Bread Lovers Unite

If you should know anything about me, it is this: I'm a rule breaker. Sometimes to my detriment. I don't usually follow the crowd unless the crowd is going where I want to go, too. Which brings me to this post.

Nutrition experts are telling us that carbs are bad, especially bread. I LIKE bread. All types of bread, but lately I hanker for the artisan breads like rosemary olive oil, roasted garlic, or la brea three cheese. I usually have several half loaves around, and I eat them at almost every meal. They taste good, they are filling, and they make me happy.

So another thing about me: I like things put away. I need clean counters in my kitchen, computers closed away when not in use, bathroom counters organized. Which means my collection of breads needed a place to rest when I wasn't actually eating them.

And then I found this.

Pretty awful, right? I swear I heard angels singing, though. The perfect answer to my bread dilemma. Needs some TLC, but who doesn't every now and then?

I found this 1970’s era all wood bread box on OfferUp for $10. Note the missing plug in the lower right? There were several others on the sides gone as well. And the word "BREAD" burned into the top and the big wooden handle: not good and not me. I DO love the roll-up style which is why I bought this particular one.

This did not have any shellac which saved me a ton of time. It was just stained and dirty. So I lightly sanded the entire thing and cleaned it with Murphy's Oil Soap, a staple in my house as I do work with a lot of wood furniture.

The roll-up had to be removed so I could paint the inside of the main piece as well as make sure both sides of the roll-up were painted. The screws were just typical phillips head.

I didn't like the wood plugs, so since there were several already missing, I removed the rest using a flat head screwdriver. Just put the tip under an edge and popped them out. The next step was to fill in the word BREAD on the top as well as the wood plug holes. Super simple by using a wood filler product found at any home improvement store. I use MinWax Stainable Wood Filler, but any wood filler brand will work. This can be a two or three step process depending on the depth of the area. The word BREAD was pretty deep, so I filled in the letters one time, smoothed it out with a putty knife (and sometimes my fingers), and let it dry for two or three hours. I sanded it and found a few areas that needed additional filling, so I repeated the process. The end result should be smooth without the suggestion of anything being there before.

I painted the entire thing with Martha Stewart Crafts Vintage Decor paint in Wedding Cake found at Michaels. Two full coats, then I sanded the edges a bit to make it look a little more vintage.

I painted the inside in Rustoleum Chalked Ultra Matte in Serenity Blue. I screwed the roll-up back in which, frankly, was much simpler taking out. But it got done.

I wanted a simple design on the outside, so I just stenciled a couple of different width lines to the left side and the words "bread & pastries" in the middle. The letter stencils were also purchased at Michaels. The lines and stencils were done in Martha Stewart Crafts Vintage Décor paint in Charcoal. To create the lines, I taped off the width I wanted, then used a sponge dauber to fill in the non-taped areas. Martha Stewart Crafts Dauber Set (Evidently, me and Martha are besties). The dauber was also used with the lettering.

Added a new handle and place the final product on my kitchen counter, ready for all kinds of bread:

Shout out to all bread, pastry, and pasta lovers!

~~kathleen