Last month, I promised to talk a little more about the chestnut trunk or chest that I have been using in my house as a low-lying table. Here are a few pictures of the same. I have used the art of decoupaging to convert this to a beautiful low-lying table for my telephone and other accessories. This trunk is easily about 75 years old and sort of damaged. But the moment I saw this, I thought that I should revive it and instead of keeping it on the attic....make the right use of it. To restore this, I first painted this dark brown....to be precise....the colour of chestnut itself. I used an oil based paint and generously applied 2 coats to achieve the right colour and finish. I let it dry for a few days and then applied artist's gold colour which is also oil based medium. Since I only wanted the golden tinge....i gave it a few light strokes of this gold paint. It needs about a day to dry completely. I then scouted for some calendars which i always collect. I needed something to suit the theme of South India. What better can I get......? I was filled with joy when I found prints of Raja Ravi Varma's paintings. Check out this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raja_Ravi_Varma to read a little more about Raja Ravi Varma. I then carefully cut out the 2 pictures that I shortlisted and that which I felt would go together. I stuck this with fevicol, allowed it to dry and then started the process of decoupaging. Since they were from a calender and the sheets slightly too thick for decoupaging. It took nearly 15 layers or more of fevicol to achieve this effect. After I pasted the sheets, I mixed water with fevicol (in the consistency of batter) and started applying layers after layers to smudge this sheet with that of the chest. Remember to allow every layer to dry for a few minutes. Lastly, I gave it an outlining of a thin layer in black using pre-mixed fevicolour. I did not forget to paste my favourite kundan stones here and there. This helped me, add some colour and brighten the whole chest.
This whole makeover of the chest took me about 3 days to complete.....ofcourse plus 1 week of drying time.
