How To: Spruce Up Your Salt / Pepper Shakerfrom Heart of Light

How To: Spruce Up Your Salt / Pepper Shaker
from Heart of Light

It's Kitchen & Bath month on AT. These are typically big investment rooms, so as renters we rely on accessories to spice up our kitchens and bath. Inspired by a pepper mill from Anthropologie, Rachel from Heart of Light decided to give her kitchen some ooomph by sprucing up this sad salt and pepper set she found at a thrift store for $2.

Rachel decided to spray paint both shakers an electric blue. Before priming, she used a combination of painter's tape, cotton and pins to keep paint from seeping into the shaker. She used a high gloss spray paint.

And the final result!

Rachel's Anthropologie inspiration is on sale for $12.95, but we actually prefer her DIY version.

Comments (15)

so cute!

posted by puck on March 5th 2009 at 5:12pm
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I love it! Now to find the shakers...

posted by royaltygirl on March 5th 2009 at 5:18pm
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Wow - Now they look like they're made of moulded plastic instead of some drab old block of carved teak or walnut...

posted by bepsf on March 5th 2009 at 5:26pm
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This is hilarious, I think this is DIY gone wild.
I like the worn wood better.

posted by dewi on March 5th 2009 at 5:34pm
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My parent's had those shakers -- must confess it was a shock to see the "end result"!

posted by Mid-C Frank on March 5th 2009 at 5:43pm
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wow, that looks really awesome. kudos!

posted by cptnruthless on March 5th 2009 at 6:57pm
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If I did this, I wouldn't be able to use them again - too big a chance you could get something toxic in with the seasonings.

I thought some thoughts are here are silly, but this is insane.

posted by ChrisGal on March 5th 2009 at 10:06pm
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Just doesn't seem food-safe, regardless of the aesthetics.

posted by luckypeach on March 5th 2009 at 11:53pm
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cool... i like it

posted by formosagirl on March 6th 2009 at 12:48am
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I'd say that breathing the air in LA or riding the subway in NYC is more hazardous to one's health than these shakers. Love it!

posted by mjr on March 6th 2009 at 6:41am
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Not all of us live in LA or in NYC, MJR. Honestly I don't think anyone I know would use these shakers after this had been done. They were actually pretty before. I guess I don't understand ruining something perfectly normal.

posted by ChrisGal on March 6th 2009 at 7:41am
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For $12.95 I'd rather purchase a finished non-toxic version instead.

posted by dnice on March 6th 2009 at 10:14am
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Cute, but I'm not sure how much money you save after buying the original shakers, painters' tape and spray paint.

posted by Lisa (Montreal) on March 6th 2009 at 10:23am
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Some grinders are not made of high quality, beautiful wood. (I have--well HAD pre-divorce-- one that is and would never spray paint it) These could have been cheap wood with a cheap shellac, not something to cherish. I've got one of those (a hand-me-down) now.

And I don't see how spray painting the OUTSIDE of a pepper grinder is going to poison her. Is skin contact with a painted item now verboten?

Folks paint ordinary stuff all the time. I'm not sure why all the objections to this project.

posted by kelleyk on March 7th 2009 at 9:10am
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There's no way to be absolutely sure some of the paint didn't get into the inside while you were painting them...and to that extent, then paint ends up in your food. Or paint could chip off into your food - paint isn't forever. The fumes around paint were never meant to be that close to food - LOL - and I seriously doubt if someone from a health department came into this discussion that they'd defend painting them.

posted by ChrisGal on March 9th 2009 at 6:40am
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