My sister and I were out the other day and just happened to be driving past the Goodwill, so we decided to pop in and see what they had. We had actually been in the same Goodwill store about a week earlier and didn’t find a single thing. But this time I managed to fill up a shopping cart with goodies.

Nothing earth shattering, but I did find some simple things that made for fun small projects that I’m going to share with you today.
First up, the chicken box.

You’re probably wondering why in the world I picked that up, but what you can’t see in that photo is that it’s really just a simple box made out of old barn wood with an ugly chicken on the front.
I cut off the broken rafia handle, sanded down the chicken and re-painted just the front of the box in Dixie Belle’s French Linen.
Then I added just part of the Farm Fresh Honey Bee stencil that I purchased from Wallcutz.


My q tip for today is to always remember that you don’t have to use a stencil in its entirety. You can tape off sections to fit on a smaller item like this little box. Stencils have tons of versatility!
Once the paint was fully dry, I sanded to distress and added a clear wax finish. Then I used some decorative cording to replace the handle.

And as I was writing up this post I realized that you still couldn’t see the barn wood that makes up the rest of the box, so here’s a shot that shows it off a little bit better. Sort of.

Next up is the blue box.

The very flat finish on this box makes me think it was painted in either chalk paint or milk paint. The color reminds me quite a bit of Miss Mustard Seed’s Flow Blue, or maybe Dixie Belle’s Antebellum Blue or Annie Sloan’s Aubusson. Although I really like all of those colors, I felt that the color wasn’t really working on this box. However, the real problem for me was the hideous black wrought iron handle more than the color.
OK, maybe ‘hideous’ is too strong a word, but I really didn’t like that handle. So much so that I tossed it in the trash as soon as I removed it and I never really got a good photo of it.
Anyway, after removing that handle, I painted the entire box, inside and out, in Dixie Belle’s Sawmill Gravy. Once dry I added one of the Classic Vintage Label transfers from re.design with prima to the front.

To jazz up the inside of the box, I added some of prima’s decoupage décor tissue papers to the inside of the lid. This one is called Floral Wallpaper.

I luckily just happened to have a scrap of this tissue that was the perfect size leftover from another project . It’s always good to hang onto those scraps!
By the way, I really do love these decoupage tissue papers.

They go on beautifully using Dixie Belle’s Gator Hide (check out this post for more details on that). They don’t wrinkle or get bubbles because they are made out of a porous material, and at the same time they are really strong and don’t tear when wet. Now that I’m no longer a brand ambassador for re.design with prima, I am totally out of the loop on new designs that come out. However, I happened to do a little googling, and I found some new ones to purchase online. I’ll keep you posted on those when they arrive and I find something to use them on.
Finally, I pulled out this pretty distressed mirror knob that I had in my stash of singles and added it to the top of the box.

I have a whole jar of single knobs. I used to buy a lot of knobs when they were on sale at Hobby Lobby. You know, sort of on speculation. I figured I’d eventually have a piece to use them on. But what I discovered was that nine times out of ten I would need 8 knobs for a piece, but I’d only have 6. Or I’d need 6 and have 8, so now I had two left over. It rarely seemed to work out perfectly, and as I result I have a whole pile of single (or maybe a pair of) knobs. Now I’ve sworn to only buy the knobs when I need them, and when I know exactly how many I need.
Still, it’s always a good feeling when I find a use for one of those singles!

You can see that a little of that original blue color is peeking through my distressed edges.

OK, the next makeover was the cold, black heart of love sign.

I really shouldn’t make fun. The person who created this could very possibly be a reader of my blog, in which case, I apologize. The bones of this sign were fantastic, but I’m just not sure about that big black heart.
Not that I have anything against black, because in the end I repainted the entire sign black. Dixie Belle’s Midnight Sky to be exact.

I added a stencil using Dixie Belle’s Putty and then sanded to distress. Unfortunately I can’t share a source for this stencil because I purchased it on Etsy from a seller that isn’t out there anymore.

It looks pretty good hanging in my piano room, but I won’t be keeping it. It’s going in the pile of stuff to sell.
Next up, I always debate picking up these reproduction-ish decorative watering cans. To me they always look just a bit too faux.

This one has an antiqued copper paint job that I didn’t particularly care for, but I liked the shape of it and the style of the spout. Plus the price was right, so I grabbed it.
Paint doesn’t always want to stick to a surface like this metal, so I usually spray paint something like this. That was the plan here, except I didn’t have enough spray paint on hand. So instead I gave it a quick base coat of spray paint, and then topped that off with some of Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth. I really prefer to make do with supplies that I already have rather than buy something more.
If you’re wondering how I spray paint in the winter in Minnesota even though I don’t have a heated workshop space, here’s my trick. I take the item outside in a big cardboard box lid with low sides, spray it quick, and then bring it all back in. It’s probably not ideal, but it does seem to work and my house doesn’t end up filled with spray paint fumes.
Once the paint was dry, I sanded to distress and added another Classic Vintage Label.

Then I added clear wax as a finish.

A bit of an improvement I think.
Alright, so out of the six items I picked up at the Goodwill, I’ve made over four of them.

That leaves the little rocking chair, which I’m going to save for another day. I purchased that chair because it has awesome, authentic, chippy green paint. However, it’s filthy dirty. Rather than try to clean it up in the house, I’m going to wait until I can give it a good bath with the hose out in the yard. That’s gonna be a while.
And last up is the little wooden recipe box.

I purchased it fully intending to paint it up (like this one or this one), but after I got it home I started to second guess that. It has that fab vintage decal on the front, and although it’s a little beat up, the patina on the wood is quite lovely.
So now I’m torn. Should I paint it up, or should I just clean it up and otherwise leave it alone? Let’s take a poll, what do you think?
And what do you think of the rest of my thrifted item makeovers?
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