With St. Patty’s Day coming up, I just had to do something green!

And this toolbox was green both ‘before’ and, as you’re about to see, ‘after’.

To be honest, I don’t really remember where this came from.  I think I may have grabbed it at a late fall garage sale, but I’m not sure.

No matter.  It was definitely rusty and filthy dirty, and I remember debating whether or not it was worth the effort.  After giving it a good clean with some Dawn dishwashing soap and hot water, I then went over the rusty areas with some 120 grit sandpaper.  I mainly like to smooth down the surface so it doesn’t look quite so chunky, but I don’t attempt to remove every bit of rust.

But that means that I need to do something to keep the rust from bleeding through my paint.  So I thought this was an ideal opportunity to try the new Bonding Boss from Dixie Belle.

By now you are used to seeing me use Dixie Belle’s B.O.S.S. to block odors and stop stains.  This is their newest version of that product.  It combines all of the blocking qualities of B.O.S.S. with the bonding qualities of their Slick Stick.  It comes in clear, gray or white.  I like the clear version because I don’t want to see a layer of white or gray when I distress the edges of an item I’ve painted.

It’s nice to have one product that does a job that formerly required two different products, but that being said I’ve never had any adhesion problems using chalk style paint over the old B.O.S.S..  So I’ll continue to use it until the stuff I have on hand is used up, then make the permanent switch to Bonding Boss after that.

Once the Bonding Boss was dry, I painted the interior of the toolbox in Dixie Belle’s Cottage Door.  I love this warm shade of peachy-pink.

I added a Classic Vintage Label transfer from re.design with prima inside the lid.

This toolbox came with a tray, so I painted that up too.

Then I added a little section of I.O.D.’s Rose Chintz paint inlay to one of the sections.

I knew that I wanted to paint the outside of the box in a shade of green, but which one?

English Ivy or Kudzu?  I love them both.

Since I was planning to use the paint inlay on the outside too, I decided I’d better do a sample board to see which green worked best with it.

I painted half the board in English Ivy and half in Kudzu, and then added some scraps of the paint inlay.  I also pulled out a scrap of black transfer wording to make sure that would look good over my color of choice as well.

In the end, I rather thought either color would work but I decided I liked the English Ivy just a bit better.  The darker color made the florals pop a bit more.

So I painted the outside of the box in English Ivy and then applied the paint inlay to the bottom front and around the sides.

Before moving on, I sprayed the paint inlay with Rust-Oleum’s matte spray sealer to keep it from smearing while I worked on the rest of the box.  While I was at it, I spray sealed the tray and interior of the box as well.

Once that was dry, I sanded the edges of the box to distress them and then worked on adding some typography to the lid.

I kept it pretty simple, with just some segments of wording from the I.O.D. Label Ephemera transfer.  I added a line of text to the front of the lid as well.

I decided to go ahead and spray seal the exterior since I already had the spray handy, and it’s so much quicker than brushing on a top coat.

After the spray was dry, I also added a quick coat of clear wax over it.  There’s just something about the sheen of a wax topcoat that really appeals to me, although it wasn’t necessary for any practical reason.

With that, this toolbox makeover is complete.

I brought this one into the shop where I sell on consignment (Reclaiming Beautiful in Stillwater, MN), so if any of you locals are in need of a fabulously green toolbox, head into Stillwater this weekend.

Thank you to Dixie Belle Paint Co for providing the Bonding Boss and paint used for this makeover.