HOME: BITS AND BOBS

Do you ever start a project and don't seem to ever get them finished?! I seem to start projects and get bored half way through.. This weekend I tried to finish a couple of things:

I bought an old tool trunk from the Cullen Antique centre for £20 at the beginning of this year.. it was a bargain ..I thought until we noticed it had some old woodworm. 

I removed all the hardware and treated the whole trunk, I did two coats with the smelly stuff and left it for a week in-between each application. Then I sanded the truck.. for what seemed like days.. the old owner had spilt something on the top which made a horrible mark on the top and I just couldn't get it out. I gave up and washed it down.. I added an onion inside to try get rid of the musty/ woodworm spray smell and gave up for a while. 

I dragged the trunk out of the shed last week and attempted to treat the stain with some bleach.. it actually worked quite well but it is definetly still there.. for good. A sensible person would have stained the whole thing dark again but after sanding it for so long I have decided to give it 3 coats of beeswax for protection, reattach the hardware (which I painted black) and live with it for a bit.

Note to self: I also need to power wash my slabs!! 

I also got left a writing desk left by the old owner when I bought my house (have I mentioned it before!?) It was dark brown mahogany and not my taste.. one night I decided to paint it with a primer paint... 3 weeks later I decided to try make my own chalk paint (1 part calcium carbonate, 1 part plaster of paris, 3 tbsp of water and 2 parts paint) I found it too sandy.. maybe I should have used hot water but I didn't like the mix. Last night I gave it another coat this time with a different mix (1 part extra fine plaster of paris, 1 part hot water and 2 parts emulsion paint) it was REALLY runny but after an hour or so thickened up a bit and was much better to apply and looked a lot less sandy. I did a final coat this morning. I need went and made a slight boo boo and tried to use the wax on it (inside first) but it's a yellow coloured wax and I think i might have ruined the white white look I was hoping for so beware!!! Hopefully I can save it. I bought some cute crystal knobs from TKMaxx and then last bit is to paper the drawers so there is a fun pop when I open it.

1st sand and pain

The next project is to organise the shed so I can get all the tools out of the house!!

How was your weekend!? Did you get anything started!? Or maybe even finished!?