THE CRAFT BARN: French Farmhouse Storage Bin

...Otherwise known as Repurposed and Upcycled Cheap Junk from The Christmas Tree Shop.

I don't know why I'm calling this French Farmhouse.   I think it's because of the rooster. Aint' she cute? (I'm not sure people are very "into" roosters anymore, but that's okay ) And also maybe because it makes me feel better than to just call it a cheap tin bucket from the Christmas Tree Shop.

Anyways, I wish SO MUCH that I took a before picture. Maybe even some during would have been nice. I have other ones of these lying around, so I will be sure to take both before AND after photos next time.   It was already decoupaged in some manner with a baby print. Meaning a print for a baby's room. I scooped up a bunch since they were only about a buck or so each! I thought that they would look cute in my daughter's playroom. They did not. Way too much pastel. Pastel OVERLOAD even.

Anyways, I'm always looking for cute storage solutions in my kitchen. My kitchen counters are a haven for any stray piece of paper, mail, bills, food, toys, you name it. It ends up there.   This controls a bit of the clutter.

So easy and fun. What I did, was take the above mentioned bin/bucket/tin can and painted it black. Should have done this outside with some spray paint (next time I'll know better) but this worked just fine as it turns out. It needed many coats, but I used an ~~inexpensive~~ CHEAP bottle of acrylic craft paint. It dries very quickly. (Here I should note that: It dries very quickly UNLESS you are expecting it to dry very quickly - after the first few coats I tested this out and ended up with black fingertips)

Even though I do seem to have a strange and vaguely satisfying love affair with plain black paint (I'll explain at a later date), this needed a little something extra. So I grabbed some fabric that I had leftover from My First Window Mistreatment and basically tied a large farmhouse-y bow (I don't know what it means either) around the middle.   Added this cute Rooster chick with some craft wire.   Then SHE wanted to be a little fancy too.   So I attempted attaching a bit of fringe along the bottom to dress her up a bit.

And took a bad photo with a shadow from my head in it apparently.

The handle is a pretty creamy white, so if the Rooster ever doesn't want to watch me prepare dinner or pay bills, she can turn the other way and it still looks kinda cute.