Space-Themed Shadow Box
A few weeks ago, some friends gave me a vintage 1960s mirrored shadow box. The finish was in pretty rough shape and it was missing its side panels, but miraculously the mirror was still intact and the overall structure was still solid.
The shadow box before restoration
A closeup of the shadow box, showing the flaking and worn finish.
The original varnish was in pretty bad shape and was flaking off. I started by scraping the varnish and then sanding the entire thing down to bare wood. Once that was done, I decided to refinish it using a tinted wax finish by Briwax. I really like using Briwax for this type of thing since it’s faster and less messy than stain and varnish. You simply rub the wax on the bare sanded wood and once dry buff it to a shiny finish.
The shadow box sanded, but before the wax finish was added.
Since the original side panel art was missing, I decided to design my own. I have a small collection of vintage space-themed items, so thought that would make a fun design. I purchased thin veneer wood panels and cut them down to size. I painted the illustration with acrylic paint using shades of teal for the background and highlights of yellow and red to match some of the colors already in the room.
Painting in progress
The panels had some fabulous wood-grain patterns so to highlight those, I decided to let some of the wood show through parts of the design. I aligned portions of the design to really work with the patterns of the grain and I’m particularly proud of the swirling woodgrain in the planet.
A close-up of the planet
A close-up of the rocketship
A close-up of the flying saucer
After painting, I varnished the panels to protect the painting and to help bring out the woodgrain. I chose a matte varnish as I did not want the panels to be shinier than the frame of the shadow box. For the illustration itself, I designed a mid-century-inspired illustration that would fit in well with the age of the piece.
The finish space-themed panels
Then I installed the panels in the shadow box and my restoration was ready to hang in our living room. I’m really pleased with the way this turned out. The shadow box is perfect for displaying some of my custom-painted nesting dolls.
The left side panel
The completed shadow box
The right side panel
Seeing the shadow box on the wall of our living room has inspired me to change the neutral wall color to something that will really make this stand out, so stay tuned.
