Tin Organizer Gets Restored

Next up in the laundry room, is my yard sale find that was in quite a state when I first found it...

{The one on the right.}

I saw true beauty underneath its' dirt, rust, and hard glue.  Besides, who can't always use another organizational piece for their home?

I sanded it down really really well...working on it little by little over the course of a few days.  My hands can only take so much and they're sore even now as I type. 

Once I got it all smooth and with parts of the metal peeking through.  I rubbed this stuff on edges, corners, and random areas of the piece...

The vaseline allows distressing later on to go much easier and quicker.

I then painted over the whole thing with a greenish teal paint leftover from the bathroom...

I let that first coat dry, and rubbed it down lightly with a cloth. The parts that had had the vaseline applied wore away and the metal peeked through.

Pretty cool huh?! And much better than wearing your hand out sanding vigorously.

Then painted over that with 2 coats of off-white paint.

When mostly dry, I sanded it down to distress it. 

I also chipped some paint off with my fingers - on the spots that had had the vaseline - to get even more metal peeking through.

It looked a little plain to me, so I wanted to get these metal label holders on it to dress it up a bit...

They were 50% off at Hobby Lobby and cost me $2.99 for 2 packs. 

I stole some school glue from the girls' art bin and glued them onto my freshly painted piece...

I glued a broken upholstery tack leftover from the headboard project on the top.

And then filled it up with pretty {to me} things... 
 

Ahhhh...fixing things back up is such a thrill to me. :)