Spray Paint + Old Curtains = New Laundry Hampers

Remember these beauties filled with our unmentionables that I shared with you a while back (in this post actually)!

WELLLL. Way back, when it was still spray paint season, I took these laundry baskets out back and sprayed the sh*t out of them. But not just because I felt like it, but because we needed a more color-coded way of dealing with our laundry.  

And so using the paint I had, I came up with a little system. A white bin (for bleachables), a cream one (for non-bleachable whites/lights), I left one of the blue ones bright blue (for brights) and a dark blue one (for darks). And TA DA! Oh how I love spray paint!

But that still left me with the unsolved issue of visible unmentionables. And my first liner attempt had been a total fail (king sized pillow cases). And I didn't actually want to spend any money on making linings, and my fabric collection failed to provide any viable options. So I got a little more creative, and pulled out the old curtains that we had from our last apartment. And since I knew we wouldn't need them all again since we don't have enough windows for them, I decided to make basket liners out of them. Well, out of two of them (we have ten - we had a lot of windows in our last place). Here's what I basically did.

As per usual, I just started figuring it out. First, I realized I could make 2 liners from each curtain, so I chopped them in half and cut the tops off. Then I ironed them, and stitched them together. It was a bit difficult to manage the seam exposure, because you want it to be internal for the body of the liner, but external on the top, so that when you roll it over the edge, the seam is hidden underneath. But whateves. After the first one, the other three were a breeze. And it probably only took about an hour and a half to finish them. 

And since my description on how to make the liners is less than helpful, here's a little step by step tutorial I just found online that's similar to the process I went through. I should also mention, that Patches did help with this project. She totally identified a loose sting and tried to remove it!

My total budget for this project was zero dollars, and I spent zero dollars, so it's a super big win! And I'm totally loving the transformation of these baskets! Yay for spray paint and old curtains!

Sprayin It Saturday

One thing I love about design is that sometimes it takes the smallest action to have a huge result. And actually, I love small actions with big results. That's why I'm so infatuated with carpet tile. But I have a second secret love - spray paint! 

I love how quickly it goes on, how clean the applications final appearance is, and how bold the colors can be, and how amazing the transformation can be. But of course there are some serious down sides to spray paint, like the fact that it's bad for the environment and its insane off gasing. But beyond trying to kill the world and everyone who lives in it, it's pretty amazing. And I'm totally in love with it.   For example, I found this cute/creepy cat ceramic which I thought would be less creepy and more cute if it was all one colour. WHITE.

And so I sprayed it down with a couple of coats of white. And voila.

A less creepy ceramic animal. And though I'm not a great lover of ceramic animals, I thought this little cat would later be perfect next to our cat memory frame (which is a frame filled with images of all the cats we've had in our life). I guess this guy is kind of like a little angel cat. 

The second thing I sprayed was these babies. 

Which I got for FREE! But their base was not so nice. So I did the classic on them. BLACK. But first I had to wrap and tape them up. 

Then I sprayed them with a couple of coats at my makeshift spraying station. And they came out looking like this. 

I like the spray turned out and since they will probably end up on a high shelf, I'm not worried about people seeing the brown inside base. I've also been wondering if I shouldn't have gone with something more interesting for a colour. But then again, I can always spray them again.  I did get some new candles for them, but I want to find the right spot for them before I show you them in the house. But now I have my sights set on spraying these. 

Which are the laundry bins that you saw labeled in our bedroom floor plan. We bought them at Target a couple of months back, and I loved them because I knew I could spray them later if I wanted. And I had bought some king sized pillow cases to fit into them, so you wouldn't see our unmentionables.  But it turned out that they weren't big enough to fold over the top. So for the last couple of months, they have looked like this. Plus we some how struggle to keep the sorting clear. I'd like to have the baskets colour coded. One would be white (for bleachables), then a cream one (for non-bleachable whites/lights), a bright colored one (for brights) and then a dark colored one (for darks). And since I have enough spray paint to make this happen, you better believe I'm off to make it happen.

Well, off to start another project!