Today I am going to share with you a project I decided to do with an old antique trunk I had purchased this past summer.  When I purchased it the lady I bought it from told me that it had belonged to a Doctor’s wife in Ontario.  I believe he used to travel a lot and she used this trunk to go visit him.  It has her name written on it still along with a few stickers from military customs etc.

It is in lovely shape both inside and out!  It has a removable shelf inside with the original label telling the date….November 1914!  Wow!  Even the paper lining is in beautiful condition and it’s the first trunk that I have come across that doesn’t have a terrible smell inside!

Last fall I had been to an auction and purchase some old industrial wheels, only to find that there were only three….hmmmm…..only three????  I really thought there were four but turns out I was wrong… anyways, I planned on making the trunk into a coffee table and these would match perfectly.  They had the right rusty look to match the color of the trunk.

The wheels needed to be altered though in order to be used on the trunk.  They had a long thick stem on them that needed to be removed before attaching them to the trunk.

My husband works as an airplane mechanic so I was lucky enough to have access to the place he works so that we could use some of the equipment to help cut through the metal.

So after he cut off that long piece, I had him use the welder to weld a metal plate to the top part of the wheel.  Then he drilled holes through the metal plate so we could attach the wheels with screws to the trunk.

Turns out this was not a short project time wise…it ended up taking most of the afternoon just for three wheels!!!

Next we fastened them to the trunk..one centered on one end of the trunk and two placed on the other end…

Thank goodness I have connections or this would never have been possible!  This is waaay better than working in my garage! Ha!  (plus I love the help!)

Did I mention how inspiring it can be to walk around this place?  There are sooooo many things in this hanger that inspire me!  I plan to speak with the owner of the company to see if he will allow me to make copies of some of their structural plans for some of their airplanes…they would make awesome wall art!

So, I wonder what Mrs. Montague would think of her trunk if she could see it now?  I wonder the places it has been and the stories it could tell…

I love the way it turned out!  It won’t hurt my feelings if it doesn’t sell….I would just take it home to enjoy for a while :0)!   I’m pretty sure it won’t last too long in my booth though, it seems trunks are popular right now.

Thank you for stopping by for a visit!

Take care!

Smiles!

Terry

Linking up to Stone Gable: The Scoop #100

Also linking up to the Sunday Showcase Party by Stephanie Lynn and Miss Mustard Seed’s Furniture Friday