The past couple of months I have been frequenting thrift stores looking for furniture and things we can use for our house.  I am learning the art of  “thrifting” and have had some recent success.  The biggest rule: patience pays. You have to be willing to go often and be content to leave with nothing, 90 percent of the time.

One of my recent and favorite finds was this old, antique, rusted trunk found at our local Salvation Army for $14.

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I was so excited when I found it, I ripped the sticker off and may have jumped up and down a little.

First, I tried to remove the rust with soap and hot water. Then I decided I would just try to paint over it with some chalk paint because I was too lazy to sand it all off  (also, the lady at the store told me that Annie Sloan chalk paint adheres to everything including rust and that I shouldn’t have a problem-false.)  A few coats later and the rust was still coming through the paint.  We made a trip to home depot and bought some water-based Kilz and applied that over the chalk paint (cringe) and after it dried applied another 2 coats of Annie Sloan’s Old White followed by clear wax then dark wax.  A weeks worth of naptimes and 6 coats later we have a coffee table that I love.

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If you are interested in using Annie Sloan paint and wax- I spent some time researching beforehand and found this video especially helpful for applying the dark wax: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nz9Bem69Wb0