Kitchen Canisters Makeover with Faux Galvanizing Technique

For the past few years my kitchen has had a red and yellow vintage theme going on.   It's been bright and cheerful and I've loved every minute of it, but here lately I'm itching for change.  I still love red and yellow, and I still love vintage, but I've been wanting to give it a more rustic farmhouse feel with just a few vintage touches.  I think a few key changes will bring about the look I'm after.

A few months ago when I decided I was ready for this change, the first thing that came to mind that I wanted to change was the canister set.  I found these lil' cuties on Ebay for a great deal a few years back, and they've served me well.  But I wanted something less vintage and more farmhouse.

So I went searching.  I scoured Ebay, Etsy, Pinterest, and Google Images, but came up with nothing.  I finally decided to quit searching and just wait for them to come.  I knew they would, in time.

And I was right.  A few weeks later I found this Ikea set at Goodwill for.....

wait for it.......

Yep!  You saw that right.  $4.99 for the whole set!  I knew they were perfect the minute I spotted them.  I liked how the shape of the jar mimicked a canning jar without being too literal, and the metal lids were like God's little gift to me that day.  Love at first sight.  Well, almost.

 I didn't love the lids as they were, they were too shiny and modern looking for me.   I loved the potential of what they could become.  I envisioned them having that galvanized look of old zinc canning jar lids.

I came home and did some research, but came up with nothing on how to create that look.  So, they got put out in the garage while I pondered it for 10 months a bit.  I came to the conclusion that I would probably have to layer varying shades of gray paint, but still didn't know exactly how to go about it.  The motivation for this project slowly ebbed away, and yes, they sat in the garage for t.e.n. months.

Then the other day while blog hopping I came across a post about faux galvanizing over at Blissfully Ever After.  That was the inspiration I needed to dig these babies out from under the piles of other projects awaiting me and get to work.

 As Jennifer suggested in her post, I bought metallic paint in Gun Metal Gray, a Burnt Sienna (I already had the black and grey), and some round sponge brushes.  It was my lucky day at JoAnn's, the set of sponge brushes was on clearance from $4.97 to .97!

Here are all the supplies you'll need if you want to try out this technique for yourself.

I knew I wasn't going to be putting the taller pasta jar out on display so I was able to use it's lid for some trial runs. 

 I decided not to do a primer coat since my lids were already silver.  I wanted that to show through a bit and didn't want to cover it up.  So I began with a layer of black like Jennifer did and layered the other colors on top (the top half of the lid in this picture).  But I didn't like the results.  It was too dark and too black.  As you can see by my little fingernail marks, the paint easily scraped off so I scraped it clean on one side and tried it without the black.  I liked it mucho better!  I also realized that I would need to sand them down a bit so the paint would adhere better.

So, with a bit of a nervous twitch in my tummy (I always get nervous when attempting something new) I sanded them all down good and got to work.

I used a small paint brush to dab some paint in the crevices around the handle that I knew, thanks to my trial runs,  I wasn't going to be able to get with the sponge brushes.

Next, I used the dry brush technique (dab the sponge in paint, then dab on a paper towel to get a lot of the paint off) and sponged on the metallic gun metal gray all over and let that dry.

A few minutes later I very lightly sponged the Burnt Sienna around, with an emphasis on the edges in places of typical rust.  Let me just tell you, this shade is perfect for reproducing a rusty look!  Also, in my test run, I tried it without the rustiness and it just didn't look as good.  The Burnt Sienna gives it another layer of color that adds depth and authenticity to it.

And here it is with another layer of gray (I mixed a little black in with the light gray to make it darker)  sponged over the "rust."

At this point I started to get discouraged because it was looking so fake and not at all how I wanted it to look.  I thought I was going to have to start completely over.  But... I just kept working and trying and kind of by accident I figured out how to finally get what I wanted.

 The gun metal gray is a metallic paint so it dries with a shine, which I didn't want.  I knew that basic craft paint dries really dull and flat so I wanted that to be the final layer.  I mixed up yet another shade of gray and wiped it over a small section at a time.

Then I used a damp paper towel to {very gently} sort of smudge the paint and work it into the other layers of paint, sort of filling in the gaps so to speak.  This helped smooth out the finish and give it another layer of texture since authentic old canning lids have tons of texture and layers of color.  

At the same time, the dampness of the towel was also removing the excess paint.

Doing that covered up some of the rustiness so I did the dry brush technique with a sponge brush and very lightly brushed some more "rust" onto it.  The craft paint dried nice and dull and flat and I was pretty happy with how they turned out.

Since these will be in daily use in the kitchen and have the potential to get grimy, I added a few layers of Krylon clear coat sealer in matte finish to protect the paint.  They make the sealer in a flat finish and I considered using that so as not to add any bit of shine to them, but I was worried the flat finish might not have very good washability.  The matte finish did add just the tiniest bit of shine to them, but probably only a perfectionist like me would even notice.

So...now that they were done I set them in place.  But since I decided to take down the Hostess Cupcake sign, it was looking a little bare.  They needed something more.

I took the RC Cola crate off the top of the fridge and came up with this.

A vintage potato masher holds my dishcloths, while an old donut/biscuit cutter and milk glass salt shaker add some extra cuteness.  I have to be honest here, the dishcloths in the potato masher is not my original idea.  I saw that done in a display at an antique store a few years ago and tucked it away in my brain for future use.

A little closer look at the "galvanized" lids.

So here's a little comparison.

                                         

Before

After

And another comparison.

Before

After

 I am loving the change - exactly what I was going for!  I can't quit glancing over there every time I'm in the kitchen!  : )

                                                   

Linking up to:

Nifty Thrifty Tuesday - Coastal Charm
Cowgirl Up Linky Party #12 - The Farmhouse Porch
Wow Us Wednesday #63 - Savvy Southern Style
Thrifty Thursday #57 - Thrifty Decorating
Treasure Hunt Thursday - From My Front Porch to Yours
Saturday Nite Special #131 - Funky Junk Interiors
Restyled Sundays #35 - Stylish Once Again

And