We’re off to the cottage again for the weekend but, in the meantime (ha!), here’s a little teaser of my newest project for freshening up the kitchen.
The best part? I already owned everything I needed for this project . . . except the rug.
I’ll be sharing the details on how to make over your own rug next week!
Have a great {long} weekend and happy back to school on Tuesday to all my Canadian readers!
In case you missed it, here’s a re-post of my latest ‘Pinspiration’ project that I originally shared on Heather’s blog, Setting for Four.
I have seen many tutorials on how to make paper mache letters look like zinc, but I was especially intrigued by this post that claimed you could easily create a zinc finish with just two paint colours.
Source: House Stuff Works via Claire on Pinterest
I’ve tested it out and I’m thrilled to tell you that yes, it really is that simple!
I started with a wooden tray from Goodwill that was just waiting for its next life. I bought it at the same time as this tray that already received a “Cinderella makeover.”
Since the tray was originally green I decided to spray paint it with gray primer before giving it the faux zinc treatment.
(Looking better already!)
Once the primer dried (one of the good things about our crazy hot weather this summer), I painted the tray with one coat of black acrylic paint.
Then, it was time for the magic!
With an old paintbrush, I dry-brushed on white pearl paint. FYI: I bought this paint at Michaels with a 40% off coupon but I have also seen it at Walmart.
While painting, I concentrated more paint on the edges and corners and applied the paint in long strokes.
Once I was happy with the coverage, I went back and added more paint in different directions to the center of the tray.
Rather than add too much, I decided to stop here and live with it for a while. I can always add more in the future.
The amount of black paint left showing is completely up to you and how you want your piece to look.
Two steps and two bottles of paint! That’s it!
My finished tray will make a cute home for my smallest tea tin succulent planter . . .
or a lovely turquoise trio borrowed from my mantel.
See that ribbed bottle? It’s an upcycled soya sauce bottle! I poured acrylic paint into it and swirled it around until the sides were covered. The streaky finish was a complete fluke and I love it!
{Black paint + white pearl paint = faux zinc}
If you liked that, I’d love for you to check out some more of my Pinterest-inspired creations. Here are three more ‘Pinspiration’ projects to get you started!
Thanks for reading (or, if you already checked this out on Setting For Four and you’re still with me, re-reading!) and have a great day!
I link up at: Serenity Now, I {Heart} Naptime, Under The Table And Dreaming, Nifty Thrifty Things, Simply Klassic Home, Home Stories A to Z, Craftomaniac, Skip To My Lou, Not JUST A Housewife, A Bowl Full Of Lemons, Alderberry Hill, I Should Be Mopping The Floor, A Diamond In The Stuff, Creatively Living, The Winthrop Chronicles, Clean & Scentsible, Oopsey Daisy, Lil’ Luna, Someday Crafts, Live.Laugh.Rowe, The 36th Avenue, aka design, House of Hepworths, 52 Mantels, Thrifty Decorating, Crafty Scrappy Happy, How To Nest For Less, Tatertots & Jello, The Grant Life, It’s Overflowing, Lolly Jane, Too Much Time, Six Sisters’ Stuff, Positively Splendid, My {Re}purposed Life, Unrefined By Design, Dragonfly Designs, Just Us Four, Liz Marie Blog, Every Creative Endeavor and The Crafted Sparrow
My kitchen has been the target of most of my organizing and tweaking for the last few weeks. The coffee station started the ball rolling and it has felt like a different space ever since.
Over the weekend I decided it was time to make over some of the boring but necessary accessories with spray paint. I painted the paper towel holder and knife block and then spotted my sticking-out-like-a-sore-thumb Lysol No-Touch Kitchen Soap Dispenser.
I love it and just used this video to very easily refill it with a different (and much less expensive) dish soap (Lysol is probably not going to like that but I’m in no way affiliated with them!). However, it’s not the prettiest gadget to have beside the sink.
The perfect candidate for my next spray paint makeover!
I’m familiar with the infamous House of Hepworths’ painted soap pump, but I couldn’t find anything related to the Lysol dispenser so this might actually be an original idea!
