A painted chest
Paul in NJ
A request was made to build a toy chest for my grand daughter. I was delighted to build something for her and began my research and planning. This painted chest was completed almost two years ago for her second birthday.
I had seen a number of Pennsylavania painted chests in my visits to museums. I looked at auction sites and in my library for inspiration. I bought a wonderful book by Monroe H. Fabian, “The Pennsylvania-German Decorated Chest”. It had a large number of plates with many in color. A common theme was flowers, birds, and a ‘tree of life’. That theme would be great since my littlest one had an appreciation of birds and flowers even at that young age.
The chest was built similar to a tool chest out of tulip (poplar). The case and bottom moulding is dovetailed. The lid frame is through tenoned. Here it is before painting.
It must have secret drawers!
A close-up of the initials:
I am not very creative when it comes to painting, so I downloaded some clip-art to help me with form and detail. This is a sampling of test panels for deciding color and practicing the images.
A base coat of milk paint was applied with a barrier coat of shellac to protect the background. I made some stencils to block out the shapes and then painted in the details. A final coat of water base polyurethane was applied to protect all. The painted chest:
And the approving customer:
Thanks for looking.
regards,
Paul Dzioba
