

Here she is, one last time: