50 Dollar Fix: Trunk Love

 

      Remember that shocking pink trunk I bought here? Yeah, well I finally got around to doing something with it. The hot pink color did not exactly match the rest of my living room. So a little fixin' was in order. Here's what I did:

      First, I decided to paint it. Originally I thought about black but then I realized I had this great olive green color. I had picked it up at home depot at their reject paint section. If you haven't been to it, go! They have basically returned paint for about 1 dollar a quart which is a HUGE savings. Why not profit off someone else's indecisiveness.


 

So as I started to paint the top of the trunk, I realized the trunk is plastic, i.e. hard to paint. The green paint kept letting the pink show through. At first, I was quite upset and tried my best to cover it up. But then I realized I kind of liked the effect. So I left it.

 

   
     Once it was all covered, I had to decide what to do next. I thought about tracing a pattern all over it but I am quite lazy. Instead I went off to Michael's to purchase a stencil. I found the perfect one for about 4 dollars and got a gold paint pen to trace it because again, I am too lazy to paint it. I was also too lazy to completely line up everything, so I just kind of eyeballed it. I figure it gives it a nice old hand-painted look. Also, I now realize why DIY-ers are always talking about TV shows they just watched, it's because when you are doing a project it's nice to have the TV on as background noise.


 

      I simply love the way it turned out, I am so happy with it. The muted pink and green look great against the pop of gold pattern. Here's a breakdown of my costs:


 

My arm did get a bit of gold treatment as well...

Costs:

Trunk $26

Green Paint $1

Gold Paint Pen $3

Stencil $4________

Total : $34


What's your favorite DIY project?