My Grandfather's Trunk

For as long as I've had my own place I've wanted a trunk that could be used as a coffee table, but I haven't wanted to spend the money on one. Well, in the course of cleaning out my grandparent's basement so that my Grandma can move into a smaller place we discovered not one, but TWO trunks. We haven't brought the second one home yet, but we have the first one.

However, it wasn't really in coffee table shape since it had been sitting in their basement for who-knows-how-long. The lining on the inside was so fragile it was cracking and peeling. The hardware that keeps the lid from falling backwards has also broken, so we have to open the lid very carefully.

The outside of the trunk was also extremely beat up. The coloring on some of the leather is gone, the bottom is completely scratched up, and because he was using it as storage, my Grandfather scribbled out some of the previous labels, and also wrote on it (it is also possible that the military wrote on the trunk, it is hard to tell). I tried for a couple days to get the permanent marker off with no success. Luckily, I have a very smart husband who has some really good ideas. He suggested that we use bumper stickers and postcards to cover up some of the damage and marker scribbles. So that is what I did.
I cleaned the outside with some baby wipes. Then I got some out some of the postcards we had from my husband's Grandmother, and got more postcards and some bumper stickers from my Dad. We also went a head and got a few stickers and postcards from the National Museum of the Marine Corps to include since my Grandfather was very involved in the museum. I started out attaching the postcards with a spray adhesive, but apparently I was not paying much attention the day I bought it because it was not a permanent adhesive. So I decided to just go back to my roots, and I used good old Elmer's Glue to attach the postcards and the older of the bumper stickers. I let them dry for a couple days then Shellac-ed the living daylights out of the trunk to help protect it from the dogs. I also pulled off some of the more damaged of the liner and covered it with contact paper. Eventually I might fully rip out the lining and do something nicer, but I like the contact paper solution for now. So now it looks like this!

Most of the postcards came from my hubby's grandma. The majority of the bumper stickers came from my Dad, and most of them are older than I am.

I'm looking forward to doing the next trunk, but I have definitely learned some things from this project.

1. Next time, I will glue the postcards on, cover them with wax paper and put heavy books on top to make sure the postcards and bumper stickers dry flat. No bubbles or curling edges.

2. Whenever using shellac, use the cheap foam brushes that you can just dispose of when you are done because Shellac is REALLY hard to get out of paint brushes. I ended up just tossing the brushes because I got frustrated trying to clean them .

I will post about the next trunk as well!