I’m still plugging away at the Christmas Cottage reno, but I’ve had to press the pause button while I wait for some things to arrive via mail order.

I have three rooms almost completed … but no one room that is ready to share.

So, how about some sneak peeks?

I found some adorable miniature holiday botanical prints on Etsy …

I purchased these as a ‘printable’ which means I can print them over and over if I want to, so I’m sure I’ll print more up for use in my Victorian dollhouse too.

You can see that I’ve also created a wall treatment in this room …

That is from the I.O.D. Lattice Rose paint inlay.  I’ll share more about how I did that when I complete the room.

I’ve also wallpapered another room using some October Afternoon plaid scrapbook paper.

And I used the I.O.D. Kitschy Christmas transfer set to create some adorable snowman prints for this room.  More on that later too.

I’m waiting for some furniture to arrive for both of these rooms, hopefully I’ll get it soon and can then get them finished.

In the meantime, I pushed the dollhouse aside so that I could work on some other pieces like this really cool metal box.

I will be the first one to admit that it already had a fun industrial vibe, and I could have just left it ‘as is’.  However, I find that stuff like this doesn’t really sell well for me but when I spruce them up with some paint and transfers it does.

So, after a coat of Dixie Belle’s Bonding Boss to make sure my paint would adhere well to the metal, I painted the inside of the box in their Arcadia.

Then I painted the outside in DB’s French Villa.

After the paint was fully dry, I sanded the box with one of Dixie Belle’s 220 grit sanding sponges.

Next up I added some transfers.

The text on the front of the box was left over from the I.O.D. Cosette transfer that I’ve used several times on toolboxes like this one …

I used a segment from the I.O.D. By Any Other Name transfer on the top of the box.

Although both of the paint colors I used on this box were from the Dixie Belle Silk Paint line, so they have a built in top coat, I still gave the box a final coat of DB’s clear wax to protect the transfers.

I’m listing this box on my ‘available for local sale‘ page, so be sure to check there if you’re interested.

As always, thank you to Dixie Belle Paint Co for providing their products for this makeover.