How to Bring Modern Farmhouse Vibes to Dated Cedar Chest in Ten Simple Steps
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With three young kids in a very average sized home, I am ALL for saving space and creating hidden storage. The clutter sometimes stresses me out and it just feels good to be able to hide stuff away! You know what I mean?! Chests of all kinds are awesome because they’re super versatile in use and are definitely a pretty and functional type of furniture offering hidden storage, seating and decor all in one. AKA they’re space saving pieces with potential for style.
This specific piece (like many pieces out there that I’ve worked with) was in great structural condition, but wasn’t too pretty on the eyes anymore, plus it had a few deep scratches that would need to be smoothed out. At this point in the lifespan of furniture, many people will let these pieces go & simply go buy new (which can be expensive!). I, however, have learned that I am way too frugal of a person and also find great joy in having one-of-a-kind things, so getting “ugly” furniture sent my way makes me very happy as the options are literally limitless with how it can be refinished!
I shared the “before” photo on my facebook page, and after a wonderful customer reached out with interest in the piece, we worked together to come up with a design to let this coordinate with the modern farmhouse home decor style of other pieces she owned. This would be a part of her bedroom set. Her dresser was white washed with black hardware (you can find my tutorial on that apothecary piece here), and her nightstands were solid black. SO - we came up with a white washed body, a black top and matte black accents to tie it all together.
I love the way it turned out so much and got so much positive feedback and questions after posting it, that I wanted to share exactly how I redid this piece in hopes that it will help inspire YOU to give it a try and make a dated piece you might own beautiful & perfectly “new” for your own space.
In this post, I’m sharing the materials, tools and steps I used that helped me transform this cedar chest from dated to farmhouse modern.
I’ll be covering:
What tools are necessary or helpful
What materials I used and where you can find them for yourself
What steps I took to achieve the finished look
Lessons I learned the hard way so that you don’t make them too :)
So if you’re tired of looking at that dated piece in the corner of your room and are ready to love on a modern farmhouse makeover, then you’re in the right place!
Why You Should Makeover Your Own Furniture Instead of Buy New:
My husband and I bought our first home in the spring when I was 23 years old. I had JUST graduated from college and he was just a few years ahead of me. We were getting ready to be married in the fall so with a wedding to soon be happening AND fresh outta college AND buying a fixer upper house together we had a lot going on. I’ve always loved DIY/crafts/home renovation stories and had already spent many hours of my life dreaming of my future family - searching pinterest for beautiful home inspiration ideas and definitely many more hours watching my favorite flipping shows on HGTV! :) However, as a fresh 23 year old who had never owned a home or “nice” furniture before, I was quickly frustrated with trying to get the look I wanted for our space on a budget we could actually make work. Furniture from a furniture store can be SO expensive!
After shopping around trying to furnish our home I learned I 100% had the “champagne style” but we 110% had the “beer budget”. You get what I mean, right?!
The ONLY way I was going to get what I wanted AND still be able to pay our bills, was to find dirt cheap or free furniture, recycled materials, leftover paint, and get creative putting those things to use in our home.
Over the last decade, I’ve learned SO much through trial and error. Looking back now I can see that the first few pieces I ever made or refinished were…. Pretty bad! Haha. BUT - they taught me a lot, they worked for the time being and they gave me the courage to try and try again! So - if anything, I hope this helps you to NOT be afraid and to just go for it. If you try something out and you don’t like it, all you have to do is simply try again!
What Kind of Design Should You Start With?
If you’re not sure where to start with a design, I think the modern farmhouse style is a good place to start. It is so beautiful and versatile. It's feminine yet masculine. It consists of a pretty much neutral color palette with whites, blacks, grays and beiges, and offers a simultaneously soft and bold design to make certain pieces POP in a relaxing, neutral, timeless environment. The bold black matte metal often found in this type of design scheme grounds your eyes, but the often light walls of a room or bodies of furniture softly tie everything together weaving in and out of a home and between different pieces bringing a very relaxing, cohesive feel to a space with an occasional fun little punch of boldness. You can tie it in with playful colors like art on a wall, a decorative vinyl paper in the bottom of drawers, a bright blanket or pillow, a colorful plant or let it be exactly as it is. In my personal opinion, it’s a truly timeless choice and I definitely have incorporated it into many of my designs in both furniture pieces I’ve refinished and my own home.
