pretty trash bucket

I transformed a costco laundry detergent bucket into a pretty trash can for the twins' room. It was easy peasy!

Supplies: ugly bucket, mod podge or white glue, scrapbook paper (or wrapping paper, children's artwork, see what you can find), a scrap of sandpaper, foam brush.



Measure the top and bottom circumfrence of your bucket. My bucket was slightly tapered, being larger at the top than the bottom. It ended up not being a big deal because of the papers I had available to me. However, if you are planning vertical stripes or a pattern, you will need elongated rhumbus shaped pieces, not just straight strips, if you have a tapered bucket.

Roughen up the surface of the bucket with the sandpaper. This will give more ridges for the glue to adhese to.



Cut your papers, or tear for a decoupauged look. I found a few pages that my kids had made and then abandoned, so I used those. After all, this was for their room. :)

Protect your work surface, and then paint the bucket with a layer of mod poge or some slightly thinned white glue. Lay your papers, smoothing from one end to the other, to push any bubbles and wrinkles out. If you don't like what you've made, you can pull off the papers gently while the glue / podge is still wet and reposition.


When you've covered your bucket, go back over the scrapbook papers with a good coating of mod podge / glue. If you have a lot of cut / overlapping edges, this is a good time to press the edges down and add mod podge.



Let cure. After drying, trim the papers that are hanging off the edge of the bucket. If any edges have lifted, or if you'd like a shinier surface, add another layer of mod podge / glue and let dry again.

Then enjoy your beautification!



You can see ours has a lot of depth, because I was using already "made" artwork. That accounts for a lot of the wrinkles I ended up with - the paper was already stiff with glue. I was worried that the dimension would lift or be foder for little fingers to pull, but it's held up so far through the 6-7 months we've been using it like this. (Just one tiny tear.) It's a waste basket in a bedroom - it's not like it's getting wet or kicked around. Have fun with it!