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When was the last time you thought about how your trash can looks? Not how clean it is or if you’re running out of bags or how soon you need to empty it, but how it fits in with the rest of your kitchen decor. Waste bins have long been relegated to under-sink or island cabinets, expected to be functional and unremarkable. But not anymore: The most intrepid creatives are turning their basic stainless-steel and white garbage receptacles into brighter, bolder, and more interesting pieces that are worth showing off. Best of all, the fixes are simple and inexpensive, using mostly just paint. Below, see three smartly upgraded trash cans and start plotting your own transformation.
Colorful Stripes
DIY queen Chelsea Zeferina’s plain white trash can simply wasn’t cutting it anymore. “I live in a colorful home and I found myself hiding it because it’s so boring and ugly compared to everything else,” she explains. Drawing inspiration from a set of colorful Dusen Dusen canisters, Zeferina brought her can up to snuff by cleaning and sanding the sides down before painting it all over with regular wall paint. Next, she created thick vertical contrasting lines by adhering 2-inch-wide painter’s tape in long strips and painting over them with a different color. She followed the same steps on the lid using two different hues, resulting in a multi-colored masterpiece.
Silver Spheres
“I was inspired by wanting to romanticize everyday items in my life, because why not have a special, artful trash can?” Andrea Cenon says. She turned hers into something sculptural and eye-catching by purchasing a set of wooden half spheres, coating them with silver spray paint, and attaching them (using Gorilla Glue) in a grid pattern to the sides of her stainless steel bin. Since the spray paint matches the finish of the metal exterior, no further painting was necessary. “I’m obsessed with having this in my kitchen because it’s a statement piece and I love looking at it all the time,” she says.
Modern Gingham
Sheri Wilson’s makeover started with a ubiquitous cylindrical stainless-steel kitchen can. Like Zeferina, she began by cleaning and sanding the receptacle first, but then went a step further and covered it with a coat of spray-paint primer. After adding vertical stripes (also using painter’s tape to make them straight) and letting those dry, Wilson repeated the process horizontally to make a gingham pattern. She let her masterpiece cure before putting it back into heavy rotation. “I used latex paint so it wipes clean easily,” Wilson reports. “I love how cute it is. It makes me smile when I use it.”
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