I turned off the switch so that I could inspect it without getting soaped and then tried to figure how I could paint the unit without affecting the sensor. There is a sensor at the top by the soap nozzle, but I believe the teardrop shaped window on the front does something, too.
I was about to give up when I noticed that the silver face plate was a completely separate piece. It comes right off – no tools required!
Time to customize!
The hardest part was choosing a spray paint colour.
In the end, the winner was Catalina Mist. It didn’t disappoint!
Since it was SO easy, here’s the very, very condensed how-to:
Turn off batteries.
Remove face plate, prime, spray paint with chosen colour, replace face plate.
Turn on batteries.
Done!
Do you have one of these wonderful dispensers in your kitchen?
I really like being able to wash my hands when I’m cooking or baking without contaminating everything else. I had a No-Touch soap dispenser in my classroom when I taught Grade 1 and it was great because it actually made my students WANT to wash their hands!
I’d love to see what colour (or colours) you use to customize yours!
Thanks for checking out my latest project!
I spotted this box at HomeSense last year and it was love at first sight.
The pictures don’t do it justice.
It is a lovely, glossy yellow and white box with hinges. The yellow is the perfect shade that goes wonderfully with all of the other yellow accents in my office.
If we actually had some sunshine that lasted until the afternoon I would be able to show you my beautiful office because now, after a big organizing blitz, it truly is beautiful.
I’m so proud of it.
Everything has a home.
Correction. Everything has a pretty home.
Including my receipts.
I have struggled to maintain a system for storing my necessary receipts for years. I start off well, and then I develop piles. I’ve tried binder clips, accordion files, baskets, file folders etc. but nothing has ever stuck.
I even used this box at one point. . . I just didn’t use it the right way.
A little while ago, I had a receipt organizing epiphany. I do pretty well with maintaining a filing system for everything else, so why not create something that allows me to file my receipts in the same way?
Instead of clipping them together into piles, I needed to be able to flip through my receipts quickly to find what I need.
Also, I wanted a system where I could sort my receipts by the store where I bought something, not by a category.
My first thought was to use a photo storage box from Michaels. They come with dividers, but I wanted the receipts to span the length of the box so I made my own dividers using my Silhouette.
I labelled everything and filled it up with all my receipts.
Definitely an improvement, but to access it I have to pull it out from underneath my desk (I’ll show you that another time). Not very efficient. I saw more piles accumulating in my future.
So, I moved onto Plan B – the yellow box that had sat on my desk for a year without a real purpose.
First, it got a vinyl label to clearly identify its job.
The collage below shows how I planned the placement of my vinyl using painter’s tape and a combination square from Mr. Mechanic’s well-stocked workshop. The combination square is a great way to make sure that your spacing is consistent when transferring an image.
After I peeled off the transfer tape, it looked like this!
Now that the outside of the box was finished, it was time to make some custom dividers!
I originally made dividers using a shape that I bought and modified, but I was not happy with the final layout of the tabs. This week’s free shape could not have come at a better time! It made the process so much easier.
Basically, I copied the tab overlay from this week’s free shape and pasted it into a new file. Then, I drew a rectangle and sized it to the dimensions of my receipt box (9.5” by 4”). I selected both shapes and aligned them on the left so that when I welded them together the first tab would start at the very edge.
Before welding the tab and rectangle shapes together I duplicated the tab five times to the right and then used the ‘space horizontally’ function to have them overlap slightly across the width of my 9 inch rectangle. The last step was to duplicate the rectangle 5 times. One-by-one I would align the rectangle with the edge of the last tab on the right. Working from left to right, I moved the next tab down slightly to overlap the shapes and then welded the two shapes together.
I did this five times but then I realized that you only have to do it three times! If you look at the image below, I have labelled and colour-coded the dividers to show that when you cut the same shape twice on double-sided paper, you can just flip over divider 1 to create what would be divider 5 and divider 2 becomes divider 4. Make sense?
I chose coordinating scrapbook paper with a postcard/travel theme for my dividers.
In a perfect world, I would have had lots of different yellow patterned paper on hand, but since I didn’t, I opted for a theme instead.
{Does anyone else find it hard to cut up a brand new piece of scrapbook paper?}
I cut three sets of 5 dividers and now I just need to label them and transfer my receipts from the photo box that I gussied up before I realized that this box would be better suited for the job.
I suppose you could also use your sketch pens to label the tabs if you were more patient than me!
If you don’t have a cutting machine, no problem! You could trace or cut down store-bought dividers to make your own filing system to fit any container size.
Is it weird how pleased I am to have a pretty container for filing my receipts? (If your answer is yes . . . don’t answer that!)
You’ve all heard about the power of paint to transform a space but what about the power of a basket?
In this case, a yellow paper basket.
This basket was originally home to my hair dryer and other bathroom essentials. It had lots of storage capacity which ultimately ended up being its downfall. I kept adding more stuff!
One day, after learning about Krylon’s Oil-Rubbed Bronze spray paint from my friend Wendy, I decided that this basket would be a good test project for a new colour.
The result was so lovely that a ripple effect took place in my kitchen.
First, the microwave moved, which meant that this . . .
became this . . .
It’s not pretty but it’s a much better spot for an appliance that we do not use on a daily basis.
The microwave previously occupied a small countertop beside the fridge. The countertop was barely deep enough to house the microwave as well as a basket of frequently accessed snacks and cereal.
Now, that same countertop serves as a coffee station for our relocated coffee maker (a morning essential for Tim Horton’s addicted Mr. Mechanic) which is perfect because it sits directly below this . . .
The basket keeps all of our coffee-making essentials in one place, frees up space in the cupboard and makes it look like we have more counter space in the kitchen – something that has always been an issue for us with the kitchen layout.
There’s a reason why you see that messy cord in the photo.
Not only does this made over basket house everything needed for brewing a hot coffee, it also holds my Magic Bullet.
The basket handle means that I can leave my Magic Bullet plugged in along with the coffee maker.
When I want to make an iced cappuccino protein smoothie, I just pull it out of the basket letting the extra cord feed through the handle.
Isn’t it amazing what a basket can do?
P.S. Want another idea for how to make over a basket with spray paint? How about a two-toned effect?
It’s Friday, so technically I should be sharing Five Things on Friday but it feels like it has been such a long time since I’ve shared a DIY project that is not cottage-related on here!
I must be on a faux kick since I shared a faux zinc tray yesterday at Setting For Four!
This necklace is several years old . . . in fact, I can remember wearing it when I taught my first Kindergarten class, so it’s at least six years old.
I thought it was innovative back then, and I still feel that way now!
I teased you with a photo of this necklace WAY back in April when I shared my iPiccy watermarking tutorial.
My jewelry making techniques have definitely evolved since I made this necklace.
I used the clear beads to make the necklace the proper length to rest on my collarbone. I did this because if I had used two more stones it would have been too long.
Did you spy the photobombing ant? I guess it comes with the territory when you take your photos outside!
So, you’ve seen the finished necklace and the faux coral stones, but what are they?
Plastic stones from Dollarama!
I’m sure they were supposed to be a vase filler, but when I spotted them on the shelf (many moons ago) coral jewelry was just gaining in popularity and I thought it had a striking resemblance to coral. Even back then I was a Dollar Store upcycler!
Once I had my necklace plan devised, my Dad helped me to drill holes through the center of each stone so that I could string them on a cord. I can remember they got very hot!
After I had cleaned up the holes’ edges, I strung the stones onto clear fishing line, adding a Mother-of-Pearl pendant on a jump ring to the center. For simplicity, I used a toggle clasp which makes it very easy to put on and take off.
That’s it!
6 years later, it’s still my go-to necklace when I want to make a statement with my jewelry. It looks great with a simple tank top or my favourite summer dress.
Have you done any upcycling lately? Perhaps you will this weekend! No matter what, I hope it’s a great one!
P.S. Check out another repurposed Dollar Store jewelry project here! I still have lots more of these up my sleeve!
P.P.S. My photos that have a retro look to them were created using the Anthony effect in iPiccy!
