Upcycled Barrel into a Retro Toy Bin

A while ago my hubby found this funny old bin and brought it home for me to turn into something else. I thought it would make a really cool toy bin for my grandsons room with a retro nautical theme.

First thing I did was remove the shiny top layerso that the paint would be even as it had come off in patches and had stickers added in places that woud make it uneven, I then painted it in the light blue colour, several coats to get it even.

To make it more nautical I added some old looking rope, it was actually new and I brought several metres of it to use on other projects as well, you will recall it being on the lamp I made recently if you follow my blog. The rope wasnt easy to cut but a nice sharp knife was much easier than scissors, funnily enough!

I used a hot glue gun to secure the rope to the bin

I added rope to the top and the bottom, it fitted really well in the metal strips so seemed perfect for this

You would have seen I had added a sketch on the bin of an anchor. I had drawn this one up for my jewellery range so thought it would be perfect for this project minus the roses, this is a close up

Finally, I handpainted the image, with a stylised finish as i didnt want it to be too perfect, Im quite happy with the finish. pretty good for the cost of around $5.00 for the rope and paint!