DIY: Unlikely Umbrella Stand

The other day I tweeted about this little Los Angeles Rams trashcan that I scoped out in my neighbor's trash while David and I were on a walk with the doggies.

I passed it up the first time around, but when we returned home, I knew I wanted it. Dave and I took a drive around the neighborhood and put it in the backseat.

My plans were to turn this bad boy into a totally unnecessary but fun umbrella stand. I thought I wanted it to be blue...but it turned out like an electric blue this and I was not a fan. No me gusta.

I then tuned to my color of all colors: the tried and true pink; but it ended up looking more like Barney and Friends purple! Shoot! From there I decided to try blue, yet again, and I still ended up not liking it. Just my luck.

None of the three colors you see pictured above actually worked for me. I eventually came back to pink again {surprised??? nah, didn't think so!}, but chose a color I knew I liked {Krylon's Raspberry} and I was satisfied!

I wanted to add a little pizazz to the can so I ordered a Greek key stencil from this online store and it arrived super fast!

I was a little puzzled as to how to use it, but finally figured it out after messing up on cardboard three different times. Whoops.

Once I decided on the location of the stencil, I taped it to the side of the can with plain old scotch tape, and used a small stamper brush with acrylic paint to dab on the white. I did experience some oozing {that just sounds gross--sorry!} but it was nothing a little elbow grease and some water couldn't clean up.

I had to stencil the bottom layer of the stencil first and then moved on to the top layer. It's much like connect the dots once you finally figure out the order in which the two stencil cut-outs work together.

Notice how I have "bottom" written on the stencil to help me remember which direction it went.

When it was all said and done, I was way proud of myself and placed her in the living room.

Of course, I had to make a trip to Target to buy a cute umbrella to place in it! I told you earlier this was an unnecessary but oh-so-fun project! : )

It was quite the fun little DIY project if I do say so myself! Now my only problem is that I'm constantly scouring the house looking for more items to which I can add my fun Greek key stencil. Nothing's safe...oh my.

xoxo