Tuesday, April 24, 2012

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:

And

DIY Club

43 comments:

  1. Cute, Cute, Cute!!!
    I'm impressed with the little dishcloths in the potato masher! I may have to copy that idea!

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  2. I love it .I am going to try it.Thanks for sharing

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  3. Found you from Coastal Charm. I have these ikea cannisters and LOVE this idea! Thank you for the inspiration.

    Jen @ Noting Grace

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  4. Looks great in your kitchen...great re-do on those lids :) Laurel

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  5. Love these...I will be trying this technique soon. Thanks for the inspiration.

    Hugs,
    Susan

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  6. They turned out great and the vignette you created on your counter-top looks great as well!

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  7. This is so cool! They really look old! Great tute, thank you for sharing. Now following you!
    ♥Linsey

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  8. They look amazingly natural! I love them in your crate box too!

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  9. These are just perfect! And thank you for sharing the tutorial - I have saved it to my DIY 'how to' file!

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  10. That completed project is both cute and useful! Great job!

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  11. No way; you lucky duck! That set for $4.99! Great deal! And I LOVE what you've done to the lids; I agree they were too mod (for my taste) before. Awesome vignette too!

    Now that you've had practice, wanna do some lights for me? :)

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  12. I love how these turned out! I'm gonna have to do that to some new lids on some jars I have...awesome! I found you at Funky junk comments about backing up your blog...I had the same issue...just added Firefox browser, and the download worked! No blue screen, showed me the filename and everything! Wanted to let you know, cuz I tried before and gave up, but saw this solution later in the comments. Blessings!!

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  13. Wow! What a great tutorial -- nothing is safe now -- we'll all be 'galvanizing'!

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  14. Love your kitchen! The canisters turned out great! I've used this process a few times, it amazes me how well it works! Thanks for visiting my blog, I'm now a follower

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  15. Very cool! It looks like the real deal to me. No longer looking over newish metal... it can all be old in an instant!

    Shared on FJI Facebook and pinned for SNS 131. :)

    https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150812963136141&set=a.192514281140.164586.175378011140&type=1&theater

    Donna

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  16. They turned out great! I like how you have them displayed. In my first home, I had a lot of red vintage items on display. We put in a pot bellied stove and I leaned a wooden ironing board beside and hung a lot of the smaller red handled utensils. This brings back those memories! Thanks for sharing, Blessings, Tammy

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  17. So cute, Stephanie! You did a great job creating that vintage look on them! Betcha felt a little like Picasso, didn't you? lol!

    oxo laurie

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  18. Lovely! I have the cannisters and use them in the pantry - they shall soon be out and on my kitchen shelf. I too have red and yellow and never tire of it. Beautiful Stephanie - thanx for sharing.

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  19. I so love the way this turned out! I'll have to give this a go really soon... your kitchen is gorgeous!

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  20. Wow! What a great transformation. I would love to have you share this at my Restyled Sundays party.

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  21. Great job on those lids. They really look aged.

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  22. Love this tutorial! You are right...sometimes you just have to keep "playing" with the paint in different techniques till you get the look that you want. Thanks so much for sharing...I saw your post over at the party at 'Funky Junk Interiors".

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  23. Amazing! Great job on those lids :)
    Greetings from Australia♥
    ~Pernilla

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  24. This looks great! Love those lids.
    Be a sweetie,
    shelia ;)

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  25. You could've fooled me! You really did an amazing job, thanks for the tutorial!:)

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  26. Love what you did!! I will deffinately be trying this!!! Wonder how regular jar lids would do??? Hmmmmmm....

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  27. great and it reminds me of grandma's house

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  28. These turned out great. Thanks for sharing at Restyled Sundays. I featured you this week.

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  29. I love the look of them! I have a few of the same jars and look forward to aging the lids. Thanks so much for the tutorial.

    Pam

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  30. Oh my gosh I just love those!! Thank you for the awesome tutorial!!

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  31. Just saw this on Pinterest and wanted to say what a great job you did on the lids! I also love your kitchen setup where they are placed...cute!

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  32. Awesome job, great technique, Stephanie! We have these too and you're so right - those lids look much more like our style. ;)

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  33. Love the make-over! I have some items that could use this technique. I giggled when I saw your dishcloths in the masher! I went to a restaurant in Iowa that put the napkins in the masher! They had every conceivable kitchen gadget you could think of (all old/vintage/antique)! It was so cool =)I also have a canister set similar to the ones you traded out. I repainted the lids red (just an overcoat) and the decals were so bad I had to scrape them =( but, I am painting the canister part with an off white, then doing chalkboard paint (or maybe decals)as an accent label. That way I can change out the ingredients and not be stuck with the labels.

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  34. Love it! A little paint can make a huge difference.

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  35. You're really good at faux galvanizing - I saw your galvanized letters too, just gorgeous! I have this linked to my DIY galvanizing post too today, well done!

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  36. What a cute blog, Stephanie! I like how you kept working at your paint texture until you got it looking just right! I'm the admin for a Facebook group called "I Just Like OLD Junk," and I wanted to let you know that we just featured this tutorial. (https://www.facebook.com/groups/546712042063331/)
    Stop by and join us sometime and keep up the good work!

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  37. I have to find a red handled potato masher. :) LOVE that idea!

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  38. Cute little lids on those cute little canisters!

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  39. Online shop for Ceramic canister with wooden lid with latest collection of designer piece from BRT Ceramic an authorized ceramic product manufacturer.
    Ceramic canister with wooden lid

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  40. Great blog about designer Matte black mixers and accessories!

    Matte black mixers perth

    ReplyDelete

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