Dairy Delivery Box Repurposed

Years ago our neighbors gave us this old milk delivery box that they had used at one time as a mailbox.  I had always INTENDED to do something with it but it ended up in a corner of the garage where it remained until just a few days ago when I looked at it and thought, “Now WHY haven’t I done something with that?”.  I gingerly pulled it out of the cobwebs and other assorted ‘things’ into the yard and slowly lifted to the lid.  To my amazement, there was an old milk bottle in there!  Both the bottle and the delivery box said, “Modern Dairy Elgin” on them. 

HAD to add a pic of my puppy Ava -- checkin' out the milk bottle :)

I cleaned the can out, hosed it, let it dry in the sun and then using wire brushes, began removing the rust and corrosion. First I primed it and then sprayed it with several coats of a beautiful turquoise spray paint which really made the words on the can stand out!

Okay, one more pic of Ava (I had to leave these out when I posted this for the contest for obvious reasons as everyone I know KNOWS how I love my Ava!)

I decided this would make a perfect little outdoor foot stool so I bought a yard of burlap, a piece of foam and some clear vinyl.  I wrapped the foam in the vinyl and hand-stitched it.  I did this in case the footstool gets wet, the foam won’t mildew. Using a rubber stamp, foam ‘brush’ and my acrylic paints, I stamped the flower image all over the burlap and then wrapped the foam with the burlap and hand stitched it in place.  I used E6000 glue to attach the cushion to the lid of the box.

With the left over burlap, I sewed a ‘liner’ for the inside of the milk box.  I cut two pieces for the front, two for the sides and one for the bottom.  I stitched the four panels together and then stitched that ‘tube’ to the bottom piece.  I covered a piece of cardboard with the extra vinyl and then wrapped and stitched burlap over that to serve as a ‘base’ inside the bag.  I hemmed the top edge and to secure the bag to the top edges inside the box, I used E6000 glue to attach tiny, high-powered magnets to the four corners (since it’s a metal can, the magnets stick right to it!). I’m not sure what I’ll ‘store’ inside but if I decide I DO want to put anything in there, it will stay nice and clean.

And here is the finished project WITH the chair I made over (couldn't post the pic of the two of them for the contest!)  Next step is to replace that awful storm door and paint our front door.  Baby steps.