At Expressions Vinyl we obviously LOVE vinyl. There are so many fun ways to use it and so little time. So it's always fun to see what YOU are making! I recently saw this project made by Kristi and had to share it:

We needed a new pond filter this year and found a great barrel at Rural King that would work perfectly. The only problem was that is was black and fairly large. I wanted to make the barrel fit in and not look like such an eye sore. So I decide to cover it with vinyl and make it look like a wooden barrel.

Here are the steps I took in completing the project:

Barrel Before Vinyl

Step 1 - Apply the base for the wood planks by using light brown vinyl. I spaced the planks apart allowing the black of the barrel to show through to give it some depth.

Wood (vinyl) Planks on Barrel

Step 2 - Apply the wood grain effect to the light brown planks using tan vinyl. I used the same pattern for each plank.

Adding Grain to the Planks

Step 3 - The barrel had 2 recessed areas around the top and bottom of the barrel that resembled metal strapping on a real wooden barrel. I cut the vinyl out of these areas and applied silver strips of vinyl in each area. This makes these areas really look like metal straps.

Adding Silver Straps

Step 4 - I added screw head details in metal strapping areas.

Notice the Screws

The project is complete!

It took some time figuring out the width of the planks and making them narrower at the bottom so they would fit and look correct on the barrel. The entire project took several hours, but it was well worth it!

Completed Wood Barrel with Vinyl

It's easy to see how much effort Kristi put into this project. I love the brilliance of taking a simple barrel and turning it into a masterpiece. It probably would have been fine with just the wood looking planks. Adding the wood grain as a second layer made it look even better. But going to the extent of adding straps and even screws was AMAZING! Very well done Kristi. Thanks for sharing your awesomeness!

-Jason