My Twist on the Teacher Toolbox

 If you are just tuning in I am going back to the classroom after 1 1/2 years off. And I will be 6th grade (as of right now). Not my preferred grade level but I prayed for it to be "exactly where God wanted me" or not at all so here I am. I have met my teaching partners both new to the district and grade level! I think we are going to be an awesome team! I have been researching all things 6th grade since finding out! Oh well except for Math - the good news - I don't have to teach Math. One of my partners loves Math and is going to teach my kids math and I will do her Reading, Spelling and Grammar.

And now on to the project! This is a project I have had in mind since the end of school when I found out I had a job and someone was giving away some old metal library card catalogs. In my head I instantly saw a Teacher's Tool box!

So I brought home the card catalogs and told my hubby what I wanted.

This is what they looked line before. There are three of them.

To begin we took out the drawers and removed everything we could.

This included the handles, knobs, metal, rod and adjustable support. When we put it back together we were able to use just the knob and a screw so that items in the drawers would lay flat.

Next we prepped them for painting, using steel wool we gently scrubbed.

Then wiped them down with acetone smoothing out the surface and removing any dirt, residue or remaining bits of steel wool.

Then we painted the frames in a back and forth motion.

Then it was time for the hardware which I wanted to be silver. We started with the hardware we removed. We laid it all out on some spare cardboard and went to work.

Then we masked off the plates on the drawers using painters tape, covering the entire front of the drawer except the plate and center of the plate which will be covered with a label.

Every little bit including the corners which required extra tape because they are rounded.

Finally we replaced all the hardware and stacked them together!

Pretty impressive for a freebie, some paint and some work! My hubby got so into it! It was pretty cute! I love that he is so handy!

I made labels for what I want to keep in the drawers and this is the final product! I am so thrilled with how it turned out! I can't wait to put it in my new classroom and fill it up!