Building the PB Inspired Rebecca Trunk

An Easy to Build Piece for the Indoors or Outdoors

The Rebecca Trunk from Pottery Barn… Gorgeous! The bad news is that it retails for $499.00! Yikes! It really is a beautiful piece!

I drew the plans for this piece for The Design Confidential. It uses only ONE sheet of plywood! By the time I bought the rest of the supplies listed in the plans, I spent about $100.00 including stain, paint, and spar varnish. Not too bad! I’ll share my process of building the PB inspired Rebecca Trunk.

building the pb inspired rebecca trunk 1copy

I decided to use mine outdoors on my porch as a “coffee table” of sorts… Today, I will share with you the steps I used in building the trunk, as well as the hardware I used and how I created the awesome finish!

See the actual project plans for a list of lumber and supplies! The free furniture plans can be found at The Design Confidential.

Cut the plywood pieces for the trunk…

building the pb inspired rebecca trunk pieces

Assemble as directed in the plans…

building the pb inspired rebecca trunk pieces assembles

building the pb inspired rebecca trunk side view

Add the baseboard trim…

building the pb inspired rebecca trunk base trim

I painted the inside…

building the pb inspired rebecca trunk painted inside

…then got to work on the outside finish.  I used two different stains – Rust-Oleum’s Ultimate Wood Stain in Sunbleached and Minwax Special Walnut. I also used Rust-Oleum’s Spar Varnish in Satin on the exterior. (Now that is a fantastic product!!)

building the pb inspired rebecca trunk stain variety

I used the Walnut stain first, spreading it on with a foam brush.

building the pb inspired rebecca trunk darker stain

Then without letting the Walnut stain dry, I applied the Sunbleached stain and rubbed it in with an old t-shirt.

building the pb inspired rebecca trunk lighter stain

I kept alternating the stain colors until I was satisfied.

building the pb inspired rebecca trunk alternating stain colors

I let it dry overnight and applied another coat of Sunbleached stain.

building the pb inspired rebecca trunk final coat of stain

Once the stain was totally dry, I applied three coats of the Spar Varnish… Sanding in between coats two and three. I also applied the varnish on the inside.

building the pb inspired rebecca trunk spar varnish

I applied the hanger tape to the edge of the lid and fastened it in place with upholstery tacks.

building the pb inspired rebecca trunk hanger tape trim

Here is the finished edging – See the Spar Varnish finish? I love this stuff!

building the pb inspired rebecca trunk trim with upholstery nails

Once I added the hinges and the handles, I moved the piece to its new home on my porch in front of my new sectional I’ve been working on… Do you like my torches?

building the pb inspired rebecca trunk finished side view

 building the pb inspired rebecca trunk finished front view

Building the PB Inspired Rebecca Trunk is so easy and the finish came out so nice! I’m proud to say that the spar varnish has really done its job protecting the wood from the elements! The trunk gets rained on, snowed on, and walked on by all sorts of furry critters and still looks fabulous. Any questions? Contact me at cher {at} designsbystudioc {dot} com!

Originally posted 2012-05-20 08:00:06.

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