The day after purchasing the pastel box, I returned and found another art box I hadn’t seen the day before. This box also contained some old oil paints. It was much larger, but at 1/2 price, I figured it too would clean up nicely, and be useful.
Here’s what it looked like before I cleaned it up:
Once again, it had writing on the outside of the box which needed removing.
Inside were two removable, segmented bins.
You can see the oil paints that came with it in this photo. This box was in much worse shape than the previous pastel box with lots of papers glued to the sections, oil paint and oil medium stuck to the interior, and other residue. Donning gloves, I started with denatured alcohol which helped remove some of the writing on the outside, but barely touched the interior gunk. A putty knife helped scrape some of the bits away.
Here’s the exterior, all cleaned up with the great vintage paint patina preserved, however, the interior was just not getting clean, so I decided to paint it (of course!)
The bins and bottom part of the box are painted and the box is tipped to make the lid easier to paint.
Since it was oil paint that had leaked inside, we figured it should be painted with oils instead of a latex or acrylic paint, so once again I was able to tap into my husband’s sign supplies, and use some of his lettering enamel.
The soon to be painted, grubby lid.
Oh yeah, much nicer! Now I just need to wait for it to stop releasing its stale paint odor so I can bring it inside…
Jana R. Johnson, Artist 