Organize Your Toiletries with a Repurposed Bath Ensemble

Bathroom Containers 

It seems as we age we become more in debt to facial/skin creams, cleansers, and wrinkle reducers and often more single brand reliant. I go through phases. I will use one product line for a year or so, still feel like I am “looking” older and switch to something else. I am winding down my Arbonne phase, but Arbonne makes pretty containers and lids. I have thrown several of the bottles away, each time thinking there must be something I could do with these. Ok. So here they are...toiletry containers. 

You will need: 

• Lids 
• Ribbon (small, medium, large) 
• Printed labels 
• Glue 
• X-acto knife

I made these labels on regular word processing software by layering shapes: a diamond, a round-edged rectangle, and a rectangle. After I had layered the shapes I changed the settings on the rounded rectangle and the diamond not to show the outline. I placed a text box over the rectangle and typed in the words. Then I printed the labels and outlined them with a black pen. You are welcome to print these labels if you can. 

Cut out your labels and make small slits at the edges with an X-acto knife as shown below. 

Thread your most thin ribbon through the opening and set aside for later. 

Glue the wide ribbon around the lid. You can use hot glue or a fabric glue, whatever you have, as long as it is clear and holds. The glue in the center of the ribbon can be wiped on pretty sloppily because it will not show. Make sure to fold the edges under. They will show. 

I used a sheer, solid color ribbon. Since this is your base color, not counting the gold, you want to use something that will coordinate with the room’s color scheme, but not be a focal point. For example, my bathroom is a spa-like green. The ribbon is more chartreuse. I held the ribbon to the bathroom wall to make sure they were in the same color family of greens before beginning this project. You might be asking yourself how do I know if they are in the same color family? This is the best way I can try to explain this to the less creative types: go to your font color on your word processing software, choose a color (not black or white), now customize the color. You should see a mini-screen pop up with a color sphere of some-sort. The color you chose should be highlighted. Move to a color a few boxes away. Notice the color is different, there may be more yellow or red (etc.) than in your original color, but it still has enough of the basic color blend to pull the same primary color contrast/coordination as the original color. 

Wrap your medium ribbon over the center of the large ribbon. Glue this ribbon the same as you did the first. Notice I chose something with more detail than the wide ribbon. Additionally, you want some defined contrast between the two ribbons...the cream over the green. 

You can finish your containers a couple different ways. My skinny lime-green ribbon did not reach around the larger lid. To keep the same look I pulled the ribbon across the back, out both sides, looped the ends behind the label and glued the entire piece to the cream colored ribbon (as you can see on the one titled “hair pins”). The other lid was thinner. I slid the ribbon through one edge of the label and secured it with a dab of glue. Then I extended it around the lid centering it over the cream ribbon until I reached to other side of the label. I inserted the skinny ribbon though the opposing opening and with a second dab of glue adhered it to the cream ribbon. 

Voila! New containers for your bathroom!