DIY: Upcycle Chick-fil-A Salad Container Into a Decorative Light #chickfilamomsDIY

Last Updated on June 1, 2016 by Babita

Recently Chick-fil-A challenged their mom panel members to upcycle their Spicy Southwest salad containers. They encouraged us to be as creative as possible. As a member of this panel, and also as someone who loves to DIY, I decided to take on this challenge. However, before I even begin to write about this project I have to say this is one of the best salads I have ever tasted. It is perfect for our Indian palate.

 

 

Anyway after thinking about it for few days, I decided to transform the container into a decorative light. I was inspired by the lanterns that you would find in a Turkish or Moroccan bazaar. The container was sturdy and good quality plastic. So I knew it would hold up well.

1. I started off by cleaning the salad container and wiping it dry. Next I spent a an hour melting holes on all sides of the container with a hot nail. I then spray painted both the container and the lid white. I applied two coats of white paint.
2. Once the white paint had dried, I spray painted both of them with golden spray paint. I applied two coats of the golden paint for good coverage. It ended up all bright and shiny — just the way I wanted.

 

 

3. The lid already had four holes in the four corners. So I decided to attach twine handles through those holes. I took some kitchen twine, put them through the hole and knotted it on the inside. On top of the lid I used basic chain stitch to crocheted about a foot of chain for the handle. I repeated this process on the other sides as well. I then gathered all the four twine chains in the center and tied them together to form a triangle shaped handle.
4. Finally I taped up some multi-colored battery operated LED lights strategically on the inside of the lid. This was really easy to do. Only thing I had to make sure was that all the batteries were in the compartment before I taped the lights.

 

 

After the lights were secure all I had to do was close the lid down over the container. The lights fit in perfectly inside and the outside looked very neat. Check out the pictures below. I loved how the kitchen twine handles looked against the gold container.

 

 

and this is the view of the light at night.

 

 

I have to say, I loved how this project turned out. It turned out exactly the way I visualized it. In fact my husband liked it so much that he asked me to make more of them. He said it would look great on our deck. I think he wants me to make more of them because he wants to eat more of the Chick-Fil-A Spicy Southwest Salad :).