See this little red toolbox? It has a new paint job. Before I painted it, it had a light brown stain. I don't have a "before" picture, but use your imagination. It was just a typical handmade tool box before I rescued it.
I didn't paint it for a few months because I couldn't decide on a color. But after seeing another blogger's red tool box, I knew what color it would be.
Plaster of Paris is the foundation of our paint.
Mix ½ cup of Plaster of Paris with ½ cup hot water. Then I added 1 ½ cups of flat latex paint. The shade I started with was Silk Lining by Valspar.
Here's the tool box after one coat of our homemade chalk paint. The paint had a very chalky look to it and was lighter in color than we wanted. So if you decide to create some of your own chalk paint, take into consideration that the Plaster of Paris is going to lighten your paint. So to darken it we added some Red Clay craft paint. That wasn't the color we wanted either, so we added a lot of red semi-gloss paint that Jean already had.
Now we had a beautiful, custom color!
After applying Annie Sloan clear and dark waxes, I ModPodged a little graphic I found onto my box.
I put some strawberry plants into my box to use it as a centerpiece in a tablescape, which I just love.
I love my little red tool box!
Ricki JIll Treleaven
I love this project. Red is my favorite color, and the graphic with the strawberry plants are so cute together!
Linking from Random Thoughts 😀
xo,
Ricki Jill
Carlene @ Oganized Clutter
I am going to try homemade chalkpaint with grout soon. I hope I can get my color to turn out. It looks like your projects turned out in the end!
Dee
Beautiful! I love the color of the toolbox - the tip on how you did it and the sweet graphic.
Dee
Shirley
Jane, te ha quedado fabulosa la caja con ese color rojo tiza, va muy bien con la mata de fresa, hará un buen contraste con el verde.
Shirley
Jane, te ha quedado muy bien la caja con ese color, y va de maravilla con la mata de fresas, buen contraste con el verde. Saludos
Liz @ Infuse With Liz
Awesome job!
I've never tried the chalk paint but it does look interesting!
The strawberry plant looks perfect in there!
Audrey
Love, love, love your RED toolbox, Jane!
[email protected] Porch Musings
It looks wonderful, Jane! I love the custom color and the decoupage.
[email protected] Designs
Jane, I so admired that box on your previous post...it looks so great on your table with that beautiful runner...
Anne
I love your custom colour!!! Thanks for your tips, they will be really helpful for my next paint project 🙂
xox
Gina
I love this, Jane! The color is wonderful! The graphic was the perfect finishing touch and who wouldn't love the sweet strawberry plants? Thanks for sharing this at my party!
debbie
I love it Jane. I could kick myself in the teeth. A few weeks ago I saw a cool old rusty red tool box at Goodwill. Had it in my cart and I thought Mike won't use this. MIKE, what about me, the cute things I could have done with it.
Dolly Sarrio
I sure love what you did with the box!!!! The color is very pretty and anything strawberry I love, my favorite fruit and worked in strawberry field over twenty years....I hope I can find a box and copy you I do like it!
Dolly
michelle
It looks great. I love the idea of putting strawberry plants in it.
Kelly @ Eclectically Vintage
Love it with the little strawberry plants! I need to mix up some of that paint - it's fab!
Kelly
Pam @ diy Design Fanatic
It's really pretty! I love that shade of red!
Sweet Bee Cottage
Love that red! What a gorgeous color! They both turned out fabulous. I've been toying with this homemade chalk paint idea for a while, but I haven't done it yet. You've given me some great inspiration.
Carol
Love your red tool box! I have an old planter that looks like a tool box that was just given to me. I think it's going to be red! Thanks for sharing!
Rondell
I love it too, such a neat color, I've tried the homemade chalkpaint but just with Cottage White. I have to try a color to it now after seeing how great yours turned out! Love the idea of strawberries planted in it!