I picked up this little tin pail at a garage sale recently.

My friend opK thought it may have originally been a lunch pail, but I wasn’t sure.  It would only hold a rather small lunch.  But I did a little online research and found identical pails being called ‘lunch pails’ as well, so she was right!

I suppose you could fit a hunk of homemade bread with butter, some hard boiled eggs and an apple inside.  Isn’t that what children brought for lunch back in the olden days?

You definitely couldn’t put a Lunchables in there.

I didn’t much care for the original patina on this one, it wasn’t very pretty, so I decided it would be a good candidate for a paint job.

I started by cleaning it well and then giving it a coat of Dixie Belle’s B.O.S.S. to prevent any rust spots from bleeding through my paint.  Next I painted the inside in another of Dixie Belle’s new Cottage Core colors, English Ivy.

I love that DB added this green to their line up.  It reminds me a lot of the English green that I’ve been talking about this summer.  I suspect I’m going to get a lot of use out of English Ivy.

I must point out that the lid is a really tight fit on the pail, so painting the inside probably wasn’t the best decision I’ve ever made.  The paint would be worn off the edge of the interior in no time, so I decided to just go ahead and ‘pre-distress’ it.

I added some wax to both the edge of the lid and the edge of the pail to allow it to open and close more easily, but it’s still a tight fit.

I’ve already given you a little hint in that photo above as to what I did on the outside.  After giving it two coats of Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth, I added the I.O.D. Rose Chintz paint inlay to the sides of the pail.

Once the paint inlay was dry, I spray sealed it with some RustOleum matte clear sealer.  Always remember that you have to seal the paint inlays with a spray to avoid reactivating the paint.

Then I added a few bits from the re.design with prima French Labels transfer to the lid.

I cut the bee in half horizontally, and applied the halves one at a time to accommodate the little ring handle on the lid.

I used some 220 grit sandpaper to distress some of the raised detail on the pail, then I gave everything a coat of clear wax.

I think this little lunch pail is totally adorable now.

It’s not chintzy at all.

What do you think?