Tin Pail Makeover

March is here and it almost smells like spring outside. Almost, not quite. Still have to get past the patches of snow on the ground, but they should be gone by tomorrow. The planting beds are clear of snow and the plants that aren't cut back in the fall are visible. Pitiful looking, but visible. This time of year I find myself looking at pictures of the yard from previous years, and I came across a little project that I did last May. The Corona tin pail that was collecting dust on a shelf in the garage needed a purpose. It was a very thoughtful gift to my husband from a friend of mine. She gave it to TM because she didn't want him to feel left out at the time of my bridal shower, some 5 to 6 years ago. Very sweet of her. It was filled with 4 really nice pint size glasses. The glasses are tucked away in TM's man cave, a.k.a. the garage. The pail just sat on the shelf. 

I wanted to use it in the yard, with the other old tin pail that is used for collecting clippings while walking through the yard. But it needed a makeover!!!! Corona is fine, but it's not pretty at all, or even cute. This is what it looked like after I was finished. Horrible lighting.

Go play in the dirt.

The pail needed a chalkboard area. That was my plan, a rectangle of chalkboard paint on each side of the pail, covering the logo and words. No problem. Right?

The wonderful Corona pail. Not real pretty for the garden.

Searched the garage for supplies: Sandpaper, chalkboard spray paint, and painter's tape. Great, we had all three. And of course newspaper to protect the area. Things were going better than I had hoped.

Supplies needed: sandpaper, chalkboard spray paint, and painter's paint.

Taped off the pail, leaving the area that I wanted to sand and paint. Easy as pie! It went pretty quickly also.

Tape the surfaces you don't want painted. Make sure you get all of the surfaces.

And here is where the mistake was made. See all that open area on the side of the pail? No tape or covering. Have you ever heard of the term "over spray"? I had, on lots of occasions. But did I think about it at the time? Of course not. Too busy going full steam ahead and not planning or thinking the project through before I started. This did come back to haunt me, in a big way.

Spray paint does spray in a wider area than you want, cover all surfaces you don't want painted.

Not thinking about the "over spray", I sanded the pail and got the spray paint. Painted with the ease of someone who has done this before. Let it dry for a few hours, sprayed a second coat and let that dry for a few hours. Just as pleased as punch with myself, and tickled that it was so easy. Then.....I removed the tape. See the sides in the above picture? Yeah.....they had lots of over spray. Lots of over spray. Again, lots of over spray. Not solid, but extremely noticeable and dark. Dang it!!!! After pondering for a while, a trip to the craft store was in order. I purchased a pack of peace sign stickers for about $1, on sale, and went home. 

Scuff the surfaces to prepare for painting. The paint will adhere better than it will on smooth surfaces.

Spent a little more time sanding the rest of the pail, really just scuffing the surface so the paint sticks. Placed a few of the stickers on the pail, then proceeded to spray paint the entire pail, spraying over the stickers as well. You know the drill, I had to let it dry, then apply a second coat. Okay. So after it was dry, I used a stick pin to lift just a small piece of the edge of the sticker, and very slowly removed the stickers so as not to peel off any paint. It actually turned out pretty well.

Cute little peace signs on the can made it more interesting.

Following the directions on the spray paint can, it needed to dry for 24 hours, then chalk had to be rubbed all over the surface, then wiped off. Not difficult at all.

This is a great time to be messy. Just have fun, get messy.

Pardon the terrible lighting, but here is the finished product. After using it all of last summer, it looked better at the end of the summer than it did in the beginning. It was a little more weathered by the end of the summer. It works great, like a pail. We all had fun writing various messages and drawing various pictures on it during the summer months. By the way, if you have teenage sons, you might want to hide the chalk.

All done! It turned out well.

This turned out better than I thought it would, after having made the mistake of not covering all the surfaces that I didn't want paint on. But as with any mistake, it's a learning experience, now I know what to do and what not to do next time I take on a project like this one: Think the project through to the end, before starting, and cover all of the surfaces that I don't want to get paint on. Simple enough.

It's really starting to feel like spring is just around the corner. I'm so excited. That means that soon....I will be able to......GO PLAY IN THE DIRT!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yippee!!!