Steampunk

Continued from Part Three

And now, it’s finished! The drawers are in place, the stain has dried, although still a bit smelly, and the metal fittings are all properly affixed and looking stunning.

As a reminder to myself, and a marker for the family I hope to have in the future, I burned the year into the top corner on the back.

                ~finis~

Continued from Part Two

The next step for the chest was to add on the drawer pulls. I got a pack of Tim Holtz drawer pulls for the drawers, only to figure out that the screws included in the packaging were no where near long enough to fit through the wood of the drawers.

Determined to make it work anyway without going out and trying to find other screws that might work, I decided to use my drill to bore out enough to get the screw countersunk on the inside of the drawer. Go figure, the drill bit that was large enough for the screw head to fit into was too big to drill straight into the wood. I had to angle it from several different directions to try to get a hole that was somewhat even in depth.

After much frustration and struggling, I got the proper depth drilled out, stained it, and was ready to add the pulls!

 

I figured that the solid white would be best in the middle drawer, and then decided which “crystal” pull I wanted against each flourish. I used a flat headed drillbit on the inside screws to help me tighten the drawer pulls down.

After those were done, I added the page corners to the top corners of the chest using two finishing nails for each corner piece.

Next, I wanted to add on the feet. Until I realized that they didn’t come with screws or nails of any sort. The finishing nails I have would be too long for the bottom of the chest, not to mention are so small they go right through the holes of the feet. I was able to find some tiny wood screws at Lowe’s that wouldn’t go completely through the thin wood of the chest. A few screwdriver turns later, the feet were attached!

This chest is going to be mainly for storing my wax seal supplies, maybe some writing supplies like my pen cleaner. I wanted to add a nameplate on the side of the box, but also wasn’t quite sure what to write into the frame. I decided instead of writing something, I’d melt wax into the center of the frame, and stamp like I would on a wax seal. I backed the nameplate with a piece of cardstock, dripped a mix of silver and gold-tone sealing wax into the center of the plate, and stamped it with my flourish seal. I used some more of those tiny screws from Lowe’s to fix the waxplate onto the side, and then covered them with black india ink, since the screws were brass against the silver-tone metal.

See the finished chest in Part 4!    

Continued from Part 1

 
I have a few files of flourishes that I love to use, so when I wanted to draw designs on the chest, I went to them for the designs. I free handed the designs with pencil first, adding and removing portions I did or didn’t like.

After finishing the sketches, I moved to using the wood burner. It took me quite a few episodes of Buffy to get through all the designs, but you just get to see the finished flourishes!

With all of the designs burned into the wood, I went to staining all the pieces. I started out on the three drawers, using the golden oak woodstain. I tend to use the cheapest brushes possible whenever I’m staining wood, basically so I can throw them away afterward. I hate trying to get all the stain out of the bristles of a good brush. I never really bother to wipe up any excess stain off the wood, just letting all the stain soak in to get a rich color.

I was more careful with the ebony stain, making sure I didn’t over-saturate it so that the flourishes would be subtly visible. Of course it’s best to let all stained pieces air out on a porch so that you don’t end up with woodstain smell all through your home. (I get too excited about my new pretties and forget about that!)

After letting them set for a bit, I went ahead and added the drawers to the chest to figure out which drawer I wanted on the top and which I wanted on bottom. Next, the fittings!

See more in Part 3!       

I’ve had a lack of personal projects lately, and when I came across a four drawer raw wood chest it stuck in my mind as a project I’d like to take on for myself.

Materials:
Four drawer wood chest
Ebony woodstain
Golden Oak woodstain
Staining brush
Stainable woodfill
Wood burning tool
Silver-tone vintage style accessories by Tim Holtz
Finishing nails
#2 3/8″ Wood screws

I started out by just figuring out what all I wanted on the chest, what I wanted to stand out the most, and what I wanted to add for subtle detail that more than likely only I will remember. I knew I wanted to have a dark frame with contrasting drawers, but I of course had to figure out what color to go with. I have a lot of red, a little purple, but I’d like this to pretty much go with anything. So I wanted the drawers to be kept light, and have some awesome woodburned designs.

I already had a few packs of Tim Holtz brand accessories that I’d gotten without knowing what I was actually going to use them on. Using the idea Grimm of A Grimm Design had (she’s awesome, check out her shop!), I decided the Tim Holtz page corners could be the top corner decorations, while the chest would be propped up by the feet on bottom.

Well, as it turned out, the feet would extend over the bottom drawer, making it unusable. My best option was to just remove the drawer and have the space remain open. So I got my general idea sketched out, and began deciding on the designs I wanted to burn into the wood.

Continued in Part Two!