Toolbox week continues today with this one that was admittedly nothing special originally.

It’s not particularly vintage looking, and it’s red which is not my favorite color to work with.

However, it is in great shape and it’s a nice size.  Not too big, not too small.

After peeling off both of those labels on the front, I gave this one a good cleaning with Dawn dish soap.  Then I gave it a light scuff sanding followed by a coat of Dixie Belle’s Bonding Boss.  Although this one didn’t have any rust that would bleed through my paint, it did have a pretty shiny, slick surface.  The Bonding Boss will help my paint adhere to that.

Next up I pulled out the I.O.D. Saint Germain transfer.  I knew I wanted to use it on this toolbox, so I thought I would pick a color from it for the inside of the box.

Some of the leaves have this pretty muted purple in them …

so I decided to go with Dixie Belle’s Secret Path for the interior including the tray.

Once my two coats of Secret Path were dry, I sanded over them with one of Dixie Belle’s sanding sponges.

I like to use these when I want to have a more gentle approach to sanding.  In this case, I didn’t want to go through to the red that was underneath, I just wanted to smooth out my paint giving it a lovely buttery finish.

After sanding and wiping away any dust, I added a scrap from an old I.O.D./re.design with prima (before they parted ways) transfer to the handle.

That means ‘first edition’ in French, and will make a little bit more sense when you see the rest of it.

Next up I painted the outside of the box in one of the new colors from the Dixie Belle Southern Roots collection called Magnolia.  I would say that this color is just a wee bit brighter than the Drop Cloth that is my usual choice for a warm white.

After two coats of the Magnolia were dry, this time I sanded a bit more vigorously using my Mouse sander and 220 grit paper.  I wanted to add some wear, and I decided it would be OK to have a little red showing on the outside of the box since my transfer has some red in it too.

You may remember I used the I.O.D. Saint Germain transfer once before on a toolbox.

I’ve also used it on a 2nd toolbox that I can’t share with you just yet.  You see, I painted that one in an as yet unreleased paint color from Dixie Belle.  So I can’t share it until the official reveal date which is going to be sometime in August.  I can tell you that I absolutely love it, and I can’t wait to share.

But in the meantime, I love this Saint Germain transfer so much that I ordered two more of them.

  That ended up being a lucky thing, because I used both of them on this toolbox.  Let me try to explain.  As you can see, this transfer comes with 8 pages of different elements.  But I wanted just one particular, slightly more delicate looking section on this toolbox.

So I used just a part of the florals on pages 3 and 4 on the front of the box.  But then I decided I really wanted to continue them on up and over the top and down each side a little bit.  So I used those same bits from my second transfer to do that.

That’s probably way too much explanation for most of you, but I just wanted to make sure it was clear that you could not replicate the exact look of today’s toolbox using just one Saint Germain transfer.  Just in case anyone is want to copy this look.

It may seem a little crazy that I purchased two transfers to complete just one little toolbox, but I didn’t actually plan it that way.  I wanted two of them because this transfer is so pretty I knew I would want to use it over and over again.  I can easily get 5 or 6 toolboxes out of each one.

After the florals were in place, I added some more typography from the rest of that old I.O.D./re.design with prima transfer called Memoir.  I did alter it a bit by removing some scrolly bits that I didn’t like.

This is where the ‘first edition’ on the tray makes a little more sense since the rest of the typography basically says something about the Marquise de Cremy’s memoires ‘written by herself’.

So hey, if you’re planning to write your memoires, this would be a great place to keep the first edition.

Or, perhaps this toolbox would be perfect for holding memories in the form of old photographs instead.

I added a top coat of Rust-Oleum matte spray sealer both inside and out on this toolbox, and with that it was done.

This toolbox is for sale if you happen to be local, and in need of a stylish way to store your memoires.  Or your old photographs.  Or your art supplies, your hot glue gun, or the t.p. in your outhouse 😉

Be sure to check my ‘available for local sale‘ tab for more info.  Also, be sure to tune in tomorrow for another segment of toolbox week!