Country Cottage Arts

 

This container was originally a medicine drum, the kind of large heavy duty  drum made of  hard  paper board and  used to store large quantities of medicines by pharmaceutical companies .  My friend Jackie had 3 of these  drums idling in her home.  I explained to her  how I could  recycle it as a side table or change it into an all-purpose dumpster for toys, knick-knacks, odds and ends and whatnot by just  painting it . Since the drum was quite big, I thought a scenery would be ideal.  The scenery above was a slight modification from the Grans painting series by artist Ross Stallcup. I deliberately added Gold Oxide to the gate to give it a rusty look .

It can be changed into a side table by just covering it with a lazy susan ( which can be bought at Ikea outlets ) and still manage to  hide all the toys and kids stuff  inside it. Very useful when you want a tidy home before unexpected guests arrive......   I store all my  kids story books and school stuff  which is forever  scattered all over my coffee table and dining area in a similar painted drum. It's an  inexpensive, practical and  makes a useful tidy bin. Practically every one of my friends and guests comment on the  bin and most often I am asked how I got it or where I bought it.!  Suffice to say that they are all frantically rummaging around to get one too......

Another option would be to fill the drum with a flower arrangement - silk or synthetic flowers, of course, or, after filling two third of the drum  with florist foam, cover it with a pretty lace cloth and arrange your beautiful collection of sea-shells and other such items on it. Then,   use a  3 or 4 mm thick  circular clear glass top (  which you can purchase at framing outlets for less than $20 ) to cover the drum.  You  thus not only protect them from dust and mishandling but at the same time display them  safely and still use the glass top for your favourite tea pot. 

  A sort of a cool two-in-one display cum side table.   Ahh ,  the wonders you can do with painting.....