On a car ride one day, I spotted what I believed to be a diamond in the rough… the very rough. At the sight of what looked like carved wood sitting next to garbage bags, I was compelled to stop.

What I’d spotted was a multicoloured chest that despite its dirt, was covered with lovely bas relief designs. I had strong suspicions of it being made of wood, although water stains on the surface made me think it could also be a man made composite material. I decided to bring it home and investigate further (I’d know of course, once I started to sand it). After a good check for bugs- which I was happy to discover were absent, I put it in the trunk.

It turned out that the chest had indeed been made wood (water stains were only in the paint) but then, it had been turned into a dog house. With a bit of sadness in my heart (how could anyone use someone’s beautiful handicraft in this way….) I was determined to clean the panels so the beautiful carvings could be honoured once again!

Outside, I dismantled the chest, chose the pieces I would be keeping and then cleaned these thoroughly (scrubbing the panels first with cleaner, then with water and vinegar).

When this was done, I left the panels outside in the summer heat and sun for two weeks, at times sprinkling them with baking powder (renounced for removing nasty odours). I then sanded the wood, only removing the parts that looked unclean and grubby (I wanted a worn look so was not thorough with the sanding).

I then painted the panels and scuffed them up again a little with sand paper.

One of the smaller panels was given a cleaner look, not so rustic and worn and is now ready to be put up 🙂