Saturday 16 October 2010

the trunk project...

At the beginning of the week my mum saved an old trunk from near bonfire-related death. The trunk belonged to my next door neighbour, Mrs Baker, who sadly passed away at the end of July. Now the proud owner of the trunk I have set a few hours aside this week for my mission to revive the trunk to its former glory.

It arrived at our doorway after years of attic storage and was consequently a bit filthy, very dusty, and pretty unloved. It has original travel labels, and is decorated with Mrs Baker's initials, E.B. The labels I have glued to make sure they stay intact, as they are an integral part of the trunk and it's life so far. Mrs Baker lived to 95, so this trunk has been around for a good few years, and I can't believe how old it could be!

I think it'll make a brilliant fabric storage trunk, great for throwing all my linens into, and is exactly what I've been after. So much so that even in the freezing temperatures in the evenings this week I have been out in our garage, polishing and fixing :)

So far I have ripped all of the inside fabric out, fixed broken wooden edges, cleaned, polished, and 'dubbin-ed' all the leather, the corners, and the seam along the back of the trunk. It's not super-shiny yet, but it's getting there. I'm planning to wallpaper the inside with lovely vintage green ivy wallpaper, so hopefully I'll have a 'trunk-update' for you a little later on!
In the meantime have a good week and hope you are having a lovely sunny and crisp weekend, x

3 comments:

  1. Wow it is looking good. I love your "projects" so much fun to read about.

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  2. Hehe, thank you! It's still looking a bit bedraggled, so a bit more polishing etc needed before tackling the inside but hopefully it'll be in action soon... I can't wait!

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  3. that trunk is amazing, I also a big fan of the Farrow and Ball paints in the background!

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