Refinishing A Trash Can Cover

This has been a project that has taken me some time. Not that it's hard, but I didn't have the motivation to finish it.

I started back in the summer months. And just finished it New Years Eve.

My parents bought this for me 9 years ago. It's made out of oak. It's been very sturdy through the last 9 years and 4 moves to 3 states. It's taken a beating. So I took it all apart and sanded it all down, used a sprayed primer (which I decided I really don't like to use cause it's gritty and you have to sand it down) then it sat and sat in my basement.

Since I didn't work for the week and a half the kiddos were out of school for Christmas, I decided to finish this baby!

So I took out a can of black paint and started painting. One quick lesson I learned......use tinted primer!! It took quite a few coats to cover the primer with black. Then I got the bright idea to lacquer it. This cover get all sorts of stuff stuck to it so I wanted to be able to clean it off easily. But lacquer in a basement equal all sorts of fumes! But I knew I couldn't take it outside with the snow and wind. Another lesson I learned...no project in the winter if they involve lacquer.

Now the hard part for me was the label of "TRASH". I do not own anything that cuts vinyl. And I didn't want to pay anyone to make me one. So I printed out the word in a font I liked, rubbed the back of the paper with chalk, dusted off the excess and laid it down on the lid and traced the letters. So it was a white carbon copy if that makes sense. I used a paint pen to fill in the letters. IOnce dry I wiped off the chalk marks and Modged Podged over the words, bought new hardware, reassembled it and put it in the kitchen, just in time for our New Years Eve Party!

That's it! And it's already needing to be taken out!

(the black on the refrigderator is NOT from the trash can, that's from moving it 4 times)

Laura