Make an Organizer from Old Paint Buckets

Whether you need to organize the kitchen, the bathroom, or your desk, you’ll get lots of help from some old paint buckets. The paint cans can be transformed into a beautiful organizer that’s so easy to make yet unique and distinctive. Make sure you start with paint cans that have no dents. The lids will not be needed for this project. Don’t have any paint cans in the garage? Purchase the cans from yard sales and flea markets, usually with a little paint still in them.

Remove the handles from all of the paint buckets you intend to use for the organizer. Clean the paint cans out well and paint them inside and out. It doesn’t matter if the cans are gallon buckets or quart cans but the gallon size paint buckets will hold more. After the paint has dried well use contact cement to build a pyramid with them. Turn three paint cans on their sides and glue together, then stack two more on top, glue them in place, then add another at the very top and glue to secure.

The organizers can be huge, for use in a garage, or very tiny to hold small items in the bathroom. Use gallon paint cans and make the arrangement with a base of seven cans, for a large arrangement that can hold lots of stuff in the basement or shed. Or, use pint cans with three as a base to make a cute desk organizer.

An even nicer way to decorate the paint cans is to use fabric. Cover the can in adhesive and wrap the cloth around it. Use decorative ribbon or rope, around the top and bottom of the cans, to hide the raw edges of the fabric. This organizer design is beautiful to set by a fireplace for holding magazines or to place in a bathroom for holding rolled-up towels. Other ways you can decorate the cans include shelf paper, wallpaper, laminated pictures from magazines or even Fun Foam – thin, colorful foam pieces for crafting. You can even wrap the cans in rope or twine, just to cover them, before gluing them together. That technique will give the organizer more of a nautical look.

You don’t absolutely have to make the arrangement from paint cans. Any cans will do as long as they’re all the same size and they don’t have jagged edges. Coffee cans are one example of cans you can use in place of the paint buckets.

There is yet another way you can use the paint can arrangement. After gluing all the cans together, set them on their bottoms, and you’ll have an arrangement that can hold brushes, combs and curling irons, or even kitchen utensils. The paint bucket arrangement makes a unique gift to give family members and is an easy project for kids to do as well. Check your local paint stores to see if they have paint buckets you can purchase. (If lids are dented, the stores won’t sell these on the shelves, so you can often get a bargain on them).