Blood, Sweat and Tears

Well I don't mean the band...

...but what I put into stripping this cedar chest. My grandfather gave this to my grandmother (both deceased) on her 18th birthday. She painted it white over varnish I am pretty sure by the way it all came off. Lots of scraping, sanding, and steel wool-ing.

Whew - I got it all off. I started stripping this a year ago (before I started blogging, so no real "before" picture), got busy with other things and it sat in the garage for months until my husband got tired of seeing it there and moved it to the basement. You know the old saying, "out of sight, out of mind", it was certainly true here. So about 3 weeks ago, I hauled it back upstairs (more blood sweat and tears) and finished up.

I painted it my favorite colour...

...and it now sits in one of my guest rooms.

I temporarily hung some art that one of my sons did until I find just the right mirror. I think every guest room needs a long mirror. I have a silver starburst in mind for over the pillows between the posts. I don't always like a bed skirt, so I covered the boxed spring with a fitted bottom sheet in the blue that is in the pillows. To see how I like to put my beds together go here.

Why does everything take so long to pull together? For me part of the reason is I really don't like shopping.

What little projects are you doing or just completed? Stop by Susan at Between Naps on the Porch to see what others are doing this Metamorphosis Monday!

Blood Sweat and Tears image from Wikipedia