I’m back from sunny Florida!  Although I have to say, it wasn’t as sunny as we’d hoped it would be.  We started out with one beautiful day, and then the weather ranged from rainy to windy to chilly and then finally to warm and sunny again on our last day there.

My sister and I still had a great time though!

I think we’ve decided that February isn’t the best time for a Disney visit though.  Not only was the weather mediocre, I also didn’t love the Festival of the Arts in Epcot which runs from mid-January to mid-February each year.

I much prefer the Food & Wine Festival, or the Flower & Garden Festival, over this one.  You’d think the ‘art’ theme of this one would appeal to me, but the art is very much focused on animated Disney characters which really isn’t my style at all.

But I’m back from Florida, nearly recovered from a cold I caught on the last day, and still doing a bit of recovering from my tooth extraction (my dentist thinks I had a minor dry socket), and today I’m sharing another toolbox makeover!

One of my fellow Reclaiming Beautiful vendors found this one for me.

Isn’t it funky with that handle off the side?  At one point it must have been painted in a metallic silver, which was later covered up with black paint that then mostly chipped off.

After cleaning it up and not finding any rust, I decided I could skip the B.O.S.S. step this time.  For those of you not familiar, Dixie Belle’s B.O.S.S. is a primer that blocks odors and stops stains.  I usually use it on my toolboxes to block rust stains, but this one didn’t need it.  I simply sanded this toolbox to remove any flaking paint.

Now, I have to confess, I painted this toolbox three times!  Good grief, right?!  Well, I started out painting it black.  But then it sat for a week or so because I just wasn’t loving the black.  So, then I painted just the lid in Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth thinking I’d go for a black and white look.  But I didn’t love that either.

So ultimately I decided to paint it in Dixie Belle’s Sawmill Gravy.  I did leave the handles black though (and that is Dixie Belle’s Midnight Sky).

I added some I.O.D. transfers next.  The one on the top is from their Label Ephemera set.

Part of the wording on the front is also from that one, but part of it is from their Cosette transfer.

And that bee at the bottom is from a re.design with prima transfer.

And you may have noticed that I opted to leave the latch ‘as is’ along with the chain that hangs beside it.  I’m not entirely sure what that chain was for, but I suspect there was some sort of peg hanging from it originally that you could use to secure the latch.  I was initially planning to remove it, but I couldn’t get it off so I decided to just leave it.

As for the inside … well … we’d been having some seriously gloomy weather here in Minnesota before I left on my trip, so I decided that adding a little Florida sunshine couldn’t hurt.

OK, a LOT of Florida sunshine!  Certainly more sunshine than we saw on our trip!

That is Dixie Belle’s Daisy, and I think these photos make it look just a tad brighter than it really is in person.  Well … I don’t know … it is brighter than their Rebel Yellow, which is a good choice if you’re looking for a paler yellow (you can see Rebel Yellow on this piece).  But in a lovely, sunny sort of way … not in a fluorescent traffic sign sort of way.

The yellow interior was also inspired by the bees.

The bee inside the lid is from the Classic Vintage Labels transfer from re.design with prima.

I feel like I took a bit of a risk with that yellow.  Yellow seems to be a love it or hate it sort of color.  But if the toolbox doesn’t sell with the yellow interior, I can re-paint it quite easily.

I sealed the inside of the toolbox with Dixie Belle’s flat clear coat for extra durability, and the outside with their clear wax.

So, what do you think?  Yellow, yes or no?  Leave a comment and let me know.

And if you’re local and need to add a little sunshine to your life, this toolbox is for sale.  Check out my ‘available for local sale‘ page for the details.

Thank you to Dixie Belle Paint Co for providing the paint and top coats used for this project.