Painted Trunks for Unified Storage

Creating unified storage is as easy as painting similar items the same color, like these dark trunks I painted white for my craft room/office.

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Well hey there friend, welcome to 2019! I hope you had an amazing Christmas! I have been sick for weeks with sinus issues (which has sucked the energy and motivation right outta me!), so while I don't have a brand new project to share today, it's one that I haven't shared yet! I will be posting some organizational projects over the next couple of weeks, as well as tips to decorate your home during the winter months, which I hope you'll find helpful! And if you have any tips for staying ahead of sinus issues, I would love to hear them!

Today is Thrifty Style Team Wednesday, when myself and a great group of bloggers share our thrifty projects and ideas with you! Each one of us is living proof that you can decorate your home, and have a beautiful home, on a budget!! So I hope you're inspired today! The links will be below.

I have had this pair of dark trunks for years. Both, weirdly enough, have an animal-skin-like texture. One was shiny black and modern, while the other was made to look old, but it was just looking pretty dingy. While I wasn't in love with their look, I like using them for storage in my craft room, so decided to give them a white paint makeover so they looked like a set, and so they matched my home office decor better.

Let's take a look at the before.

Ugly, right? Both have grommets and wood or leather features though, so I knew they'd look great painted. I taped off the leather belt-like straps and the hardware on the one trunk because I was hoping to leave it unpainted. Is this alligator skin??? Ew!

I set up my large spray tent outside on the patio and used my HomeRight Super Finish Max paint sprayer to give these dark trunks a unified white finish.

If you are painting a lot of furniture, or you know your piece would be difficult to paint by hand, the paint sprayer is your best friend! It goes so unbelievably quick and gets into tough-to-reach nooks and crannies!

When I peeled the tape off the "leather" belt, it looked really grungy so I ended up painting those a dark gray, using a small craft brush.

I also lightly sanded the grommets on the smaller trunk, to reveal some of the metal and give it more of an old-world feel.

I haven't sealed these painted trunks with anything because they get minimal use. I am storing my craft vinyl in the top one, and items I don't need to get at very often in the bottom one. If you need file storage, you could certainly do that in a trunk! Last year I created a color-coded file system in our blanket chest and we love it!

I like the trunks stacked because it takes up less floor space. I've seen people use stacked trunks as side tables, which is another great idea and I could see myself eventually using these as a side table in the sun room!