Favorite Find Monday: Huge Empire Chest

Happy Monday!  I have this great empire chest to share with you all today and am happy to be back posting my favorite finds 🙂

I found this ginormous chest last week in a thrift store.  It is solid wood, very old and very heavy!  I measured it and realized that it was too wide to fit into my minivan but I bought it anyway, which led to such drama getting this one home!  I called my shipper, who said he could pick it up but not until the next day.  I had to leave it there with the SOLD sticker on it (I hate leaving my purchases because it makes me nervous).  The next day I was waiting at home for it to be delivered when he called with bad news.  After trying to put it into his SUV, it didn’t fit (I had sent him the measurements but he thought he could fit it in sideways).

This made me so nervous because I knew that it had been tossed around trying to get it to fit into his SUV.  From experience, I know the guys at the thrift store are not the gentlest with huge and heavy pieces of furniture! Anyway, he had to leave and come back later that evening with his large moving truck.  He was finally able to deliver it on Saturday night in the pouring rain.  I was so nervous until I had it in my house and actually hugged it when it finally arrived (I’m serious!).  Here it is!

Someone had replaced the drawer pulls but one is split in two and can’t be fixed.  A shame because I actually really like them.  The foot also is missing a piece but thankfully, whoever donated it included the missing piece of the foot and the broken knob by leaving them in a drawer – score!  The foot piece fits perfectly and I can glue it on.

There is a ton of damage to the veneer.  If there hadn’t been, I wouldn’t paint it!  Funny but the last empire chest that I worked on also had a ton of veneer damage (Rembrandt Red Empire Chest Before and After).

The top also has been broken at some point but someone nailed it back together.  I’ll take it off and hopefully remove the old nails.  I’ll then use wood glue to reattach the piece.

I’ll keep you posted on the progress.  It’s a huge project!

Totally unrelated to furniture flipping…today is actually my 24th wedding anniversary.  It is such a long time ago now but still seems like yesterday! Here is a fun pic to share of that day. 

Have a wonderful day 🙂