Anchor's Away

Well it's summer, warm and sunny and wonderful summer. Makes me long for a trip to a beach, but instead I'm out here on the sweltering driveway painting piece after piece of furniture. So probably because I'm longing for the sea, I added a little nautical whimsey to this antique Lane cedar chest.
        I picked up the cedar chest at a tagsale on Saturday morning. It was in not awesome shape, the biggest problem being that it had lost its feet at some point, and the way the case is built, it looks ridiculous without feet. Luckily I had some vintage pine table legs that I cut to size and pegged into place, now it's sturdy as a rock once more.
         I sanded, stained, and sealed the mahogany top and painted the case in a soft black. Since the piece has such straight lines, I knew I wanted to add a little decorative painting to this one to give it a bit more zip. I toyed with the idea of an octopus, or birds, or dandelions, but then I thought of an anchor and knew right away that's the route I wanted to go. I googled some pictures to get about the right look and then drew and painted the anchor free hand on the case, then I lightly distressed and dark waxed the entire piece and finally added tidy nickel drawer pulls to the drawer an a salvaged antique escutcheon plate where the lock had been.