Today I decided to make a toolbox to honor my dad. Now he has been gone for around 20 years at this point but he has been on my mind lately. I think because one of my cousins posted an old photo of my dad carrying him on his shoulders going out to get the cows. I’m pretty sure the picture is older than I am. But it got me thinking. And there are a couple of things that come to my mind when I think about my dad and one of those is his old toolbox. He had several toolboxes but this one in particular he usually kept in his car for any repairs to anything that he might need to do. He was one of those men that could fix anything and he really enjoyed that.
I wish I still had his old red toolbox, I have no idea what happened to it after he passed away. But it does live on in my memory and now it can live on in all our dollhouses too.
So this toolbox we are recreating today was far from new when I remember it, it was fairly small and red. Well, at least it used to be red, when it was new, when I remember it was red with dents, grim, and who knows what else. I think I captured the spirit of it in this mini version.
The mini we are making today is meant to sit in a corner or on a shelf. It doesn’t open, maybe one day we will make an opening version too.
I started out with one of those Tumbling Tower game pieces from Dollar Tree, it was a little too long so I cut it be 1 ½” long. Then I needed a lid for the toolbox. I didn’t have any strip wood the size I wanted so I used part of one those giant craft-sticks from Walmart. I cut 2 pieces that were 1 ½” long by the width of my block.
I then glued the two lid pieces together. If you have some 1/8” wood the correct size you can use that and skip the gluing step. If you do glue this really thin wood be sure to use lots of clamps to keep it from warping as the glue dries.
Once the glue has dried I covered both pieces with some thin black paper. This is some black paper that is about the thickness of printer paper. I did this for several reasons. I wanted to hide the wood grain as well as the seam where the two lid pieces were glued. I also wanted a black base to sand back to that would nor reveal any wood color. And I also wanted to have uneven surface that I got by painting the paper that was not glued, it appears that the metal surface has dents in it. That is why I only glued the paper on the surfaces where the box and lid would be glued.
Once the glue used on the paper was set up I used the darkest red paint I had to give the toolbox a good coat of red paint. I ended up doing 4 coats to get good enough coverage. I think the paint I used was possibly semi-transparent.
Once the red paint was dry I sanded back some of it to expose the black under layer in places that would receive the most wear.
Next I added a brown wash of paint to some areas using a cotton swab and rubbing back any areas I felt had too much of the wash.
Now it was time to glue the lid to the box. I used some tacky glue and did my best to line up the lid with the box.
Now using some more of that thin black paper I formed a tube that was 1” long to make the handle for the top of the box. I then painted this snake along with a small piece of the same black paper and allowed to dry.
I used my pliers as a guide for bending the handle into shape. It was then glued onto the lid as close to centered as possible.
From the piece of paper we painted I cut two small rectangle shapes and glued them to the center front of the toolbox to look like a latch.
Once this glue dried I gave the entire box a coat of Mat Mod Podge. This will give the toolbox a nice finish and also prepare it for our next round of aging.
Once the Mod Podge dries used some oil paints (a yellow ocher and a black) to add some grim and grease looking stains. You only want just a very tiny bit and use a paper towel to rub it in and to remove any excess until you are happy with the level of grim you have.
There wasn’t that fun? Now you have a properly aged toolbox for you dollhouse.
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