DIY Gilded Canisters (made from plastic Folgers coffee cans)

“Gild something!” she said.

I love a good challenge and had been so excited about this particular one… but gold?

Even though it took about forty-seven ideas and nineteen redirections, I’m really happy with what this project has added to my kitchen.

DIY Gilded Canisters (made out of plastic Folgers coffee cans).

I’ve been saving our Folgers coffee containers for months now and turning them into canisters for flour, sugar, etc. They’re perfect! They hold much more than regular canisters and easily fit any measuring cup.

My original idea sounded easy enough: paint three of the cans a vanilla color with gold lids, and make the flour can all gold. Then I wanted to stencil the words on because I love that look.

If only it had been that easy.

The cans covered fairly easy with regular paint, but the lids did not. (I used Martha Stewart’s all-purpose craft paint in gold for those and was not impressed! Smells terrible, high price, took six or seven coats and still doesn’t look covered to me.)

I could not get the stencil to work on the rounded cans and ended up free-handing with a q-tip and the wooden end of a very small paint brush.

Be warned: I am not a skilled DIY-er. And I also cannot handle being detailed and perfectionistic with crafts. They’re supposed to be fun and creative! Hey, using Scotch Blue to help my words be straight was about my limit.

Speaking of Scotch Blue, it began to peel the paint off… grrr. A young man at Michael’s assured me that any craft paint would work on the plastic. He said that if I spray paint it with high gloss afterwards that they would even go through the dishwasher. I seriously doubt this because, as already said, the Scotch Blue peeled some of the paint even after it was glossed. And no, I did not put these through the dishwasher yet because I didn’t want my whole project to wash away!

Honestly, don’t do these the way I did it!

It would have been much better to spray paint. I think.

Most likely, I am going to end up re-painting these with spray paint.

And while I’m confessing… this project was way more for me than just “gilding something.” It involved semi-making and putting up a shelf; creating a background; stenciling; accessorizing… hopefully, I’ll post more on that next week.

However, I am so happy that I took this challenge.

A huge thank-you to Darlene from Fieldstone Hill Design for coming up with this awesome series.

Have you heard of it? You should check it out here. So fun!

Thanks so much for visiting! Here are some other fun diy’s I’ve been working on:

Recovering our dining room chairs

The burlap wreath

Trash can update: a beginner attempt

How we made Jello Playdough

Apartment Improv: coat closet and pantry