So here’s exactly what I learned, and how to implement it for yourself. This is exactly how to take an old dated piece of furniture like this cedar chest and give it a relatively “quick” modern farmhouse makeover.
Products and Tools
Make it stand out
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You can find a complete collection of my recommended DIY tools & materials at my Amazon Storefront Here
Or you can find the specific tools and products I used for this project listed individually in the links below:
A power sander (I personally use & love the versatility of this one)
Sandpaper discs: (make sure to have a “rough” grit like 60 or 80 grit, and a “soft” grit to smooth everything out like 150 or 220 grit.
(if your chest has trim that will need removed) A pry bar or flathead screwdriver
Vice grip to pull old nails through
Brad Nail Gun (or you could use liquid nails or glue with clamps):
Materials/ Products Used:
White Paint for the white wash mix
Possibly needed (if you have a really thick or hard original finish on your piece) - Citristrip and mineral spirits to clean afterwards.
Steps I took to achieve the finished look
The first thing you’ll have to do is remove the original finish and prep your cedar chest for the final finish. Because I white washed the body of the chest and painted the top, I focused most of my energy on gently removing the finish completely from the body, and more so scuff sanding the top of the chest. However, I learned that with this specific piece the original finish was pretty soft, so the entire piece ended up being “stripped” before I finished it pretty.
Step One: Use a prybar or flathead screwdriver to gently lift off any small trim pieces on your cedar chest. Go nice and easy on this so that you don’t break or crack the trim. If you like it - this will be used again later on. Use your vice grip tool to gently pull the original nails through the backside of your trim. Discard those nails and set the trim to the side for later.
*For my piece specifically, I removed the front trim and the base trim just above the original legs. I chose to keep the original legs on while I finished the top, and I removed them later on. It just made it easier to move around and work with and not worry about getting the new pretty part dirty.
Step Two: I used my go-to furniture remover (Citristrip). Using chemical safe gloves and eye protection, brush on citristrip to the entire piece. Wrap it up in saran wrap and leave it alone for at least 30 minutes. I like to leave it for a few hours or until I can see the original finish start to “crinkle up” under the saran wrap. That’s how I know it’s working. Whenever you feel it’s ready, then you can come back and take your scraper to remove the original finish. Keep an old box or lined trash can ready to just throw all that junk away.
After this step and still using protective gear, dip some gentle fine steel wool or scrub pads in mineral spirits to remove any remaining goo from the Citristrip. Then, use a very diluted dish soap and water mix to “wash the piece” and let it dry completely (usually overnight).
Step Three: Sand your piece smooth. I like to start with 60 or 80 grit for tough finishes but for this I just needed to use 150 grit as the citristrip did most of the work. My goal was just to get rid of any splintery pieces and make it a cohesive base to work with. If you’re using a power sander make sure to go at a slower speed and not press too hard or you can sand right through the veneer. For my sander, I kept the speed at about a 3.
Step Four: Use a tack cloth, microfiber cloth or even an air compressor with a release handle to spray or remove all the dust from your piece.
Step Five: It’s time to make your white wash!
I wanted this to be a “light” white wash so I mixed about 4 parts water to 1 part paint. There are really nice mixing containers you can use to measure this easily. I’ve also learned that if you look inside of solo cups, you can use the markers inside for jobs like this too.
Mix it all up with a paint stick and then grab a disposable glove and either a durable thick paper towel or a smooth cloth like a soft sock or a cheesecloth type of fabric.
Dip your fabric in the paint wash mix then moving in the direction of the grain, wipe on and immediately back wipe off the paint wash. I like to keep about a 50% overlay of the fresh wet white wash and the next space I’m working with to help prevent overlap lines. I also find it helpful to just work in small areas at a time vs. doing the entire piece and then back wiping. It really just gives a much smoother finish in my opinion.
