Trunk Transformation

I love a good transformation project, and I am so excited to show you how this project turned out.

When we were at my in-laws for Christmas, they told us they were cleaning out the basement and offered this trunk to anyone who wanted it.I was excited no one had bitten on this great offer. To be honest, I was stumped on what to do with it at first, but I knew that it had potential.

I started by covering the leather handles with tape. Then I put a nice coat of primer all over the trunk.

Next, I added a coat of a ivory satin spray paint and then used a few coats of almond satin spray paint. I wanted a slight contrast of color when I sanded it at the end.

I decided I wanted it to have a shipping crate look. Sometimes crates have numbers on them, and I wanted mine to be meaningful. I chose an E for my last name, Erkkila, and 04 for the year my husband and I were married.

I found a font that I liked, and typed 'E-04" into Microsoft Excel. I chose Excel because I could make letters larger than an 8 1/2" by 11'' sheet of paper, cut them out, and easily tape the pieces together. I then took 2 old plastic three ring binders and cut the backs and fronts off. I taped them together and traced my letters onto my homemade stencil.

Next, I used my $10 stencil cutter, that I purchased for this project, and cut/melted out my letters. This gave me my own personalized stencil. This didn't take a lot of time, and I found it to be quite enjoyable!

I got out my regular scotch tape and loosely taped it down and added paper to protect the trunk from over spray.

It worked great!

My favorite part was lightly sanding the trunk and giving it the final roughed up look I wanted.

To finish, I put a satin polyurethane finish on top for durability because I expect people would want to sit on it when its in the living room. I also applied a very light coat to the sides just to keep the colors consistent.

I love doing projects like this because it's so fun to transform someone else's old green trunk into something fresh and new. The trunk was in my drive way drying, when a friend asked, "What are you going to do with that old shipping box?" I was thrilled when she said that! I knew the transformation was complete and it turned out just the way I wanted.

Have you ever tackled a similar project? We'd love to see it!