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Confessions of a Serial Do-it-Yourselfer

Simple DIY tutorials and thrifty furniture and decor makeovers

Plain Old Box gets a Harlequin Twist (& a How-to!)

Hello friends!  I have another simple painted project for you today.  Don’t you just love a good before and after?  How about we do a good after and before?  …As in this awfully cute chest:

Harlequin painted chest

Here it is before:

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Many of you may know what kind of chest this is…

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Were you right? It’s a flatware chest!! I know you all want to go dump out your granny’s silver so you can have one of your very own!

Although I do generally love a touch of purple velvet now and then, I had to say good-bye. While demo-ing the velvet, I nearly broke the lid completely off ran into a little trouble and had to do some minor surgery. Here it is in recovery.

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I gave it a couple of coats of AS chalk paint in Pure White as a base:

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Then for contrast, I lined the drawer and the insides as you saw above.

Ahh, much prettier! This is contact paper I found at TJ Maxx on the clearance a while back.

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A couple of months ago, I painted a little table  I found for $5  at an estate sale, in a checkered pattern. I spent a good bit of time measuring to get the dimensions of the squares just right.

I found an easier way to measure out the pattern for my harlequins, so I thought I would share!

How to get the perfect harlequin pattern:  (Click on each picture to enlarge.)

Pretty simple, right?

To paint the hardware, I anchored it to a piece of cardboard:

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Everything got a little sanding and a coat of clear wax:

Flatware chest repurposed

I love this little piece. I found it at a thrift store for $6.99, but when I got to the register I realized all white tags were 1/2 off. I only paid $3.49!  Score!

Annie Sloan Pure White painted box

I could use it for so many things. I’m thinking bedroom. Jewelry. Makeup. We’ll see.

Thanks for taking the time out of your busy day to check it out!

XO,

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P.S. No children were harmed in the making of this post 🙂

 

 

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Comments

  1. Great project Christy. I’m wondering about the edges that you sanded. Did you do an undercoat of black to get that contrast? I love how it looks.

    • Thanks, Vickie! I didn’t do a different color underneath, that’s just how it came out after sanding. It looks dark in contrast to the white, I guess 🙂

  2. Wow I love this! so easy and looks so nice! Thanks for your lovely comment on my blog and here you have a new follower, super cute blog!

    Hugs
    Cami @ TitiCrafty blogspot

    Ps: I’m starting a link party tomorrow, it would be great to have you there!

  5. Oh My Goodness, I love the creative transformation ~ I thought about dumping my
    Mom’s old silver to use her chest, but I think my kids would be upset….. my mission
    this week may be to find something similar ~ Thanks for sharing,
    Cheryl
    zany-mayd.blogspot.com

  6. It looks awesome! I love the harlequin pattern and the contact paper…brings the whole project together. Looks great!!

    -andi

  8. Hi Christy – I saw this at Make the Scene Monday and had to stop over. I just love this – I am a huge fan of black and white. You did a wonderful job! Thanks for sharing and have a wonderful week! Am pinning! 🙂

  11. I’ve GOT to make me one of these! I’ve never done harlequin, but it is so fun and you make it feel like my style. Thank you for the inspiration, I have just the box to try this on!!

  12. This is so adorable. Thank you for sharing the harlequin design tutorial. I did one on a picnic table without having any idea what I was doing and it wasn’t so much fun! Blessings to you, Patti

  15. Hi Christy! I wanted to share with you that I tried your harlequin technique and posted it on my blog here, with a link back to your page. I think next time I do it, I will draw my lines with chalk instead of pencil. I’ve done other projects using chalk and it transfers and cleans up so much easier. But I couldn’t have done it so simply without your instructions, so a huge THANK YOU for sharing!
    Sincerely, Jennifer from Sophisticated Junk Pile

    • What a cute side table!! I was transferring my pattern to a white box and did not have colored chalk, so pencil worked best for me, but I’m glad you were able to make it work! Thanks for the link back 🙂

  16. Love these silverware boxes with their new makeovers. How much do you sell them for? And where is your booth?

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