Let it dry completely and if you want it to have a more solid color finish then just repeat the process.
The original veneer on the cedar chest I was working with was pretty red in tones, so I ended up doing 3 coats of the white wash.
Step Six: Seal the white wash with dark wax. This can seem counterproductive but trust me the finish is going to be so beautiful. If you love the natural wood finish look, use this. If you LOVE the way your white wash looks as is, then I recommend using a clear wax instead. So far, the Jolie brand is my favorite clear wax to work with!
Grab a new cloth and a new brush ( I actually just keep my wax brushes and just use them over and over again). Open up your dark wax and then get your brush filled up with the wax. Brush it on your piece in the direction of the wood grain. Immediately super gently wipe off the excess using a paper towel. Then let it dry for at least 15 minutes. Grab a microfiber or cheesecloth and using circular motions, buff the wax until it’s all one cohesive finish. The more you buff the shinier it’ll get, so it just depends on what look you are going for.
Step Seven: Paint the top and trim black.
I love to use a mini foam roller for painting furniture. It give a really smooth finish and the size is easy to work with. Keep a bit of an overlay between the freshly rolled areas and new areas to prevent lines or lap marks. And use a detail brush for the edges, or tape them off first :)
For my chest, I did three coats of black on the top, letting it dry completely between coats.
For the front trim and edge on bottom, I used a premium matte black spray paint. I sometimes use a paint sprayer, but if it’s just a little piece like trim with lots of detailed grooves I think spray paint is just fine. Put some old cardboard down, space your trim pieces out and then spray 2-3 coats of the spray paint on your trim letting dry completely between.
Step Eight: Putting it all together!
Now that your pieces are prepped and pretty, it’s time to assemble. If you have a brad trim nailer, that’ll be really helpful. You can do this with just wood glue too, you just have to allow more dry time.
Line up where you’d like the trim pieces to go. Add a little line of wood glue on the back of the trim and using no longer than ¾” nails, attach the trim to your chest.
Step Nine: Seal it up!
For this cedar chest, I chose to use Jolie clear wax furniture topcoat. It is butter smooth to work with and offers a water resistant durable finish. It’s perfect for pieces like this.
Grab a clean brush and brush the wax on in the direction of the grain making sure to get the trim, top, front, and every space in between. Wipe off the excess with a paper towel, let dry for 24 hours and then buff until smooth.
Step Ten: New feet/ last step!
Now that the messy part is done, it’s time to add the new feet. I love to use these matte black metal feet and because I’m often flipping multiple pieces, I buy in bulk :)
First, lay some clean cardboard down and then get help if you need to safely set the cedar chest on it’s backside (so that the front of it is now facing the sky). Using a drill or screwdriver first remove the screws from the bottom of the legs. Then, use a prybar or screwdriver to very gently lift away the legs from the chest.
After that, get out your new furniture feet! Line them up and mark them with a pencil. Pre Drill the holes so your wood doesn’t split or crack. Then, attach the new legs using the included screws.
Again, get help if you need because you don’t want to break anything you just worked so hard on but flip your cedar chest back upright. Do a quick wipe down to remove any dust and then - you have a BRAND NEW one-of-a-kind cedar chest! Congrats!! Yay!
Here’s a reminder on the official “before”
and the beautiful, fresh, “new” after!
You can repeat this finishing process on practically any wood piece of furniture that you’d like to be farmhouse modern, beautiful and “new”.
I hope you found this helpful and that it gave you a little (actually a lot of ;) ) hope and inspiration to take on a piece of your own! Be sure to save, share and pin this to come back to later!
I’d love to see your finished pieces and I’m more than happy to help answer any questions along the way! Send via email or tag me in your projects on your social media and let me see what you’re up to!
If you or someone you know is in need of furniture design, refinishing, repair or products and tools, please contact or follow Restore with Rachel and let me know how I can help you out!
Thank you so much for being here!
See you soon!
-Rachel
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