Quite some time ago I acquired some free furniture from a local road side collection held in Obachan's little town. I shared what I did with the metal chairs I gave a second life to here. I also kept secret about the other old treasure I happily brought home to Obachan chi's. While I promised to share what it was, it has taken me some time to actually get to this quite easy DIY project. So what did I pick-up and have wanted for the longest time? Well, it's my very own chadansu, tea chest. I almost bought one many years ago for quite a some of money, but I held off and walked away from it. In the meantime it has always been on my wish list.
As you can see this chadansu has seen better days and is in need of a good sand and wax. The sliding glass to the upper half are missing and so are the draws at the bottom. But this didn't put me off taking it home and giving it some love.
If you are interested in chadansu's you will know that each one can be so different and enchanting in their designs. This humble tea chest's interesting feature as you can see is this curved shelf. It's nothing fancy, but it has obviously done a good job all these years in someone's home.
On this beautiful autumn day I felt it was time to give my chadansu a face lift.
So I pulled it outside and sanded it with a 120 grit paper because I wanted to go easy on the timber.
I pulled the lower sliding doors off and felt a bit hesitant to sand them due to their wooden pattern. Would I ruin it?
In the end I went for it and plowed my sander across the doors, crossing my fingers that I had done the right thing. The left-hand side is sanded and wax, while the right-hand side has just been sanded waiting for some tinted wax. I like to believe that I gave the doors some moisture and am happy with the results.
Next job was to lie the cupboard down and give the whole thing a wipe over with wax.
Here is the top before sanding......... ....and after a sand and wax.
Traditionally you would display all your tea cups, teapots and patterned tea canisters, but this little chadansu needs to be more flexible at Obachan chi's. It does a mighty job holding all our china and it is such a joy to use after waiting it's turn for a make-over. I'm still on the look out for some type of woven rectangular baskets for the missing draws at the bottom. At the moment I'm not in a hurry because isn't the hunt all part of the fun!
