This is a follow up to my previous post about restoring an old shabby Nesco Bread Box to look like the one seen in the kitchen of “I love Lucy” starring Lucille Ball.

Here is the Nesco Bread Box and a couple of the Nesco canisters after cleaning and repainting. Also in the photo you can see some paper printouts of my version of the original decal as seen on Lucy Ricardo’s breadbox on the tv show.

Having cleaned and sanded the breadbox as described in my previous post, I painted several coats of matte light yellow acrylic paint which I bought at Dick Blicks. I chose the color based on several photos of an original Nesco bread box in yellow

It took about 6 coats of paint to get to this point. I chose matte acrylic and a few more layers of transparent matte acrylic varnish over that to protect the paint layer.

I did not want a super glossy finish to highlight my less that perfect paintwork, but I might go over it all with a satin finish varnish after the decals are applied.

I used a cheaper coarse paint brush for the first coat of paint, which was not a good idea because the thick hairs made tracks in the paint which remained when it dried.  I found that fine hair brushes give a smother finish for the subsequent layers of paint. I left lots of time for the paint to dry between coats. I am pleased with the result although its not a great paint job, its uneven and bumpy in places.  If I had done a better job of  sanding and preparing the surface before painting it would look much better but I am pleased with the result in any case.

The decals you see in the top photo above are just test prints on A4 paper. Next I will print them on transfer paper to make water slide decals like the original decals would have been.  To make the decals I used Photoshop to trace from a hand drawn version I created.  Its not an exact match but a close interpretation of the original Nosegay design.

More in my next update..