thrift store finds: steel storage box

Update: voting for "So You Think You're Crafty" is completed for the week (as of today, January 11th) and I've made it through to the next round!

Thank you all for your votes, and please check back; I'll have a full tutorial for my project up within the next few days. Woohoo!


I found this great steel box with a sliding lid out at Bring awhile back ($4) and have had it sitting in my carport on top of a set of lockers for a couple of months now.

Finally, right before Christmas, when we were expecting house guests and I was trying to get things just a smidgeon organized, I went out and cleaned it up and decided to finally hang it on the wall like I'd intended to do since finding it. Its purpose: to hold cleaning supplies and the kitchen fire extinguisher.

I don't know what purpose it served in its previous life, though it looks to be from the first half of the 20th century. I thought at first it might be a flammable liquids storage box, except the vent on the front (or top, depending on how it originally sat) wouldn't make much sense.

My sister-in-law suggested that it might have been a bread box, which would make sense. Maybe one that stored inside a drawer or something? The sliding lid could still have functioned that way.

At any rate, there were no holes or hangers on the back, and a note (written in marker on bright pink paper) attached to the side (with masking tape) read, "curtains to mend". Not that those two clues narrow it down much.

I admit it: I drilled holes in the back and tried hanging it with picture hangers, but that was just a temporary fix and was really unstable; it needed to be hung with drywall anchors, screws, and washers. I'd normally woman-up and do it myself, but I didn't want to brave the shed right now to find the drill. When the mister offered to take care of it for me, I let him.

I always like the character that beat-up old things add to the house. And it inspired me to put in a little more time priming the kitchen walls, so hey, double points for me!

So: what fun old stuff are you bringing into the house these days? Anyone getting any eye rolls? The mister is a master of hiding his, if he's rolling them at all. He's a good guy.

Thanks for reading!


Updated to add: Yup! Bread box for a cabinet drawer!

Linking up to:

Junkin Joe Vintage and Thrifty Finds

thrift store finds: terra cotta bread pan

As a college student, I had an assortment of pots and pans that mostly came from random garage sales. I wasn't picky — I was broke, so I bought whatever cheap, serviceable pots and pans I could find for a buck. This collection included a teflon coated frying pan and pot, an aluminum bread pan and muffin pan, some cheap, non-stick cookie sheets, and other things I needed along the way.

Graduation brought a stainless steel set of pots and pans from my parents (so long, teflon!), and I'd picked up a couple of heavy Lodge cast iron skillets along the way. We also got a new set of non-stick baking sheets and muffin tins as wedding gifts . . .

Recently, though, I started reading about the dangers associated with non-stick coatings (including teflon's propensity for killing birds with fumes) and the fact that these coatings are being phased out (by law) in the next few years. And I've read for awhile about the dangers possibly associated with aluminum (no one reputable is fully backing these up, but there have been links between aluminum and Alzheimer's).

And because I'm mama to a sweet kid who likes to help cook, I decided that now was the time to start phasing out the remainder of our non-stick and aluminum cookware, and investing in stainless steel, cast iron, and stoneware.

This can be expensive, but I did manage to find this heavy, terra cotta bread pan at a thrift store recently, in perfect condition, for under $5.

As a bonus, it was locally made right near here, at Planned Pottery in Eugene, Oregon, in 1979.

Pretty awesome that it's settling in here, to bake my family's bread for years to come!

Thanks for reading!

p.s. you can make these photos larger just by clicking on them, but you probably already knew that.


Linking up to:

Simple Design's Thrift Haul
Cap Creations' Thrifty Love
Southern Hospitality
Thrift Share Monday