When I paint rusty toolboxes, I always try to mention that I start with a coat of Dixie Belle’s B.O.S.S. to prevent existing rust from bleeding through my paint.

Today I thought I’d elaborate on that a bit.

First up, let me start by saying that I used the word ‘prevent,’ but that might not be entirely precise.  I don’t want to say that the B.O.S.S. will completely eliminate any possibility of future rust bleed-thru.  However, it will definitely mitigate most of the problem.

Also, I should clarify that Dixie Belle has replaced the original B.O.S.S. (shown above) with their new Bonding Boss.  In addition to blocking stains and odors, the Bonding Boss also improves the adhesion of your paint.

But either of these products will work to reduce bleed thru, so if you have the older version you can continue to use it for this purpose.

This rusty, crusty metal tool caddy is a great example of what happens when you don’t use a blocking primer over rust.

It had been out in my stash for ages.  I’m not even sure how long, or where I picked it up.  As you can see, it started out with some pretty significant rust.

I’d pulled it out of the stash sometime last year thinking that I could paint it black and add the I.O.D. Rose Chintz paint inlay.  At the time I figured I didn’t need to worry about blocking the rust because it was going to be black, so it wouldn’t show too much (which I’m sure would not have worked out).  But for some reason, after I had it painted black, I really didn’t love it.  So I shoved it back in the ‘future project pile’.

Then I pulled it out again a few months later and decided to give it a coat of Dixie Belle’s Dried Sage.  Why?  I honestly don’t even remember.  But really, I didn’t love that color on it either, so back in the pile it went again.

I also had forgotten that I didn’t give this one a coat of B.O.S.S. to block the rust before adding the black paint.  So here we are another six months or so later, and now the rust had definitely bled thru both the coat of Midnight Sky, and two coats of Dried Sage.

Whoops!  Anyone who has experienced any kind of bleed thru knows that paint alone won’t block it, no matter how many coats you apply.

Just look at all of that rust coming through!

Fast forward to last week when I once again pulled it out of the pile.  This time I gave it not just one, but two coats of Dixie Belle’s B.O.S.S.  I’ll admit, unless a toolbox is especially rusty, I usually only give them one coat of B.O.S.S., but the instructions for this product do say to use two coats for the best results.  This is true if you’re trying to block other sorts of stains as well like tannin bleed thru, or the ink from a Sharpie.

So I gave it two coats, allowing both to dry fully before moving on to the next.  I then gave the final coat of B.O.S.S. 24 hours to dry fully

I followed that up with one of Dixie Belle’s new National Park Collection colors from their Silk line called Everglades.

It only took what I like to call one and a half coats of Everglades to get good coverage.  In other words, I painted one full coat of paint, and then just had to go back and touch up a couple of spots that needed a little bit more.

I know not everyone is going to love this sort of pea green color, but I am really drawn to it.  If you prefer a chalk style paint over an acrylic (the Silk is acrylic), then Dixie Belle’s Guacamole is a good option.

It’s not quite as bright as the Everglades, but it’s a fabulous avocado shade.

Once the Everglades was dry, I pulled out the Floral Anthology transfer from I.O.D. and added a few florals.

If you haven’t heard, I.O.D. has come out with some new designs for spring and I couldn’t stop myself from ordering a few of them.  So while I wait for those to arrive, I was trying to use up some of my older transfers.

I also added some wording from the Classic Vintage Labels transfer from re.design with prima.

The Dixie Belle Silk line of paint has a built in topcoat, so I didn’t need to add a topcoat to the paint.  However, the transfers do need a topcoat to protect them over time, so I added a coat of Dixie Belle’s clear wax over the entire caddy (yes, you can wax over the Silk paint).

So far, so good.  But I’ve only had this painted for about a week.

I definitely need to hang onto this tool caddy for a few months more to be sure that the rust really isn’t going to bleed thru.  So this one is now going into my newly created ‘stuff I’m accumulating for a potential occasional sale at my house’ pile.  I’ll keep you posted on the results, so be sure to stay tuned!