Vintage Bread Box Project is Done!

Whew have I been busy lately.  I made it to one estate sale this weekend and scored another toolbox very similar to my project toolbox, and I also found a great buy on a 32-foot extension ladder. (I've needed one of those ever since we moved to this house six years ago, but I could never justify buying a new ladder because they're so expensive.  Let's just say that I got a heckuva deal on the ladder.)

Today I finally finished up the bread box project.  I thought long and hard on a color.   I have not yet found a good mint green or turquoise in a spray can, but I sure wish Rustoleum would offer these retro colors.  In the end, I went with canvas white, which I believe is very close to the original color.  It goes well with the copper lid, don't you think?

I'm pretty sure the lid was anodized originally.  After I got all the pink paint off of it I buffed it with some fine bronze wool.  It still shows some blemishes, but the thing must be at least 45 years old.  The small knob at the top twists to release the catch and the door drops forward.  That knob also was painted pink, and it took some work to get all the paint off without destroying the plastic knob itself.  Since I had some canvas white paint made especially for painting plastic, I painted the knob too.

The inside of the lid is a thin piece of wood.  I used some Howards Feed 'N Wax on it after lightly sanding to remove paint and some errant paint stripper spots. (We won't be using the lid as a cutting board, so I'm not worried about bread contacting the waxed wood, but you certainly would want to consider this before doing what I did.)

Here again are a couple shots of the bread box as I found it for $2.

I'm very happy with the way this turned out.  Now I'll be watching for more of these needing rescue. :-)