From Dirty Old Box to Collection Display

Okay, so I found this dirty, dusty old wooden box in the basement soon after buying my house. (The fork is there just to give you some sense of its size.) It was holding old tools and hardware, oil cans and door knobs. But I thought I could give it a better life than that. So, first, I cleaned it up by scrubbing it with a dry, stiff brush. (I decided not to wash it in water because I didn't want the wood to warp.) Then, I painted the backs of the compartments with BIN: an alcohol-based primer. I used BIN because 1) it will stick to just about anything and makes a good, clean painting surface and 2) the box had some rust-stained areas, and since BIN is alcohol based, rust stains don't bleed through, as they do with latex primer or paint. Then I rummaged around my paint shelves and settled on the paint left over from the inside of my open kitchen cabinets: Castleton Mist from Benjamin Moore. (I LOVE this color - I used it on all my downstairs ceilings, as well as my bedroom.) Then I rubbed boiled linseed oil over all the wood that was unpainted and would show. The linseed oil brings out the grain, seals the wood, and adds a little sheen. (It is much easier to apply than polyurethane and doesn't need to dry. You just apply it with a rag and then use a clean rag to wipe off the excess.) The next step was to add these hangers: Then it went up on a wall in my kitchen and I promptly filled it with just a taste of my way too large collection of green handled kitchen utensils: