Wall Organizer From Dust Pans

Thea
by Thea
4 Materials
$10
3 Hours
Easy

This French country-style wall organiser was inspired by an Anthropologie version in galvanised metal.

Although I had seen this dustpan in plastic before, I was pleasantly surprised to find three metal ones at a shop. They were dirt cheap and I should have bought them on the spot but instead I went away, puzzling over what I could do with them. Needless to say, when I went back there were only two left.

Anthropologie has a beautiful range of wall-mounted storage bins, all stunningly understated in galvanized metal. Yay, I thought, I am going to make a knock-off and I am going to nail it! How difficult could it be?


So I set about finding tutorials on how to age metal and industriously sanded my bins down. I should have known that something was wrong after two different grits of sandpaper left them prettty much still gleamingly new. And a soak in toilet cleaner (the one with a stern warning in the line of “whatever you do, don’t ever use this product on metals”) didn’t leave a spot either. And an overnight soak vinegar and salt bath? Not a dull spot.


Because stainless steel doesn’t rust.🤦‍♀️

Fine. To get my revenge on the non-compliant metal objects I decided to punish them with drill. Take that - 2 sets of 4 holes on opposite sides of the narrowing part of the pan. And two extra on the flat part to hang them by.

Since the aging wasn’t going to work the obvious solution was chalk paint. I took out some Tjhoko paint (a local brand) and gave the metal a coat or two followed by a Krylon Cover Max sealant. It is shinier than wax but dries much quicker.

Not being a fan of the distressed look, I gave the pans a sand here and there. I suppose standard practice would be to add another colour with some sort of wax to give the colour more depth.

I took some string and threaded it across the front of each pan with a darning needle, left and right through the holes in a random pattern. As I said, my holes weren't particularly symmetrical and but this type of design actually works very well with that. By adding the string I divided the space into two shelves behind each other. The idea is that the string prevents larger items from falling forward.

The pans have holes right in the centre so I decided to stick some decorative mouldings to cover this. These also serve to make the front of the shelf higher and to prevent things from falling out. I left them unpainted but you could always highlight the contours with wax or something.

All that was left to do was to hang them, one above the other.

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3 of 12 comments
  • Sarge Sarge on Oct 06, 2022

    I have been looking for something for my shower stall to replace the floor caddy and this looks like a perfect fix. Great idea. Thank you.


    • Thea Thea on Oct 22, 2022

      Use nylon rope and spray paint instead of chalk paint to make it more water resistant.

  • Sarge Sarge on Oct 22, 2022

    Thank yo!

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