Silverware Chest to Art Box

    Last spring, when I was just starting to pick pieces to revamp and resale, I found this silverware chest.  You see them all the time at garage sales and estate sales.  The reason is sadly, that the silver prices are up, and people turn in the silver for cash.  Anyhow, I thought this might make a good jewelery box.  Well it's been sitting next to my computer all summer while I tried to get some inspiration.  The problem was that it is too big for a jewelery box.  So finally, one sleepless night I had an epiphany!
  It might not work as a jewelery box, but the knife slots just might be right to hold paint brushes.

 Ta Da...the birth of an art box.  First I found a pack of new brushes at a garage sale for practically nothing, brought them home and made sure they would fit in the knife slots.  YES they did.  Then I carefully ripped out the slotted sections that were used for the rest of the silverware, trying not to do too much damage to the felt. I carefully removed the felt from one of the slotted pieces to cover up the rips in the bottom.  I thought I would do some type of layered grey effect, with maybe a French something on top like Rosemary at Villabarnes does.  Her stuff is gorgeous.  So I started out with some custom mixed grey paint that I had left over from my Wild Child Tamed desk, very lightly dry brushed some lighter grey over it, but then I went a different direction then Rosemary and went with a dark glaze in Martha Stewart Black Coffee.  My husband should be jealous, I am in love.  OK, maybe not jealous, but I truly love, love, love this paint effect.  Then I figured I'd already gone this far out of my comfort zone, why not try a finish different then my normal polyurethane.  We had some  paste wax from about 6 years ago laying around so I did the Karate Kid thing and waxed on, waxed off.  It added such a beautiful luster and another depth to the whole thing.  Of course this is nothing new to most of you, but to me it was a revolution.  I wasn't sure how to describe this color, at first I was calling it pewter, but it is too dark, my husband said gunmetal grey, but there is more depth than that.  Then I hit on a blog (so sorry but I can't remember which one) that had done a color like this that said it was a knock off of Restoration Hardware's zinc.  Sure enough I looked it up and that is what I accidentally mimicked.  So here it is loaded up in all of it's glory, a new use for all of those old silverware chests out there.

I am partying at:

boogie board cottage

coastal charm 
diy by design
savvy southern style
PJH Designs
beyond the picket fence
miss mustard seed