Back when we were on vacation in Charleston, we were watching the weather report one day and they mentioned that there was a ‘small craft advisory’ in effect. I hadn’t heard that terminology in years, probably since I lived in Florida. Although we have plenty of people with boats on lakes here in Minnesota, it’s not quite the same thing as ocean going vessels.
Anyway, when they said it, Mr. Q said ‘that sounds like it should be the title to one of your blog posts!’
What a clever idea. I made a note of it in my phone. And lo and behold, it seemed appropriate for today’s post.
I’m about to share a very quick and easy update to a metal bin today, so consider this your ‘small craft advisory’.
I’ve had this particular container in my pantry for years. I’m sure that I originally purchased it from a garage sale, but I don’t remember when, where or how much I paid. It started life in copper, and who knows what I kept in it back then.
This is the best I could do for a true ‘before’ photo.
Yikes! Who remembers my pantry in its ‘before’ state? I’ve shared it here in the past. It was not pretty. It was behind a closed door most of the time back then.
Here is how the pantry looks now (to see the full transformation of this space, check out this post).
As part of the pantry makeover, I decided to paint the container in that everyday kitchen green color.
Copper just didn’t work with my color scheme out there. I painted it using a fancy spray paint that I got at Michaels, I’m fairly sure that it was the Liquitex Chromium Oxide Green 6, but I’m not 100% positive about that. FYI, it has held up beautifully, even on a metal canister with a very tight fitting lid.
Well, recently Mr. Q and I purchased an air fryer from Amazon. When it arrived, it was too big to fit inside any of our kitchen cupboards, or in the other pantry/closet we have next to the kitchen, so that left finding a spot for it in my pretty pantry.
I’ll just go ahead and admit it, I tend to value form over function. I love the way my pantry looks. It does serve a function as well though. We store toilet paper, kleenex, cleaning supplies, cat food, extra coffee pods, and other pantry items in it. For the most part these items are kept inside pretty containers. Generally, if I can’t put it in a pretty container, it gets stored somewhere else.
So I’m not super happy about ruining the carefully curated look in my pantry with a big, black, shiny appliance. But sometimes I guess function has to win out. In order to make room for the air fryer, something had to go from the pantry. And after a process of elimination, this container is the item getting the boot.
I decided I may as well snazz it up a bit and then try to sell it. So I gave it a good cleaning, and then I added a section from I.O.D.’s Label Ephemera transfer to the front.
I added a couple of coats of Dixie Belle’s flat clear coat over the transfer to protect it.
Then I cut out a new label from some pretty floral scrapbook paper and added the “PARIS,” which is also from the Label Ephemera transfer.
What a difference a little transfer can make!
I love how it turned out, but since it seems likely that we’re keeping the air fryer, I don’t have a spot for this anymore.
So it’s up for grabs. If you’re local, and in need of a pretty container to stash things in (please note, it is not food safe), check out my ‘available for local sale‘ page for details.
I’m curious, which do you tend to value more, function or form? Do you want things to look pretty at the expense of functionality (like me!), or are you more practical? Leave a comment and let us know!