On one of our trips we came across this beautiful old wooden chest that was about to be thrown away. I knew with a little work I  could turn into a beautiful toy box for  my daughter. The before pictures do not include the lid of the box because we had to remove it in order to fit everything into the car.

Before:

The legs had quite a bit of damage so I decided they would have to be removed. Removing the bottom was really easy-all we had to do was remove the screws and the bottom came right off! After removing the legs the first step was to sand the entire box with very fine sandpaper.

Once the box was sanded, I cleaned the entire box off with a clean damp cloth. It is extremely important to allow enough time for the box to completely dry before starting to paint.

I painted the entire box with a light grey chalk paint. If you use chalk paint it will only take one coat of paint to get the perfect covering.

*When Painting, you will most likely need two size brushes. A larger one for the majority of the box and a small one for the details.*

Once the paint is dry it is time to apply the antique wax to the box. Applying antique wax is really simple. All you need is a corse paint brush and to follow these simple steps:

1. Tap the corse paintbrush in the antique wax getting only a small amount onto the brush.
2. Apply in long random strokes. It will look streaky and that is perfectly okay!
3. Make sure the random strokes go in all directions.
4. Before the wax has time to set and dry use your brush in a rubbing motion to spread the wax out, creating a softer look.

Painting the lid of the box took the same steps: sand, clean, paint, and wax.

This is what the finished product looked like! 

For another antique painting projects you can check out this small table! You can also find inspiration for other DIY projects here!