Chest Finished! (Maybe)

I constructed this chest in about three hours.  You may see photos of the construction in my last post.  But basically, I had used the plans provided by Christopher Schwarz on the Lost Art Press Blog. Only to fit in with his "Furniture of Necessity" theme, I chose to do this as economically as possible, purchasing everything from the home center:  I used laminated wood (the kind that comes wrapped in plastic), cheap hinges, and I picked up the longest brad nails I could find for under two bucks.

Since the build in the last post, I added molding, which I made the choice of purchasing in one meter lenghts.  A thin one for the lid, and a matching thicker one for the bottom.  Making my own molding with molding planes would have been cool, but I thought I would do it this way, in order to minimize the tool kit required for this build.

The Frau wasn't crazy about this furniture form in the fist place, and she really didn't like the look of the nails.  But, I thought this would be fun to construct, and it was.  Surprisingly, I think it is growing on her.  She made the suggestion that i use it for a bedside table until I get the chance to make a proper one (far down on the list of needed projects).

The room and the bed it goes next to are grey, so she suggested white, black, or grey for the color.  That is a good idea, but I thought a brighter color might be really neat for this chest, and since this won't be it's permanent home, I chose to try a few things first.

I wanted to use milk paint, and had only Dreary-Army-Green and Holy-Shit!-Red available in stuff I already had.  I thought I would try to add a little of the dark green to the red for a nice burgundy color, but wound up with a Jonas Jensen purple.

I suppose that's fine for the undercoat.  I found a local store that sells milk paint, and bought some Federal Blue, and some black.  The blue looked like such a neat color, that I am seriously thinking of keeping it this way.

 Milk paint has to be one of the more pleasant finishes to work with.  The Frau hasn't seen it yet, so we'll see if she wants it to stay blue.  If not, the blue will become another undercoat for the black.  After it gets knocked around a bit, the blue will start to show, and knock it around a bit more and the purple will come out.

 I deviated in the construction a little by moving the battens to the inside, rather exposed as in the original plan.  This may not be traditional, but the piece I had left over for the lid wasn't long enough.  I think this looks OK with the applied molding on the outside of the lid.

This molding came from the home center in one meter strips, made of pine.  The two different widths of molding in the same pattern is a nice touch, I think.

Here is the chest in it's new home.  Perhaps having the blue sheets on the bed will increase the chances of this chest remaining blue.

OK, I didn't get a photo of the tool kit for this project, but here is a list:

Required:

• Hand saw (a Japanese Ryoba is a nice choice, as you can do all the ripping and crosscutting with it using no other saws, if you don't have any).
• Chisel for cleaning out the dado.
• hammer
• Jack plane for cleaning up the hand-sawn surfaces.  I didn't even smooth anything, but I did use a little sandpaper.

Really, that's all you need to build a chest like this.  I didn't even use any clamps.  If you would like to make things a bit easier, you (like I did) can use the following tools in addition.

Optional:

• Backsaw - handy for that dado
• Bowsaw or coping saw to make the rounded cut-out
• Router plane - also handy for the dado
• Small anvil - mine is an eight pounder, for clinching the nails.

Milk paint leaves a nice finish on it's own, but I think it might be a bit flat for this purpose.  Once we settle on the color, I will top it off with some wax, or perhaps some boiled linseed oil.  Probably both.

What is your opinion of this color for my chest?