This was gifted to me around 20 years ago, it was in a battered state as it had been owned by a man who had been in the Navy the first half of the last century and had been on a few ships during its time. He had used it to carry on board his possessions and kit, when he left the Navy it came home with him and stayed in the front room as a storage box. I was only the second owner of this chest and I was amazed how it had survived throughout the years!

Initially I sanded it down and waxed it, back then it was more of a teak colour as it matched my decor. Fast forward 20 years, through several house moves, and 10 years in my Mother’s garage, I decided it was high time it had another revamp and went onto pastures new, as I no longer had room for it in my current home.

This time I made a few repairs, sanded it, and waxed it with Briwax, several coats of the stuff, a lot of elbow grease later resulted in the picture above. I did leave a few marks on it as I didn’t want to obliterate its history completely, it needed to look as if it had ‘lived’ but at the same time have a great finish to it to show off the grain of the wood.

It has since been sold and gone to a good home.