Old Trunk Resurrected -- Furniture Redo

I already posted about the auction I attended last weekend.  After bidding on everything I wanted, I started to walk away.  An "auction helper" chased after me because they had just uncovered an old trunk that they 'thought I would be interested in' (i.e. no one else would bid on it).

 After a quick look inside, I bid $5 and it was mine!

 The rusted out top was the most obvious reason no one else was interested.
But the rust was only skin deep, underneath was decent wood.

 My favorite feature of the trunk is the "alligatored"

green paint on the wooden slats.  Almost like milk paint.

 This is the inside of the lid.  The writing says,

"Dad's trunk when he got married to our Mother,

Sept 30, 1900".

First I removed the holey metal sections on the top.

I liked the discolored wood underneath, it even had a bit of the

metal design rusted on to it.  So I just gave it a dark stain to

blend it with the remaining rusted metal -- and a matte polyurethane on top of that.

 There were multiple reasons I looked inside before bidding:

-- if there was a mildew or moth ball smell I wouldn't have purchased it

-- many times the bottom is rusted or rotted out of these old trunks

-- I wanted to see if it had a design under the lid

-- I wanted to know if it still had the original removable drawer/shelf (and the answer was yes!)

So I painted the drawer a similar green to the exterior green, and did a quick

wipe on / wipe off with the dark stain to "age" the paint.

I brushed a clear wax all over the exterior and let that dry before coming

back in and buffing. That really brought out the stamped metal design.

 Really, the whole thing was pretty easy.

I don't find trunks easy to sell, but the price was right on this beauty

and I didn't have to spend much time in resurrecting her.

Sold at Platte City Antique Show for $50.