Thursday, September 1, 2011

Organizing: My hutch

I love my hutch, even if it is still brown :)



What I did not like about my hutch was the lack of functional organization it had. All of my cookbooks, kid's craft stuff, and other random books were thrown inside in a jumbled mess. I didn't get out the coloring and painting activities as much as I should have because it was just such a hassle! Something needed to change.

Here is my hutch before the change:



And here it is after!


There is still a spot for my cookbooks, but the rest of the shelves are devoted to the kids. Underneath I keep my re-usable shopping bags and there is a bin for my cloth napkins and a bin for paper lunch bags and paper plates.



The blue and green bins are from the dollar store. There is a bin for crayons, a bin for stickers and stamps, a bin for bubbles, a bin for paint, ect. Now it is much easier to grab what we need and even easier to clean it up! We have been coloring and painting a ton more since doing this.

I am still planning on painting my hutch. Maybe something like this:








Sunday, August 28, 2011

Two closet offices in my bedroom

We recently changed rooms in my house, forcing us to move our computers into our bedroom. I love my house, but it is seriously lacking in rooms and storage space. We got creative with our small-ish master bedroom: my husband built a closet for his computer and we turned the existing closet into an office for me. I couldn't stand the thought of having blah spaces for the computers in my bedroom, so here is what we did!

Here is the before of my closet space:



Ugly black dresser stuffed into the closet...yuck!

And here is the after!



We built a custom desk into the odd shaped space




I created my own stencil to decorate the walls in my office



The paint looks black, but I actually used silver stencil paste. I used stencil vellum and hand cut my stencil with an x-acto knife. A little time consuming, but worth it!

And I have a spot to hang my purses in this odd storage area that was pre-existing



Here is a picture of my hubby's closet space before:



Please forgive the ugly state of my bedroom from last year!

And here is a picture of Steve's office:



We built this into a pre-existing storage space located behind the wall that runs the length of the house.

Lots of work to be done still, but its a start! More pictures of my office decorated and organized to come soon!

Thanks for stopping by!

Linked:
Keeping It SimpleMaking Monday Marvelous Linky Party
The DIY Show Off


The Stuff of SuccessPhotobucket



Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Vintage lunch tray upcycle

I recently saw this project using vintage dinner trays as a frame over at blue eyed freckle

Totally cute right?


I fell in love with the idea and I just happened to have a vintage lunch tray laying around the house. I used mini clothespins and pictures from my son's 1 month photo session.

So here is mine:

Now I need to find a place to hang it!

Linking to:

Transformation Thursday
IhookedupwithHoHlamespice
giveaways





Thursday, March 24, 2011

I won....

two giveaways!

The first is a $35 gift card to CSN Stores from Lauren over at 31 DIY !

So much good stuff on the site...now to just figure out what I want.



These are super cute...I think I might need them for my son's room:)

The second giveaway is an amazing fabric bracelet from Anything*Virtuous!

Can't wait to wear it!

Check out their blogs...lots of good inspiration!

Thanks again ladies!




Saturday, March 19, 2011

A temporary fix...

I have been dying to re-do the hutch in my "dining room", but the lack of sunshine has made that impossible. My "dining room" consists of one corner of my kitchen...not a room at all, but it is what we have for now.


So while I wait for the sunshine, I covered the windows in a cute vintage fabric.



And of course it is messy inside, and organizing it is my next project!

I also painted my spoon and fork red!

Here they are before:




And here they are after:





My husband thinks they are silly, but my great grandmother had a set when I was younger and I have always wanted my own. They are one of my favorite things in my house!

Linking here and
Photobucket


Saturday, March 5, 2011

A tree in my living room

I have always wanted to paint a tree somewhere in my house. I am not brave enough to add color to all of my walls, so most of them stay bare. So when my husband came home with a broken projector from work, I knew my tree was not far off!

The projector got fixed, I found the tree I wanted to paint, and went for it!

I started by patching some holes in the wall and then cleaning it. I don't have any pictures of tracing it out, but this tutorial from Just a Girl explains the whole projector process.

So here is the finished product:

What do you think?

I think I am going to add some black detail and maybe a little bird on one of the branches. Not sure just yet! Oh and the hole under the tree is my dog's cubby in the wall...he needed a spot to hide away from my son!

Linking to:
Show and Tell Green




A Marvelous Mess