Chalk Painted Wooden Trunk

My husband has a wooden trunk his dad built for him to take all his gear to scout camp. It has lived in various ways around our homes and for awhile lived in the garage. Here I needed a table for our living room and decided to try it out. It seems to fit the space fairly well and is actually tall enough to serve as a table.

It's stained wood with brass latches, 

and silver metal handles. 

It was kinda a chilly morning, good day to light a fire and get to work. 

First step was two coats of Anne Sloan Olive. Yep, the same color as my Union Jack dresser behind. 

I could have stopped there, but I didn't want this piece to be the same as the dresser.

So I got out a can of Country Chic paint that I had used on my dining room table and slathered some on. This part was just slopping some white over the olive, I'm going to rub it in, so no need to be as careful.

Messy looking, right? 

Then comes the next step, getting an old towel and getting it damp. Be sure to squeeze out the excess, you don't want it dripping wet. I fold the towel and wipe lightly back and forth, pressing down harder in the areas I want more wear. I use a couple fingers wrapped in the towel to really rub across the wood trim, distressing those areas down until a bit of wood shows. 

Difference between the white washed side, and just the olive.

This side slopped with paint. I painted the hardware too.. they didn't match anyhow. I can always rub some off after.

I worked in sections, paint a side, then wipe-wipe-wipe. I folded and refolded the towel to expose clean damp sides and wiped against the grain of the wood first and then with the grain to smooth. 

After wet distressing.

Now most sane people would stop there... but I wanted a touch of a third color. I had a can of this Anne Sloan from another project. I rinsed my towel and grabbed a dry paint brush.

Using the brush to dab a bit of blue on my damp towel. I then rubbed a bit of blue on the corners and trim and here and there on the surfaces, not all over. My thought was, If this is an old shipping trunk, it would have paint transfer from rubbing on other trunks in the cargo hold. So why not add a bit of rubbed color on areas that would have been touching?

Corners and edges are good places for this. After I used a clean side of my towel and rubbed it into the other colors. 

I also rubbed on the hardware so the metal shines through a bit.

The next step is wax.

 I decided to use the Country Chic Natural Wax. It looks like a tiny container...but you just rub the brush around on the top, brush across the wood and it actually goes on very thin. You can just see a slight shine to the areas you wax. I then use a scrap of flannel to buff. I waxed the dining room set and this trunk and have just a slight indention on the wax. 

And here it is, all done and back in it's place. I changed up the decor on top. Going with a wood bowl of pumpkins, a white milk bottle with some hydrangeas from the yard and a candle. 

Before and After

Linking up to:

Miss Mustard Seed