Jewelry box from brown to rosy new

As December ended, I was content to know I only had one more  project to finish, and looked forward to time to work on other things.  Then fate brought me two jewelry boxes, and two chairs to restore.  So begins a new year,  time to finish up a few things and clear them out of here. Today I can finally show you the second jewelry box ready to go to it’s new home.

I already showed you the first jewelry box using leftover paint and magazine clippings, if you missed it you can see it here.

I have the second jewelry box now ready to show you.  Do you recall the before?

It was so dark I couldn’t get a good picture of it even with the light shining on it.  One handle was broken, but it was soon apparent that the rest would break with the tiniest pressure, so no saving them.

I did  notice that these weren’t the original handles, there was a center hole that held something else prior to these, but I will spare your eyes trying to see them with the dark stain.

So to work I went

I still have a tiny bit of watered down (free) white paint, knowing that the little girl who will give this a home has her room painted a pastel lavender, with all white furniture and a few pink accents I knew I had to use the white paint.

You can see here the three holes from changing the handles at some point.

Now here is the part where I will suggest that you do as I say not as I do.  Since this was a month of no extra spending, and I was trying really hard to stick with the challenge, I resorted back to something I haven’t done in years.  With no wood putty on hand I filled the holes with Elmers School Glue.  If you insist on trying this yourself, there are a couple things to keep in mind.

• First, the hole  needs to be very small.
• Second, use just a tiny amount and let it settle down to fill the hole, you must lay down so it can run into the hole and not back out or just along the one side of the hole
• Make sure you don’t get any on the rest of the piece, such as around the hole, if you have to start removing the glue from around the outside of the hole you filled you could damage the surface of the patched hole.
• When applying the glue, I removed the excess with the tip of my finger by lightly tapping the glue and being careful not to smear it any where.
• Let dry, remember the glue will run down into the hole, now repeat the process until the hole is filled.
• You will not be able to sand this without damaging the surface so be sure you have a nice smooth finish before it dries.

Now for those of you who will do as I say, not as I do, fill the hole with wood putty and sand for a smooth finish when dry much easier and less risk of a mess.

I decided to use a pretty pink bead for the new knobs, and found some Japanese beads on Etsy from this store.   If you are searching for beads for a project I would highly recommend checking out this store.  The shipping was fast and my package was well padded.  Best of all,  her prices are more than fair.

The picture makes the bead look darker than it really is…the limits of using a phone to take pictures.

Of course there is one more thing to show you, before I reveal the finished box.  Remember this music box mechanism I was given, again from someone’s trash, waiting for a home?

It’s now a part of the jewelry box, making this a musical jewelry box. There was a hole in the back for a mechanism, but this one wouldn’t fit as there is a piece of wood inside that didn’t allow for the mechanism to be assembled properly.  I had to make a new hole, as removing the wood was going to damage the backing of the jewelry box.

And for the reveal.  Here’s the finished jewelry/music box.

I think this box will now have years of use and love.

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