I warned you that you would be seeing a few more items painted in my custom Dixie Belle color that I’m calling Garden Green, so welcome to another toolbox post.

As a refresher (or for anyone who is new), Garden Green is a mix of two Dixie Belle colors …

Everglades and Acadia.

I don’t have a precise ratio for you, I just mix them until I like how it looks.

Technically today’s project is a tackle box rather than a toolbox, but it is painted in this gorgeous green.  But first, here is where it started out.

As you can see, this was Chuck’s box.

To prep, I first scraped off all of the various labels.  There were quite a few, including several on the inside.  I followed that up with my usual cleaning with Dawn dish soap, a scuff sanding to remove any flaking rust or paint and then a coat of Dixie Belle’s Bonding Boss.

Next up I painted it inside and out with my custom Garden Green.

Recently one of my readers asked me to mention the approximate amount of time that each step in this process takes, and to be honest, it’s kind of hard to judge.  When painting a toolbox there are a lot of steps with a lot of drying time in between.  For example, paint the inside, let it dry, give it a 2nd coat, let it dry, paint the bottom, let it dry, put a 2nd coat on the bottom, let it dry, flip the box over and paint the sides, let them dry, and so on and so on.

Also, painting a tackle box with a tray or a toolbox with a removable tray, takes a bit more time than a box without a tray.

Each individual painting step takes mere minutes to do, but drying time really depends on the weather.  If it’s super humid it can take much longer than if it’s dry and breezy.  I also like to let the Bonding Boss cure overnight.  It’s also a good idea to let the paint cure overnight before adding transfers as well.

So this is not a ‘done in one day’ sort of thing, but it’s also not a ‘work for hours and hours steadily’ sort of thing.

I find that it’s much more efficient to stock up on several toolboxes and then work on them all at once, sort of assembly line style.  But obviously, not everyone is painting up a bunch at once.  In that case, it’s a great project to work on while doing laundry or cleaning the house.

So, going back to Chuck’s Box.  After the paint was dry, I pulled out a couple of I.O.D. transfers that featured white flowers and starting adding them to the box.

I didn’t keep specific track of which flowers were from which set of transfers, but I used some from Sarah Featon’s Botanicals, By Any Other Name and Rose Botanical.

The label on the top of the box is from By Any Other Name.

Isn’t that gorgeous?

Once the transfers were in place I added a coat of Dixie Belle’s clear wax to protect them.

This tackle box with its divided tray would be perfect for corralling all of your little crafting gizmos.

It would also make a great sewing box.

Now, before I put away my Garden Green paint for the day, I want to share another quick do-over project.

You probably don’t remember this one, but way back in March 2023 I shared a project using the Dixie Shine metallic foil.

You can check out that full post here.

But basically I took this …

to this …

I had these hanging in my own house for a little while, but eventually took them down and put them in my occasional sale.  They didn’t sell though.  I was literally about to put them in the ‘donate’ pile, but then thought maybe I should just try them without the gold.

So I painted over the frames with my Garden Green.  I didn’t do any special prep, just wiped them down with a damp cloth first.  I needed two coats to get good coverage, and the paint adhered to the foil just fine.

Once the paint was dry, I used one of the Dixie Belle Sanding Sponges to lightly distress it.

I really expected to see more of the gold coming through, but I mostly ended up going down to the coat of black that I had used under it the first time around.  But that ended up being just fine.

I decided to finish these off with some of Dixie Belle’s Big Mama’s Butta with some of their brown wax mixed in.  It added just a little more depth to the paint color.

Improvement?  I think so.  What do you think?

Leave a comment and let me know.

Both the tacklebox and the tile artworks are for sale, check out my ‘available for local sale‘ page if interested.

As always, thank you to Dixie Belle Paint Co for supplying their products used in these makeovers.