My husband no longer has to be worried that I'm going to gold-leaf every last surface in the house. It's not that I've suddenly discovered restraint or anything — it's just that I've discovered Plasti Dip's "Create Your Color Kit," and my apartment may well become the world's largest rubber room.
Plasti Dip is a stretchy, rubbery, synthetic coating for pretty much anything a person can think of. (Hot pink dishwasher racks? Best idea.) The Create Your Color Kit comes with pigments in black, white, red, yellow, and blue. Flashing back to first-grade art class, I'm pretty sure that means you can make pretty much any color you'd want. You can even dip things multiple times for a cool striped effect. Design Sponge did those great rubber-dipped toothbrushes.
First up on my list are my scissors, as per NYmag's illustration. From there, everything in my house seems rife with dipping potential: knife handles, tool handles, door handles, lamps, chair legs, table legs, mannequin legs, my legs, picture frames, handbags, old jewelry, that turquoise armoire I thought was such a good idea in 2010. (I might be getting a little carried away here.) And why are ironing board legs so plain, anyway?
What do you think would be good to dip? Let us know in the comments.
(Image: Design Sponge)
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nothing, I've spent a long time trying to get rid of all the the plastic in my home, why would I want to add to it?
Not to mention dipping eco friendly toothbrushes in plastic kind of defeats the purpose.
I once dipped the handles of my hand tools in pink paint so I knew which ones where mine. It eventually chipped off, this would be a better solution. I'm adding it to my to do list.
As far as the toothbrushes go, why not just paint? Toothbrushes certainly have a shelf life.
I haven't felt this product in person, but I guess possibly the bottom of chair legs, especially if it makes the chair non-slip and non-floor-scuffing.
Does anyone have any experience in removing this product? Can you just cut into it and strip it off?
Plasti-dip is on almost all tools you buy that have a non-slip grip on them. Needle-nose pliers are a great example. You can slice it down with an exacto knife and peel off to remove. This gal has a good idea, it's a highly functional product for labeling tools and for creating a better grip on slippery things. You won't really be able to remove it very well from a porous surface, like non-coated wood, but anything resistant to water absorbion it will dry on as a 'sleeve.' - from a former sculpture student...
This seems like a great idea for a few wire-work items I have that seem to be rusting but I still find hard to part with.
Should stainless steel rust in the shower? I have a shower caddy that is rusty. I don't want to just throw it out. I'm thinking of scraping off the rust and dipping it in Plasti-dip. Yea or nay?
I agree with the first commentor. Why instruct us to add plastic when so many many other posts are devoted to reducing our use of plastic?
The only way I could see this being practical is if a "dip" would render something usable that would otherwise be thrown away, like the rusty wire-work Manjari talks about. Otherwise, pass.
I wonder if it would work on dishes? As in dipping the foot of a wine glass...creating a no-slip custom look. And everyone would know which one is theirs... Hmmh.
I am a big fan of Plasti-dip I coated the bottoms of baskets to give them color and so they wouldn't scratch a wooden surface. I've dipped keys (not the part that goes into the lock) I transformed plain Ikea flatware with colored handles at my vacation home. I made a simple straw bag into a cute purse with Plasti-Dip on the bottom and the part of the handle that would be the grip. I also dipped the "collar" on terra cotta pots. Take a look here:http://spiralstyle.blogspot.com/search?q=plasti+dip
Spiralstyle, I would worry about the buildup of moisture behind or between the plastic layers, with those porous materials.
I immediately thought of the color-coded keys, but some odd things came up, too. The back of the TV remote, which tends to slide off things and clatter on the coffee table. The bottoms of dog bowls, the handles of garden implements, handles of small tweezers, the worn edges of your generic roll-aboard suitcase. I thnk I cold get into trouble with this stuff.
@KatieVV
Oh, good to hear about the removal; I was hoping it would be like that. Can't think of a use for it now that I've gifted the hairpin-leg table to my sister, though. (Although I guess the legs could still use a dip, her floors aren't necessarily worth it!)
I'm still in the gold-leaf stage. I am currently doing a wall in our bedroom. It's been a slow process, but it looks amazing.
Does anyone know where I can buy this (or a similar product) in Australia?
@CLUR ... you're gold leafing a wall? I need to see that.
Nothing. I completely agree with PAIGEP and GRIFFIN . I'd like to know where the OP got those toothbrushes, though, since I'm looking for a non-plastic version! And I won't be dipping mine in plastic, however, since it won't compost then. I find that using small bits of fabric ribbon is a great way to differentiate things like keys, wine glasses (ribbon stays on and goes in dishwasher), and toothbrushes when you need to identify by color/user.
The Design Sponge tutorial has been updated to say that the Plasti-dip is removable once you're ready to toss the toothbrush.
@ESRSBB you can find the toothbrushes here, as linked to in the DS tutorial:
http://www.izola.com/collections/toothbrushes/products/numerals-toothbrush-set
(I'm sure many other places online as well)
"(Hot pink dishwasher racks? Best idea.)" This is the BEST idea? You would have to commit to 12 gallons of hot pink dip before you'd have enough to dip a dishwasher rack.
Oh PaigeP I totally agree! My first thought when I saw this post was how insane it is, but also how sadly typical of many in our society, to coat an eco-friendly toothbrush with plastic!
And so now the tutorial has been updated to say the plastic can be removed before you toss the toothbrush? How does that make it better? Where do you put the plastic then? It still ends up in landfill, polluting our waterways and threatening wildlife.
Sorry, but I don't see much benefit at all from adding yet more plastic to our already plastic-filled lives.
If only people spent more time coming up with ways to actually reduce our plastic use, rather than finding more ways to increase it.
@Lilli K I absolutely love that idea, especially considering how many of my wine glass bottoms are chipped. I wonder if moisture would get in between the glass and plastic and do something nasty?
Oh duhhhhh, I would coat clothing hangers to make them nonslip because I dislike the velvet-y ones and the ones that I can buy in the USA that are already nonslip in this manner are ridiculously heavy compared to the ones that I bought, once upon a time, in japan from a hyaku-en shop (though I think they were more than hyaku en, go figure).
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I just posted an easy color dipped (handle) cutting board: http://diymyhomes.wordpress.com/2012/12/08/diy-color-dipped-cutting-boards/
It turned out great. I love this stuff!