Today’s toolbox started out pretty crusty.

As you can see, the bottom was quite rusty.  It must have been sitting in water at some point, I’m guessing.

This is a good opportunity for me to share how I handle excessive rust before I start painting.  Basically I wash the toolbox first, let it dry, then use a small electric sander to sand off a good bit of that rust and chipping/peeling paint.  Then I wash it again.

Finally, once dry, I add two coats of Dixie Belle’s Bonding Boss and allow that to dry overnight.  I find that I really only need the two coats over the rusty areas, so I don’t necessarily put a complete 2nd coat over the whole thing.

Next up I painted the inside of this toolbox in Dixie Belle’s Barn Red.

As you can see, this toolbox came with a removable tray and I chose to keep it.  I don’t always keep the trays, especially if they have those angled divider thingies meant for sockets like this one …

They are more difficult to paint, and I’m not sure that they are especially functional for non-tool related uses.

After sealing the interior and tray with Dixie Belle’s flat clear coat, I moved on to painting the outside of the toolbox in their Drop Cloth.  Once dry, I stenciled the front of the box with one of my new Christmas stencils from The Stencilsmith.

I did have to re-arrange some of the elements to fit the box.  I used more Barn Red along with Coffee Bean and English Ivy for the stenciling.

Also, as you can see in that photo, the rust has not bled through my paint thanks to the Bonding Boss.

I added some holly from the now-retired Dixie Belle Evergreen and Holly transfer to the top of the toolbox.

I finished off the outside with a coat of Dixie Belle’s clear wax.

I’m sure there are some of you out there who are now thinking ‘what in the world does one do with a Christmas themed toolbox?’

Well, you could use it simply as a holiday decoration.  Maybe just placed under your tree?  Or you could add in some greens to create a centerpiece.  Of course, my favorite thing is to display my non-collection of tree toppers in one.

They also make great gift ‘baskets’.  I have a couple more toolboxes to share next week that would be perfect for that, so be sure to stay tuned to see those.

In the meantime, the Kringle’s Mercantile Toolbox is for sale locally (find those details here).  At the end of the month I’ll be taking it in to the shop if it doesn’t sell here first.