Sometimes Jo and I find inspiration from the most unexpected places and pieces, and when we stumbled on this vintage fire extinguisher cabinet at the thrift store recently, we snatched it up right away, knowing we could turn it into something creative and unique.

We decided to mimic the original use as a fire extinguisher cabinet, but with a twist. We decided to turn it into a "sun extinguisher" cabinet, and fill it with sunscreen lotion, spray, aloe gel, and sunglasses — everything you need to extinguish that hot sun on a summer day.

The first thing we did was to remove the brackets inside the cabinet and replace them with a couple of simple shelves to hold all the goodies.

Then I used a heat gun to soften the existing vinyl lettering and scraped it away. The last thing we wanted was for anyone to think this really had a fire extinguisher inside, as that could have been a dangerous assumption in case of an emergency.

Then I gave everything a good coat of Rust-Oleum 2X Ultra Cover in Gloss White to freshen it all up. Oh what a difference a coat of paint can make!

When the white was fully dry, I moved on to adding the decorative stripes on the cabinet, using plenty of Frog Tape for delicate surfaces to mask off the areas that didn't need paint.

I painted the first stripe in Real Orange and the next one with the aptly named Sun Yellow.

These stripes were so easy to do, but actually took several days. The reason is that I needed to tape over the previously painted stripes each time, so I wanted to let them dry thoroughly between colors. When I finished up with the the last color — Seaside — I was so excited to peel the tape away and see the results!

These retro colors and this simple stripe design just scream summer to me.

I painted the original handle yellow to match and added it back to the cabinet door.

Then I used my Silhouette to create some new vinyl lettering to add to the cabinet, to give it that nod back to its original fire extinguisher duties. First, I put the word "extinguisher" in orange vinyl down the front. (Here's my "extinguisher" .studio file if you want to make your own.)

Then I put a large "Sun" above that, in bright white vinyl. (Here's my "Sun" .studio file if you want to make one too.) Using transfer tape to put the vinyl on is critical on something like this, and really let me like up the vinyl perfectly over the stripes.

And with that, it was done. The cabinet is so bright and fun and looks great outside on my deck.

As cute as it is, the real magic comes when you open the door to reveal what's inside.

So much sunscreen! We filled the cabinet with sunscreen sprays and lotion, lip balm, sticks, aloe gel, healing lotions, and even a few coordinating pairs of sunglasses.

Most of these products are from Target's Sport line, and the colors match our retro vibe perfecty. With such easy and fun access, the kids (and adults!) have no excuse not to reapply.

This is now a regular fixture by my pool, nestled next to the chairs and floats. And doesn't it look great with my matching blue drinking fountain? Check our our TikTok or Instagram Reel to see more about that.