Fake Silver Cover for Wood Chest

A few years ago, I started working with wood chests/boxes for some DIY projects. Some of them are pretty simple but the final result is pretty amazing.

This is one of them.

I bought a few wood chests, and there was a beautiful pack of 3 that had a beautiful brick-like design, so I decided to buy it and maybe try some "Super Mario" thing with them.

As you will see, I got desperate, because the "brick-like" design was a real pain to sand, also I didn't have enough mechanic tools to make it quick, so after two afternoons trying to make the box smooth, I gave up a used my imagination...

Before telling the whole story, let's see the materials you will need:

- Tinfoil roll

- Bitumen of Judea (also called bitumen judaicum, Judean pitch, in my country we call it "Betún de judea")

- Wood box/chest (the size you want)

- Glue

- Scissors

- Paint brush

- Paper towel (also: kitchen paper)

- Sand paper of different grit (sometimes the box in not as smooth as you would like)

- Solvent (for cleaning the paintbrush of bitumen!)

- Primer (optional)

Most of the boxes/chests I bought were not as smooth as I would like and my OCD kicked in.

Depending on which part is the one you need to sand, you can uncrew the bolts that attach the small hinges and the latch to make it easier, you will need to do it anyway in the next steps! Put the bolts and hinges in some safe place, we don't want them to be lost in the process!

Once the box is exactly as you want it, clean the dust with a (not very) wet cleaning cloth or paper towel. (You can also blow it, but I do not recommend it as you can get some of the wood dust in your eyes and it's awful)

After this, you can put some primer on the box (inside and outside) to protect the wood, but it is not mandatory, probably just more of my OCD talking there! Also, after the primer, you should sand again with a higher sandpaper grit (softer, maybe 120 or more), so if you're really done with the sanding and the dust, stop right there!

Take your tinfoil roll and cut some pieces that will cover the upper lid of the box. It doesn't have to be perfect, just make sure you have more than enough to cover the lid.

Now wrinkle it you both hands. Yeah, that's it! Wrinkle it a lot, but make sure that you can stretch it out after.

Be careful, tinfoil can shatter easily and even some holes can appear, and we don't want to repeat the wrinkle-unwrinkle part until we finish all our tinfoil roll off!

Don't worry if the tinfoil shatters on the edges, we are going to use mainly the central part.

This part is as easy as messy!

Put some plastic or old newspaper on your table before starting this part (I did it as a precaution, I'm extremely clumsy sometimes)

Now put some glue in a small square of tinfoil (something like the photo), turn your wrinkled tinfoil and start painting it with glue, not much really, think that you have to press it to the box and if there's too much it's going to drip everywhere.

Press the tinfoil to the box with your bare hands, firmly but gently, we don't want to break it. Anyway, if you feel some glue in your finger at this point or a bit later during this process, do not panic. Maybe there's a super small hole somewhere, if you haven't seen it, IGNORE IT.

If you've seen it, take the paintbrush and use the opposite side of it and try to smooth out the hole, it doesn't have to be perfect, remember that we are going to cover EVERYTHING in bitumen of judea later!

If your box has some relief or design, push the tinfoil very very very gently with the tips of your fingers to put it inside the relief. You can also help yourself with a piece of soft cloth or papertowel.

Remember to clean the paintbrush with water before it gets dry, we need it later!!

NOTE: Sorry for the "not accurate" video, I don't have any spare boxes to cover in tinfoil and when I made them I haven't discovered instructables yet :( When you put the tinfoil + glue and press it, the result is very different!!

Now that everything is freshly glued, let's cut some of the excess of tinfoil. You don't have to be extremely precise, we can do that when the glue is dry.

VERY IMPORTANT: In this point, we are covering the marks that the bolts left on the box, take a pencil and, as soon as you have glued the tinfoil over the marks, poke a hole through it or you won't find them later!

Making the corners was not the easiest part and I had to unglue several times until I found the best way to do it:

1- Glue the sides and leave the corner for the final part.

2- Open out the tinfoil like the 1st photo, and cut like a triangle.

3- Glue it to the other side, covering part of the corner.

4- Cut the excess of tinfoil of the triangle, but be careful to leave enough to cover the corner!

5- Glue the corner finally together!

Again, don't mind the excess of tinfoil on the interior of the box, we will cut it when dry!

Yes!

Remember that we dismantled the box, taking out hinges and bolts, so we have to repeat the process for the other part.

Bitumen of judea is very thick, but we can easily work with it. If it's too much for you, you can add a few drops of solvent to make it more fluid.

As we did before, we can make a small tinfoil container, this way we can throw it away when we are done.

Remember to put some plastic or old newspaper under the box, this time it is mandatory!! Bitumen of judea stains A LOT! If possible, put some gloves! (if you don't have any, check for a couple of small plastic bags, not the best, but sure they can help :) )

Take your clean paintbrush and start painting the box with bitumen carefully, you can also paint the inside if you want, or maybe cover it with some velvet or any other fabric of your choice.

Leave it to dry for a minute or two and start preparing the papertowel. Depending in the size (mine was 24x23cms), you can fold it 4 times (photo). You can prepare 2 or 3 folded papertowels, as you will probable use them during the process, so better be ready than touching the whole roll with bitumen hands, trust me!

Now scrub with the painted tinfoil with papertowel. All the blackness from the bitumen will go away, leaving some obscure wrinkles and lighter parts of tinfoil.

Scrub it until you like how it looks. If its still too dark, you can add a couple drops of solvent in the papertowel and scrub with it, the bitumen will solve and get lighter.

Once you're done, just leave the box's parts to dry for a few hours.

As we said, there's probably some tinfoil excess on the inside of the box. this is the moment to cut it with the scissors. If you feel confident enough and you have a cutter, you can use it, but be careful not to cut or scratch the box!

We are nearly done!!

It's time to put the box together again!

Take the hinges and bolts and screw them in.

Wow!! We did it!

Now that everything is dry, you don't have to worry about anything, the bitumen won't stain your hands anymore. Also, the box is not sticky, maybe a bit smelly but it will pass, I promise :)

It's time to enjoy your "old silver" chest and put some treasures in it!