Gold and Black Chevron Bathroom Trashcan and Opposite Chevron Tutorial

Okay, okay... I have to admit that I am one of a few crazy people that instead of going to Walmart and buying a $3 plastic trashcan (which is a way easier option) I found a wooden one at Hobby Lobby and decided to do an intricate design on it to match my new studio apartment bathroom. Now, I will say that I didn't seek out this crazy moment. I was going to take the easy way out but while I was walking around Hobby Lobby and saw the trashcan and had a moment of inspiration!

My bathroom has a cool 50's black and white tile theme and I bought a beautiful gold and white paisley shower curtain to go in it. I decided black, white and gold were the colors I was going with then.

 

So I decided to paint the trash can black and do a chevron pattern. I was trolling Instagram one morning and saw someone post something from a cool café and the table was chevron, but was an opposite chevron design, which really tripped my trigger because while I like chevron I think it is getting a little overdone.

I did a chevron chair a while back and posted about it on my blog (here), and even in that post I noted that chevron is NOT easy. I, once again, was not fooled into thinking it would be easy, but I must have forgotten in my excitement that I was getting myself into quite another project... and all for a bathroom trash can! But once I set my mind to something it is not easy to talk myself out of it.

After much trial and error (and wasting a decent bit of washi tape), I finally figured out how I was going to do this. So, here we are, ladies and gentlemen, my tutorial on how to do an "opposite chevron" pattern.

The first step is to measure your space to prep for making even squares for a grid-like pattern. Working in centimeters majorly helped me with accuracy of dividing up the space.

 

 

 

Once it's all measured, using a straight edge, you will connect the top and bottom and side to side dots to create a grid. Then, using your straight edge again, create diagonal lines through each of the grid squares.

 

 

 

 

You can see that there is a chevron pattern created this way. You can use this method to do a regular chevron pattern, as well.

 

 

 

I used this method to create the "opposite chevron" look - I colored in every other diagonal block instead of creating a chevron line across. (I partly colored it in so I wouldn't make a mistake and paint in the wrong block!)

 

 

 

 

You can freehand paint in the diagonal blocks or create a sort of stencil template (out of cardboard, tape, etc.) to easily go along and paint in the blocks.

 

 

 

 

Here is one side finished!

 

 

Here is the trashcan in my bathroom with its awesome black and white tiles. I think this black and gold, opposite chevron pattern totally ties in the 50s art deco look of the black and white tiles, as well as the white and gold shower curtain I went with.

 

 

 

Let me know how you like it and if you have any questions on how to create a chevron pattern or an opposite chevron pattern!! Good luck crafting!!