February - DIY Upcycled Paint Organiser

After making the drying rack, I wanted to make something to organise my paint tubes, palette knives, etc. and (me being me) I wanted to reuse as much as possible.

I eventually decided to use cardboard box card and loo-roll tubes to make the organiser.

You will need:
Cardboard box card (strong cardboard is better as lots of paints can get quite heavy)
2 x loo-roll tubes PER POT
Glue gun (and sticks for it)
Ruler
Pencil and pen/marker
Scissors and Stanley knife
Tape

To make the outer container:
I started by choosing 3 pieces of cardboard - one piece about twice the length and width of the others. The long piece will be the base and ends of the organiser. The two smaller pieces will be the sides.

Work out the difference in the length and measure half the difference from each end of the long piece and mark a line across the width at that point. (For example, my long piece was 56cm and the short pieces were 25cm meaning the difference is 31cm so each end is 15.5cm tall.)

Then carefully bend the cardboard along these two lines to create the ends.

Use the glue gun to attach the side piece along the base part of the organiser. Then when the glue has set, glue the ends to the side piece. Repeat for the other side.

To make the "pots":
For EACH pot, I used 2 loo-roll tubes or one kitchen roll tube cut in half (to make two short tubes). I then cut each tube vertically so that the tube opened up. Using some tape, I joined the two tubes together to make a wider tube/pot. (DO NOT STICK IN UNTIL AFTER DECORATING THEM!) Repeat for however many "pots" you want to make.

If I make any more of these organisers, I think I would just make grid dividers as the pots mean that you lose some of the space.

To decorate:
I decided to paint my organiser completely white and then put some "Art Attack" style 'paint splats' dotted around to add some colour. Once the paint on all the pieces had dried, I used my glue gun to securely attach the pots inside the organiser and allowed the glue to set before filling it with my paints, etc.




And there you have it! An upcycled paint organiser!

If any of you give this a go, or have any suggestions or questions, please leave a comment below...