P's trash, My treasure

We inherited this great trashcan from P's parents- well actually he got it a long time ago, I think when he first moved to Dallas but we've always used it because its nice and sturdy and it holds a HUGE trash bag so you don't have to take the trash out as often (major plus when you are in an apartment especially). But, the rooster that was hand painted on the can I think in the 80's was sort of "past it's prime" if you know what I mean!

I never really knew what to do with it or how to fix it but back in February I went to Mandie's house for an Altar'd workshop and learned how to properly refinish wood furniture. I redid the crackle red chest of drawers there and I hadn't really done much else, not because I didn't want to, I just hadn't had the time!

Well the other weekend I decided it was TIME!! I was going to refinish it. I decided I wanted it to be white to blend in with the cabinets and then maybe I would add a darker accent color with a border or something. SO off to work I went following Mandie's guide- sanding, priming and painting!

Two coats of creamy white paint later I took it into the kitchen to see how it looked. . .

womp womp womp

No bueno folks! It was whiter than the cabinets and stuck out like a sore thumb- and it was just too plain- it NEEDED something in the middle- hence the rooster I realized! I decided to think it over and came up with a brilliant plan! I still had some navy paint from when we painted our guest bedroom and I could then monogram it with white paint over that! Monogram a trash can you ask? OH YES! I will truly monogram anything! P didn't even question it! I went to work painting then put a few coats of polyurethane on

and then monogramming which was easier than I expected. I just printed out letters in the fonts/ sizes I wanted ( I used two different fonts just to mix it up) Once the navy paint was dry I laid the paper down onto the trash can and with a mechanical pencil I just traced around the letters on top of the paper.

It's really faint here but you can see the outline of the monogram after I penciled over the paper

up close

When you pull the paper some of the white of the paper transfers onto the can and then you just get a small brush and fill it in!  Then you get this-

TA DA!!!

And back in it's home with the lid on and trash bag in place.

We are loving it! See it looks totally normal to have a monogrammed trashcan!