DIY Upcycled Nautical containers

First let me start this post with an apology. I lost my camera charger a while back and have been surviving on the last fleeting bits of energy it had in it. Of course it finally crapped out on me and I was forced to order a new one. Although the new charger will be here most likely tomorrow (thanks to Amazon!) I still wanted to get this project documented and posted since it's such a fun little project thats cheap and easy and I have a few larger ones coming up! You can tell the haste in my pictures from the lack of staging. I have a bunch to do in the next few days including birthday cake orders, banner making, cleaning and more laundry than I can talk about. So it's a little quick and sloppy, such is life I suppose!

This project was developed because one of Shaun's favorite foods is spaghetti. Thus I go through a lot of tomato sauce and paste cans. I would usually rinse these out and recycle them, but they took up so much room in the recycle bin and I couldn't help but thinking about what perfect little containers they were and how multipurpose I could really make them.

Part of me was still in DIY mode from making all the decor for Ashley's upcoming baby shower. When I went to Home Depot to purchase the sisal twine that would make the hanger for the banners I picked up a heavier duty rope as well, this one to be exact. I had another project I was going to use it for but ended up getting pushed to the back of the line. No worries though, I only used maybe 30 feet for this entire project wrapping 2 large and 2 small cans.

So I gathered up my used sauce cans being sure that all the adhesive was removed, a couple cans of fun colored spray paint and took them outside.

I decided to paint them a soft baby blue color and a hot pink. I was originally going to go for plain white which would also be adorable and slightly more classic/nautical, but I'm shifting more into large white pieces in my home and smaller colorful accents. This worked perfectly.

Make sure to spray paint these outside in a well ventilated area and preferably in some shade. I noticed when they sat directly in the sun they were still slightly tacky when I brought them in. 

After about 2 coats, I took them in an rinsed them under some cool water and that helped to get rid of a little bit of that chemical smell and also cool the paint so they stopped being sticky.

you can see the seam here on both cans, most of the seam is covered up by the rope but I also just end up putting the seam in the back and you never notice it.

So I took them upstairs and fired up the hot glue gun and started gluing and wrapping my rope. I decided to start fro the bottom on the blue ones and start right where the ribbing is on the hot pink ones. I haven't decided yet which ones are my favorite. I think I like them both for their individual personalities.

The hardest part about this project was cutting the rope. All I had next to me at the time were some scissors and mini wire cutters. Although larger wire cutters may have worked a bit better, I made due with what I had. 

The first use I loved about these is candle holders. The larger one fits 4 and the smaller one fits 1 quite well. If I wasn't rushing around like a crazy person I would fill these about halfway with sand first and then drop a tea light or citronella votive inside for those summer nights out on the deck.  They cast a lovely glow and would be perfect as centerpieces surrounded by seashells and driftwood for a nautical themed soiree. 

They are also perfect as pencil/craft supply holders.  It seems I'm always surrounded by a billion paintbrushes, pencils, pens and miscellaneous items that need to be corralled into something slightly neater and prettier. What a perfectly cute answer to a problem I've been trying to solve for so long! 

The easy/copout use is just as additional nautical decor for the mantle.  Even though I'm going for more of a lake vibe and less of a beach vibe, they still work perfectly into the decor while remaining simple enough to not just pop out on their own.

These are exceptionally nice as a flower vase. What a pretty way to gift someone their favorite flowers in a reusable, non-traditional, adorable vase! 

My personal favorite is probably the most utilitarian of all of them, but it's something that I use every morning and some afternoons.

Throw those keurig cups in there! In fact any open container on your counter can be subbed with a pretty DIY container like this. Since coffee is a passion/addiction of mine it was a nice way to hide those k-cups while still having them easily at hand.

So there you have it! An afternoon project that you can create for your next shindig or just to spice up your office, kitchen or mantle. I'm also using one to collect all the dry cleaning tags, packs of gum, and loose change when you change at the end of the day. But I felt that wording it they could also "spice up the bedroom" would be a little bit misleading to their actual use. What would be your favorite way to use these babies?