When we lived in an apartment my office space was in my bedroom, which meant every time I wanted to work late my snoring husband was right beside me. Now that we are in a house I am using one end of our big front room as my office. It’s nice and quiet, has a fireplace, and best of all, no TV in the space.
I haven’t totally figured out my storage situation in here yet, but one problem that instantly reared it’s head was pen storage. I have mentioned before that I have a problem love pens, but I have been able to whittle my collection down to about 3 sets, maybe 20 pens, and each serves it’s purpose.
My Staedtler pens are my go-to’s for nearly everything, my erasable Frixion pens for salon appointments, or anything that might change, and my Micron pens for Bible journaling and writing on washi. Those are the pens that I use most often, and that I like to have within easy reach. When I kept them in my desk drawer, I had to constantly slide my chair out to access them. I needed a pencil holder.
After pricing some cute pencil holders online, my cheap crafty side decided I could easily make one out of materials I had on hand. I’m sure you have seen painted mason jars used as vases, so why not a pencil holder?
All you need is a mason jar, acrylic paint, and a few foam brushes. Apply the paint in thin coats and allow them to dry thoroughly in between. As you can see, I didn’t do that, but since I wanted a distressed finish I wasn’t too worried about precision.
Once you have the opacity you want, and the paint is completely dry, you can distress it a bit. Some people use wax, some people use sandpaper, but I opted to go the redneck route and use a nail. It actually works great for distressing little projects like these because you have more precision than with a sheet of sandpaper.
I love how it turned out! I am going to make a few more in larger sizes for vases, and maybe even a utensil holder for my kitchen.
The acrylic doesn’t “stick” that well to the glass, so beware, it is easy to scratch paint off. It’s also easy to pull off the previous coats of paint as you are painting it. Don’t ask me how I know.
If you want a little pop of color and charm on your desk, this is the perfect shabby accessory!
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Clever girl and I see these all over the Annie Sloan chalk paint FB group! Love it.
Oh I have a serious chalk paint addiction too lol.
Cute, I love having a pencil holder on my desk, mine is a small Starbucks cup that came with a gift basket or something. I will never use it for coffee.. I need gallon size for that. 😉 I might have to try this, and make a vase for my dining room table.
I am really excited to make a utensil holder for my kitchen! I think I will try white for that one and distress is with brown wax.
Looks awesome! What a great way to up cycle and make something cute to brighten your workspace.
🙂
Traci