DIY Teacher Treasure Chest!

Hello!!

I hope you all had a wonderful break weekend! 

I'm here with another DIY chest! My last one was a Harry Potter Trunk/Chest that you can see here:

This one is a Teacher Treasure Chest - that is an actual Treasure Chest! 

While I do have my own Treasure Chest, I personally don't really use it in my classroom. I prefer other rewards that are intrinsic rather than extrinsic material rewards. With that being said, I do see that there are many ways you can use it and there's nothing wrong with using one! I still have mine and occasionally will take it out. 

Onto the chest itself! I wanted the chest to mimic a pirate's treasure chest but still keeping it simple. 

Here are the materials that I used:

• Plain Chest (I got mine at Michael's) It was originally $19.99, I used a 50% off coupon so essentially I only paid $10 for mine. (http://www.michaels.com/artminds-wood-trunk%2C-9%22-x-10%22-x-14%22/10383532.html) 
• Antique Wax (Michael's) (http://www.michaels.com/diy-home-wax-artminds-8oz/M10401864.html?dwvar_M10401864_color=Clear#q=antique+wax&start=4)
• Lint-Free or Cheese Cloth
• Paint brushes
• Gold paint
• Vinyl name (optional)
• Gold Latch Lock (optional)
• Heart Locket (optional) 

The first thing I did was I sanded down the sides of the chest. The chest is unfinished so I don't really think you need to do this but I had some wood that needed to be sanded down so it was smoother. Then, I painted the inside of the chest with the brown paint. After painting one side, I would quickly take my cloth and wipe the paint. By doing this, you are wiping off all of the "excess" paint and it leaves a very nice brown stain on the wood. I much prefer this look because it doesn't look like paint, it just looks like dark wood. 

After painting the inside I let it dry to ensure that when I close the top to paint the outside the lid would not get stuck. I did the same thing on the outside of the chest. I would paint one side of the chest, take a piece of cloth and wipe the entire side and go onto the next side until every side is complete. I made sure to always wipe in the same direction. 

I let the brown paint dry for 24 hours. Although, I will say that the paint dries very quickly. After it was dry, I took my gold paint and just painted the edges of the chest. You can use painters tape to ensure a straight edge, I decided to just free hand it. 

Once my paint was dry, I screwed on the gold lock. This is completely optional! The reason I added the lock and locket wasn't to actually keep the chest lock but rather to give the students a little bit more of excitement about getting something from the treasure chest. Each time a student earns something from the treasure chest, I hand them the "Key to my heart" (locket) and they can take that key to unlock the chest! I thought this would be cute and fun for the kids! 

Finally, the chest is personalized with the teacher's name! Obviously, you can leave it plain I just thought this would be a nice touch! :) Personally, I did the name in gold, if I could re-do it I think I would make the name in black. Because the wax was a dark brown, the gold is a little hard to see at times. Using black might make the name pop a little bit more!