French Chic Boxes

For awhile now, I have been on the lookout for some old sewing machine drawers. Well, you know how it is, when you're looking for something specific, it's hard to find. So, when I ran across these three boxes I decided they were close enough for what I wanted. They were just ugly brown boxes with wooden knobs. I don't think they had ever been painted. Sometimes I don't take "before" pictures, not realizing how pretty the end result is going to be.

This is what they looked like when they were finished.

Actually, this was a pretty easy project. As you can see, I painted the insides pink, the outsides white, and the fronts black. All I did was print out a graphic I liked from The Graphics Fairy . This graphic is French Corset Ephemera. Then I mixed some Mod Podge with water. I cut the paper to fit, then dipped it in the glue mixture, then pasted it on. I added the graphics to both sides.

Then I sponged some diluted pink paint on the paper, then dabbed off the excess until I achieved the look I wanted. If you'll look to the left you'll see I smeared some black paint on a piece of cardboard. Then I dipped a popsickle stick in the black paint and made stripes on both ends. I didn't want them to look perfect, and they don't.

After I distressed them a little bit, I added new knobs that I purchased at Lowe's, then sealed them with porch floor sealer. The reason I used porch floor sealer is because I bought three gallons of it at a thrift store the other day. Seems to work ok. hehe



Earlier this week I found this fabulous industrial cabinet and only had to work on it a little bit. It was used in a post office to sort mail. Because it is all steel and very heavy, the first thing we did was add casters. I spent one afternoon looking for casters that would fit. I finally found them at Tractor Supply. It wasn't very dirty and only needed a little cleaning.

Someone had glued a funky top on it. I think it was formica with a fiberglass backing. Whatever it was, it was easy to remove. But taking off the old glue was a project. I had to use lacquer thinner and fine steel wool. I finished it off using Turtle Wax car polish. It has some rust but the overall piece is pretty amazing. It is shabby for sure.



This is by far the best thing I've found lately. I luv luv it.

This little podium is another project I've been working on this week.



So far I've primed it with DIY chalk paint, and I've added one coat of latex satin Heirloom white. I still have to shabby it up and wax it. Linking to: