Painted Coffee Canisters for Storage (Pinterest Idea put into Action)

My storage containers using Folger's Coffee Containers. Idea from Kitchen Kelli from Hometalk, pinned on Pinterest.

I absolutely love Pinterest. If I were left on a deserted island, I think Pinterest might have to be one of my essentials. Not much for meeting Maslow's Heirarchy of Needs, but it might take my mind away from the deserted part...minus the fact that I have internet and I am deserted and cannot make contact with anyone in the world...

Anyway, I found this link over a year ago and pinned it.

Fabulous Folgers Container Upcycle

It was a pretty cool concept. One of my coworkers shared she was looking for empty coffee containers for her classroom and I gladly shared an empty one that I was going to throw away. Then I found the link. Wow. This was creative and useful --- and the world would be made better. Thus began the process of collecting empty coffee containers so that I could possibly create one day, somehow.

I started hoarding them in our second closet downstairs next to (and on top of my slow cooker). I would add one and hope that my husband did not decide to throw it away when I wasn't looking. One,  two, three, and four large containers still sitting there month after month and then I finished drinking the coffee from the fifth container. Another friend from work was going to throw away one and I asked her if I could have it for my Pinterest Project. (Which I had not started and still wasn't sure that I was going to do, but I had hopes.)

Summer arrived and I decided that the time had come. I wanted to create and I wanted something useful. I determined that the purpose of the containers would be to hold the little toys that my kids play with all of the time: wooden blocks, large legos, little people, little pieces, etc. After all, I am trying to teach that we clean up when we finish with something. And I was losing the battle when the four year old picks up and the one year old comes behind and literally dumps the basket as he walks through the living room. So much for hoping for an adult space, right? There are only so many times that you can deal with a four year old's melt down from picking up and then personally having to pick it up the other 15 times before lunch.

I went to one of the home improvement stores one night and picked out this special shade of aqua for about $6.00. Then I decided that it might not work for what I wanted. Then I discussed the color with my husband, who thought it would work.

Pick your color. I selected a Satin Aqua with Paint and Primer.  

                                                       
I used Rust-oleum Painter's Touch with Paint and Primer for the color. I thought it would be the best for this project. The satin texture was more of what I was looking for.

I washed all of the containers the night before I began the project. I used Folger's Coffee Containers and they do not have additional labels to pull off. I did check around the edges to make sure that I pulled all of the adhesive from the freshness seal in order to make sure that the paint would stick.

Pull all of the the adhesive and any pieces of the freshness seal.  Wash the containers in hot soapy water. The containers will still smell like coffee. 

Then I stacked them all and went off to do something else (like watch television and sleep...yeah right...more like laundry or picking up those toys again...).

The next day, I made a run to Hobby Lobby, a paradise filled with endless possibilities to create. I scoured the store looking for chalkboard stickers and a chalkboard pen. With both kids in tow, I took both kids by myself through Hobby Lobby. That's right, I was one brave lady.  The chalk pen was $3.49 and the chalkboard stickers were regularly $3.99.  At check out, my stickers were on sale. So I saved two dollars.

Chalkboard pen 

Chalkboard labels

I arrived home with my goods and couldn't wait to begin creating.  I set up a spray station in the back yard with two saw horses and some scrap cardboard.

Two saw horses and some scrap cardboard construct this makeshift table, perfectly ventilated outside in the sun. 

More containers. Pretty color. 

 The containers were dry and I began to spray paint following the directions on the can.

I turned them upside down for the first spray. Then I would walk around the makeshift table to spray specific sections.  When they dried enough for me to actually spray the tops, I found some errors. I also noticed some drips. For my purpose, I didn't think they needed to be perfect.

Oops! Not perfect! I was too close to the container and sprayed too much at one coat. 

However, I noticed how incredibly excited I was about the color. Yes, I liked it more. Another thing to take note of is that a can of spray paint can make you feel incredibly powerful.  I wanted to search the house for things to spray.  My husband thinks I used too much spray on the cardboard. Ha! Me?! Well, maybe he was right.

I tried to spray around the edges. so that it would be a cleaner look.

I ran out of paint on the touch ups and the top edges. I wanted to do a little spray on the inside so that it wasn't red when I opened up the container. However, I did not feel the need to get more paint.

The containers dried in the sun.

All of the containers are spray painted. 

I eventually moved them into the house.

Containers sitting in the kitchen. Notice that not all sizes are the same. That is fine.

                                       

I wrote out the stickers with the names of the items that it would hold.


The labels can be wiped and rewritten on if I change out the toys, making it reusable. Neat.

This is the finished product. Six canisters "upcycled" for storage for about $12.00.

                                     
My husband made another run to the home improvement store and found knobs that were 1/2 price making them $2.50 each. The aqua stripes matched perfectly.

The plan is to drill holes in the top of the lid and also have a small piece of wood stabilize the knob.

Other knobs that I looked at were very heavy and I was afraid that I would be wasting money and damaging the lids. They were also $5 each and that was more than I really wanted to spend.  This was an added $15.00.  A suggestion for knobs would be to buy the multipack that matches. You can find those on the hardware aisle at many stores like Walmart, Target, or K-Mart.


Total project $27.00 for cute containers. I will post the finished picture with the drilled holes below.

 If you by chance decide that you, too, would like to create these, here are some observations:
1. Paint does flake off with some rough handling.
2. Containers stack easily without knobs.
3. This was not a difficult task. The most difficult thing was collecting the coffee containers.
4. Total spent on this project. $12.00 without knobs. $27.00 with knobs (found on clearance).

                                      

Here is Regina and there she goes....

The idea of a blog was interesting and somewhat mysterious. People who blog have something that they want to share and that they are doing. Much of what I do is basic every day things. And I cannot share what I do at work because of privacy.

There are certain parts of the year where I am so involved in my work and house work that during every day events, I am often lost in thought. My husband says to me, "Where do you go when you go?" which is a quote from American Dad.  To be quite honest, I am thinking about how to maneuver two kids to bed, with or without bath time, while trying to orchestrate getting laundry down stairs to the laundry room to start washing a load. Meanwhile, I am trying to figure how to clear the table and unload the dishwasher faster. To think that I would actually have time to think about writing a blog with topics was far from my mind from February to May. Even now, I am finding it difficult to clear time and I am off for a short time. Really, I just want to vegetate. Maybe stare at a television or just sit by the pool. Either way, nothing that requires much thinking. (Reminder...use sunscreen.)

So, for anyone that was on the edge of their seat with anticipation, "What is Regina going to write about now?" Here she is... and there she goes. This blog will possibly be only updated when I need a creative outlet and can only get one here.  Once again, this was for me. And here I am, again.