Finally with PIP! To paint or not to paint

[heygrey]

I found this cedar chest (right side of picture) in a corner of our storage room yesterday. My boss thinks its ugly :-)

I needed a bench or something for our entryway and it fits the corner reasonably well, but I can't decide whether or not to paint it. I don't love the wood tone and it is pretty scratched in spots, but I'm always hesitant to add new elements because there is a lot happening visually in a small space. I have lots of white paint or enough dark grey for this. Or I could buy another colour.. Or...?

Feel free to critique. And I know cleaning up my kitchen would help the cluttered look I'm doing that now since I've only been home long enough to sleep the past few nights.

[heygrey]

[Deleted]

I would paint. I rarely say that about much! It's a cool design that I think paint would really highlight in this case.

What about black to tie in with the rest of your stuff?

[heygrey]

thanks ladies! i think i'm going to paint it a really dark grey, darker than the paint i already have. i love black furniture in other people's houses, but i'm not sure how it would look here. the dresser the tv is on is navy blue and i think the black would compete. grey would be just a tiny bit softer.

this picture is depressing, haha. i really like my house in the day to day, but looking at it in a picture just highlights all the half finished projects i have on my list. i need a new coffee table and kitchen chairs, mostly.

[heygrey]

it's old, from the 40's. it's in perfect shape structurally, but it has a huge gouge and a few minor scratches on the top and nicks around the feet.

i appreciate restored antiques, but i'm not sure they have a place in my house. i've been staring at it all day and i think i'm between painting it or taking it back and looking for something else for that corner.

[trident0]

I wouldn't paint it, I like the wood pattern on the front of it and it ties in well to your kitchen chair and adds some warmth to the kinda sterile tiled+white/black decor. I don't think you'll see much of the design if you paint over it, it's highlighted by different tones in the wood.

[heygrey]

sterile is a pretty accurate description.

it's a basement with low ceilings and we barely see the sunshine for four months of the year (today was the first day with more than an hour of sun at a time since early november!) so i need light and bright to keep myself from crying the whole winter. when we moved in the walls were darker and we had a lot of large, dark pieces of furniture. i thought i was going to suffocate. we painted and slowly bought smaller furniture that fit the space better and it's helped immensely, but now i'm at the phase where i have to bring warmth back into the space without making it look cluttered.

if i were designing the space from scratch, i'd make the floors darker and choose warmer grey tones for the walls and cabinets. i doubt my landlord is keen to rip up the tile on a whim though :-)

[heygrey]

merida, you win for now :-)

h pleaded to my love of nautical things and asked if we could leave it as is and pretend it's our treasure chest. oddly, i like it more with that sentiment in mind. if only it held a million gold coins...

we discovered that it actually matches our dresser perfectly colour-wise, so we'll make a decision on both pieces if we ever decide to do something with them. h is voting for sanding and restaining which is probably the best choice.