Recycling Container

Recycling Container

Recycling Container 550 430 Atop Serenity Hill

One of my favorite blogs to read is IHeart Organizing, mostly because I aspire to be that organized!! The author, Jen, decided to have a challenge for her readers this month to organize something about their kitchens. Now let me start by saying that I live in a rental and when I dream of a beautiful, well-organized, functional kitchen, the one I currently have is not it!! But I have done the best I can with what I have. I decided to pick something small about the space that bothered me and see what I could do about that for this challenge. The item that stood out the most was the way my husband and I handled our recycling.old_recycleYes, folks, we use boxes from the liquor store to hold the recycles! Now it is pretty convenient to pick up a box every couple weeks. It is also convenient that we can just put the entire box out to the curb on recycle day. However, what an eye-sore in my kitchen! The box above is actually the prettiest one I have seen! So, a new recycling container was in order.blank_crateThis wooden crate has been around for a long time. I have used it in the past as a display at crafts shows and also for storage in my old studio. Now it will have a new use as the temporary home for our recycles.

The first thing I did was prime the crate since it was bare wood. I wanted to be able to protect the wood as best I could since sometimes the recycle container sits on the curb in rain or snow. This didn’t matter when it was a cardboard box, but I wanted to be able to use the crate for a few years.

The next step was to decide what I wanted to paint on it.inspiration_recycleThis picture is horrible!! Sorry!! It is a shot of a TV screen from a catalog. I loved the color scheme with the blues and greens. Since recycling containers tend to be blue, I thought it would fit. I also loved the bubbles!paint_on_crateI chose some pretty blues and greens from my FolkArt acrylic paint collection and with a large, flat brush added streaks of paint all over the crate. I kept the colors I picked up very random and didn’t over blend so that you could see all the mixtures that are created.bubble_on_crateOnce all the background paint was dry, I added bubbles on the sides with a 1/2″ angle brush. I loaded white acrylic paint in only the tip of the brush so that most of the bubble would have the background color show through. Since I was working on wood, I added a touch of FolkArt Floating Medium to the brush as well to help the paint flow more easily across the surface.bubble_highligh The last step with the painting was to add a white highlight with the tip of the angle brush in each bubble to give them the illusion of dimension.new_recycle

The crate still needs to be sealed but unfortunately, it was raining today so I wasn’t able to do it for the photo. Sealing tends to make the paint colors just pop, so I can’t wait to see what it looks like! I will be using a spray sealer by Rust-Oleum. The sealer will be the final step in protecting the crate from the elements and will also make it easier to wipe the crate clean.

I decided to add a sign to my crate so that I could make sure that the collectors left it behind on recycling day! I didn’t want to have spent all that time on my new container to have it be recycled!! I have included a link for you here should you wish to print out the sign for yourself. I laminated the sign, punched 4 holes and secured it to the crate with black zip-ties.

I love our new addition to the kitchen! It will make me smile when I see it and add a bright spot in an otherwise beige space!!

Do you use something fun and cheerful to hold your recycles?

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