Refinishing My Old Toy Chest

Now that my kiddos are old enough to have loads of toys in their rooms that need tucked away, I took on refinishing my old toy box that my Uncle Ben made for me when I was really little.  I stripped it all down, sanded the heck out of it, painted it up and upholstered it with a new fun fabric.  It's so great to repurpose things...especially ones that are special to you.

Here is a before picture - gotta love the orange crushed velvet, but this thing is 33 years old and it is totally 1970's.

It was really well constructed, but my brother, sister, and I put a real toll on it when we were kids.  I wanted to keep the hinge and chains because they were still in decent condition, but I needed to update the crushed orange velvet and the outside color.

I removed all the old padding, velvet covering and stripped down all the old finish.  After a really good sanding I painted it a black with a matte finish to match is bedroom furniture.

I found a fun modern fabric and re-upholstered the to top.  I was actually able to reuse the top padding piece, but bought some new decorative tacks to attach everything to the lid.

I also added some light batting under the cover and tacked it in place and hot glued some grosgain ribbon to the edges to cover up the rough edges (this is my first upholstery project so I wasn't too sure what I was doing and this was my fix to cover up funny edges.)

It turned out amazing and looks great in my little guys room (well, temporary room until we move into our new house...I will add pics of it later when we get it in his new sports themed room!!!)