Today I’m sharing my makeover of the toolbox that I picked up recently at River Revival Thrift.

First I gave it my usual prep.  I washed it with Dawn dish soap and hot water, then I sanded away any flaking paint or built up rust.  Then, after another cleaning, I gave it a coat of Dixie Belle’s Bonding Boss both inside and out.  This will both help discourage any remaining rust from bleeding through my paint, and help my paint stick to the smooth metal surface.

I decided to embrace the red of this toolbox by painting the inside in Dixie Belle’s Barn Red.

Then I painted the exterior in DB’s Drop Cloth.

After sanding the edges to distress them, I continued on my quest to use up old transfers.  So I pulled out the IOD Redoute 4 transfer.

This is an old one, the last time I used it was in 2020, so I’ve had it for nearly 5 years.  So it was good that I was able to use up the remainder of it on this project before it got much older.  I find that the transfers tend to start drying out over time and then become more difficult to apply.  I definitely noticed that with this one.

If you look closely at the image above, you’ll notice that this particular transfer has a rather distressed look to it already complete with scratches and worn areas.  I rather love that, but if ‘distressed’ isn’t your cup of tea you might not like it.

Although this one is long retired, I did find several places still selling it online.  So if you like it, you can still buy it.  But personally I think the I.O.D. Rose Botanical is a better value.

I only had the two clumps of red roses on the left side of the sheet remaining, so I applied them both to my toolbox.

Then I applied some typography from the IOD Label Ephemera transfer.

I have a sneaking suspicion that whatever this says in French, it may not make sense to have it on a toolbox.  But hopefully no one will care.

I’m planning to take this one into the shop to sell, so if any of you local readers are interested in it please check out my ‘available for local sale‘ page for more details.

So, do you like the pre-distressed look of this transfer?  Or are you more of a purist?  Leave a comment and let me know.