A Wedding Memory

September 21, 2013

A Wedding Memory

I really love this "job" of transforming furniture.... especially when I can add a personal touch to one. My client contacted me on Facebook about a Lane cedar chest she had. She had admired a French Script Dresser I did last year, and wanted something similar done to her chest to commemorate her wedding day.

Okay, I really get into this cause it's all that romantic, and Romeo and Juliet blush and gush, kind of stuff.

Sign me up!

Since I instantly had the image in mind to use, all I needed was how she wanted it to read on the front.
I'm thinking French, of course.

She's wanting the wedding date on it.

I'm still thinking French.

So we come up with this:

Maison du Wells
9 Juin, 2001

Done!

Well.... almost. I still have to paint the thing!

Her husband delivers this wonderful, cedar-smelling chest to me:

But before I can even get started, she needs a little help in the cosmetic department:

Some of these were deep boy!

I had to give her a couple of good coats of industrial strength primer because of the old stain oozing through. After that, she had a couple of coats of Old White.

During the creation phase of the drawing I'm putting on the chest, I contacted my client and asked her what her flowers were at her wedding.

"Callas Lilies.", she replied

So I tweaked the drawing in order to make the piece more personal to her.

So the drawing was put on:

Not sure how many of you out there do this, but it literally involves being upside down in some parts and contorting one's wrist in ways that should not be done.

But I still love doing it nonetheless!

Notice the lilies!

Next comes painting the drawing and filling in all those little details with two different types of brushes. One which was "stolen" and chewed to death by my trusty Yorkie, Taz. So the chest was delayed by a couple of days until my new one arrived in the mail.

Oh, I did have to throw in a hint of gold gilding on the lid lock since I was still being influenced a bit from my Game of Thrones marathon recently.

Then it's waxed, stained, and done!