Updated Toy Chest

Eli had an old toy box that his grandma made him for his first birthday, I decided to reclaim it and fix it up.  Isaac is a little to young to be able to play in his room and it seemed like his toys were taking over the living room, so it seemed like a great idea.


First, I had to clean it up and get ready to paint it. It was originally bright red and a few screws to hold the lid on were missing.

There had been stickers on it so I used fingernail polish remover to get rid of the sticky residue.

I covered the rope handles with painters tape. 

 

 

The base coat is now brick red, which was left over from painting an accent wall in the living room.

 

I used a tailor's chalk pencil to draw on my design and found a wooden star to trace onto the box. The tailor's pencil allowed me to draw on the box and if I didn't cover the lines with the paint, I could just wipe it off. 

 

 

I free handed the writing because I didn't want it to be perfect.

 

It is finished!! I used the end of the paint brush to make the dots next to select letters. I used a foam brush to paint the stars and just dabbed it on like a sponge. 

 

 

If I went a little outside the lines, I didn't mind because it gave it a little character.  The green was left over from painting an accent wall in our bedroom and the yellow was from a sample when we were testing colors to go in the nursery. 

 

Nothing like using supplies from around the house.  I just found some extra screws that were laying around to reattach the lid and it was good to go!  Isaac isn't quite big enough to dig in it himself but he's getting there and now we at least have a place to put all his toys.