Fall Garden Table with a Toolbox Makeover

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Hello all, it’s me again, with another round of heather to show you. Our Sunday morning walk in those beautiful fields of heather totally inspired my Fall garden table decoration this year. I loved all those hues of purple and pink so much that I wanted to surround myself with them. And so I did.

My table under the patio roof is now ready for Fall.

Do you recognize that big old toolbox I used as the main centerpiece? No? Don’t blame you, it got a little makeover. 

It was a dirty old brown box when I found it years ago in my in-laws basement. Clearly handmade by my father in law from leftover bits of wood and meant to be useful much more than beautiful.

I kept it like that for quite some time, never really using it because it was so boring and bland (hence no pictures in the true before state). Then I painted a big old hutch with milk paint and after finishing painting the hutch had some leftover milk paint in my cup, so I looked around for something to paint and my eye fell on that old tool box. I slapped rounds and rounds of milk paint on it, never even waiting for a layer to truly dry, until my cup with paint was empty.

And then I started using her like here decked out in green, and here she is in pink. Painted white she was looking a lot better but still pretty boring.

Well no more, after this latest makeover I truly love her.

She got a natural wood, “let’s slap some white bark” on her treatment. It was so easy and quick I wonder why I didn’t think of this earlier.

I found these strips of painted bark in a home decor store in the summer. I chopped them up with the chop saw, nailed them to the container and for a bit of added interest I wound some heavy twine around the handle.

To make her fit for planting I first put a slab of styrofoam in there, this fills her up a bit so I don’t need to use so much soil when I fill her up with plants. And then I covered the inside with heavy duty plastic from a large garbage bag. So it totally water proof now.

And then she was finished and she is and so much fun to decorate now.

Love the rusticness of the bark (and yes I know that is not a word). And that it is white 😀

I had some pieces of bark left so I used those to decorate a little white painted mason jar. First I used some elastic bands to keep the pieces in place and then replaced that with the twine. This is totally removable so if and when I want my white painted mason jar back I can just remove the decoration. Not gonna happen anytime soon though, since I really love the look.

Those little pink roses are very dear to me. I call them my father’s roses since I took them with me from his garden. It was his garden by then because my mother had passed away and he had the roses planted. I also have my mom’s roses elsewhere in the garden. And my mother in laws roses too. I love it that plants can become such vivid and wonderful carriers of memories.

But back to my heather inspired Fall garden table decoration.

Isn’t it a beauty?

Ah, I love it when a plans come together….

Love it even more when plans come together without a hitch….

Crazy loving the fact that it just looks so good outside now, especially since this Indian summer seems to be lingering giving me lots of opportunities to sit outside and enjoy my little Fall garden table decoration.

CU!

PS I don’t know if a toolbox is a he or a she, and my rustic bark covered toolbox definitely has a masculine vibe now. And yet I think of her as a she, must be the pink flowers. Anyway, just thought I’d share this random thought, carry on….