A Reclaimed Toolbox to Flower Box

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We get some pretty sketchy weather here at the Jersey Shore in March -70 degrees one day, 30 the next. Those 70 degree days are such a tease.  I want flowers and green grass and a vegetable garden now!  So to satisfy my need for some flowers, I decided to see what I had on hand to “spring up” the place.  My husband had finally given up his old wooden toolbox so I decided to turn that reclaimed toolbox into a flower box.

I’ve been eyeing that thing for years so I snatched it up in a second.

Not So Pretty Toolbox

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Not so pretty, but nothing a little paint won’t fix.  I vacuumed the sawdust out of her and gave it one coat of light grey chalk paint,  not worrying too much about coverage.  Then I sanded it a little just to rough it up again.

It looked a little boring so a stencil was in order. I decided on the words “flower market” and created a stencil on my Cricut Explore.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again–this was absolutely hands down best investment I have ever made in craft supplies.  This little machine does so much more than make stencils.  If you have a few moments, click on the link and take a look at what you can do.  You can see how I made the stencils in my “Pallet Farmer’s Market Sign” tutorial here.

Then I screwed it up!! I know a lot of you think experienced crafters never screw up, but I do, actually on a regular basis!  I screwed the entire thing up.  Yup!  and I kinda knew it was going to happen before I even did it. The box is pretty beat up, not a very smooth surface and I was worried about the paint bleeding through under the stencil since it couldn’t lay entirely flat- but I went ahead anyway figuring that since the stencil was made with an adhesive back, paint bleed wouldn’t be a problem.  Maybe it would look really rustic!  WRONG!!  Nope that sucker looked like a train wreck.  Definitely not the look I wanted.  Time to rethink!  (sorry no photo–I’m going to save my “fails” and put them in my newsletter in the future just so you can see!)

So, I let the paint dry and lightly sanded the area, threw another coat of chalk paint on the area, and let that dry.  This time I had two choices, I could either cut another stencil and trace and hand paint OR I could cut the words from vinyl and just apply it to the box.  Being lazy, I cut black vinyl with my Cricut and applied it to the box.  After I applied the vinyl I gave the entire box a couple of coats of non-yellowing polycrylic in case I decide to take the silks out and replace with plants later in the season.  This would be adorable with herbs in it or loaded with impatiens and placed out on my deck.

Now the flowers!  I originally went to purchase some pots to put inside with live plants, but the selection of plants this early in the season was minimal.  I was wandering around the craft section and found these green and white silk hydrangea.  Now the wheels are turning!  I had some gorgeous silk hydrangea at home and other flowers in my stash so I grabbed a bunch of the white and green.  When I got home I pulled out my box of disassembled flower arrangements and  got started.

I filled the box with floral foam blocks.  Its nearly 30 inches long so it took about 8 of them (some trimmed).  Then I just randomly started placing the hydrangea, distributing them throughout both sides of the handle.  I used 8 green, 5 white, and then I had 4 of the multi-colored hydrangea (blue/green/lavender).  I had some lilac, and some other flowers and leaves to fill in the voids.  Then I walked away because at that point it just looks like a “blob” of colors to me.  After swapping out some laundry I gave her another look and moved a few things around added a sweet little nest and she was done! (after all the photos were done and the light was gone, I realized I needed to swap the white hydrangea on the far right with one of the green so I didn’t have two greens together, oh well).

Oh you have to hear about my super duper steal from Hobby Lobby!  See that shelf. It was originally $139 and was dark brown.  I had seen it months ago, but as much as I liked it, no way was this thrift store, yard sale, side of the road junker going to pay that much for a shelf.

I was wandering through Hobby Lobby and came across a 90% off aisle (insert chorus of Angels Singing)  There it was, marked $70????  I asked a sales person if that was accurate ( $70 is not 90% off $139.99) and he scanned and said $14.99–yea, as in $15.00–MINE.  I danced to the checkout and me and my brown shelf walked off into the sunset making plans on how I was going to prime and paint her white and how I had just the right place for her over my newly rescued and refinished Chifferobe!

Well, there is it, my giant toolbox reclaimed and transformed into a flower box !  I hope this inspires you to look at things and re-think their use.  Almost anything can be changed up and made into something that makes you smile.

Be Well & Keep Creating,

Karen

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The post “A Reclaimed Toolbox to Flower Box”, was first seen on The Decorated Nest and written by Karen Ploransky