My New Favorite Antique Store Find!

When I was little I played school for hours. I think every little girl wants to be a school teacher at some point. Well, first I wanted to work in a bank and wear a tu-tu everyday and marry a man on a motorcycle. Then the school teacher, followed by a marine biologist, a sports writer, a photographer, and finally what I am, a museum Registrar. (And hopefully, one day, a mommy.)

I got the antiquing itch one night just 30 minutes before the store I wanted to go to closed, so I made my husband hop in the car and indulge me. I sure am glad I did because I found two awesome pieces:

 

My very own school chair! I'm so excited! And, as shown in a photo from my living room mini-makeover post, a little blue sewing chest!

I had some high hopes for the sewing chest, but my distressing job on it didn't work very well. It had a very, very thick layer of blue paint on it, but a color that I liked. I tried distressing it but ended up having to use a power sander given the thickness of the paint. After spending too long on it I decided to stop with a light sanding. You can see the wood grain now and it sort of looks like it has a blue wash over it. I planned to distress it even further but I like it just fine as it is now. 

I'm not using it as a sewing chest. It's currently holding the special rags we have to clean our flat panel TV and some DVDs.

I did spend a little more time on the school chair and I'm very happy with the results. First, it was a bit dirty so I gave it a good cleaning with Murphy's oil soap.

After the initial cleaning

It was clear this wood was thirsty! It was very dry and washed out. So the next step was a coat of Old English.

The wood soaked up the first coat like a sponge, so I put a second coat on as well.

I was just about to call it complete when I got the best idea! I wanted to find a way to make it a little more personal, so looky what I did:

I'm surprised at how hard it was to carve our initials into the wood, and I had a sharp drill bit! Kids used to carve into their desks with just No. 2 pencils... I don't know how they did it! The carving looked a little too fresh so I put some Old English over that as well.

What do you think? Would you have carved into it too or left it as is?

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