Pantry Redo

When I saw this pantry makeover that Decor Chick did a few months ago I was totally inspired and motivated to get mine done. When we moved in a year ago we did a total rehaul on a lot of the spaces in our home. One of those was the pantry. Five college guys had lived here before us and lets just say the shelves in the pantry were nasty and in our opinion, not worth saving. So my hubby and a handy college student from our church built the new shelves themselves. We'd always planned on painting them and making them nice...but time and money (and energy) ran out and we just lived with the raw wood shelves for over a year. Finally it was time!!!

This is how I was living! (sorry for the poor photo quality but you get the picture, right!)

Oh I am so embarrased to show this to you! It was awful and I didn't mess it up to make it look worse... this is truly how our pantry functioned. Wow... that's humbling. :)

After a coat of paint on the wall and shelves and the addition of the canisters and other organization stuff I'd been collecting over a few months... here it is today!!!

And these awesome lazy susans built by my handsome helper. Seriously... these are awesome and he worked VERY hard on them!

My pantry now functions and looks 100x better!

I got these shelves from Wallyworld to store some of the "what do I do with these?" items.

And these canisters keep our snacky foods

And this basket stolen from the playroom keeps the paper goods that just were cluttered up on top of the shelves before.

I'd had these baskets for a while to hold our bread and chips.

And remember when I showed you the kitchen cabinet makeover? I told you I'd moved the kids crafty stuff to the pantry. Here's their corner. I got these drawers to hold coloring books, stickers, markers, paints, etc. SO much better than the cluttered cabinet.

I am loving the new pantry. My husband has even given me major props! He was once skeptical about all the canisters instead of boxes...but now I'm pretty sure he's a believer. And I couldn't have done it without him... all the painting, wood shelves and trim and Amazing lazy susans are credited to him! He's pretty much the greatest.

Linked here:
Making the World Cuter
Between Naps on the Porch
Keeping it Simple

Garlands

I've fallen in love with garlands this Fall.

I picked up a few in Canton for super cheap (I'm talking $4 cheap!!) and have had fun moving them around my house. They're simple & classic and add texture and interest to just about any space. I feel like I'm decorating with out having to really decorate.

Painting on walls

I love finding inspirations in catalogs of things I'll never be able to do or afford. I've torn things out of catalogs a hundred times to put in my "eventually I'll do this" file. I've been unhappy with how my four-year old daughter's room has looked since we got her a new bed and rearranged her room. She had this long wall with nothing on it that couldn't be filled with any more furniture. When I saw this picture in the Pottery Barn Kids catalog I was inspired!!

I love the entire room. Ideally I'd buy the whole set...but of course I live in a world with a budget! I showed the picture to friends and my husband to get their feed back and a vote of confidence that I could actually do something like this. Well deperate times (aka: sick kid, unable to get out of the house) call for extreme measures.

I took this blank wall (excuse the window reflection) and hand drew a tree form using the picture above as a rough guide.

I used brown acrylic paints from a craft store to paint the tree form on the wall. This was the point where I knew... NO TURNING BACK.... like it or hate it it was staying! :) I am no artist... so this was a huge risk for me.

Of course no craft project in my house of three kids under 4 turns out just as I plan.... while out prepping a template for leaves my 2 1/2 year old twins decided to help me out with the paint job. Imagine my horror (and delight) to find they had painted the wall ... but DIDN'T come close to the tree!

I used a template to start painting leaves on the branches.

Then I added flowers in varying shades of pink and red and added lighter colors to accent and add dimension.

In the end it doesn't look much like the PBK version and it's by no means perfect... but I think it fills the space nicely. Eventually I may hang a bird cage on the right branch that looks a little funny... but we'll see if that ever happens.

Eventually I'll finish the REST of the room...

linked here:

Making the World Cuter

Keeping it Simple

The Girl Creative

Look What I Got!!!

So I have this wall in my living room that I've absolutely hated since we moved in. I just haven't known what to do with it. I've tried a few things here and there and it just wasn't working for me. Then I decided after seeing some beautiful secretaries out there in bloggy land that it was just what the wall needed. I searched at Round Top. I searched at Canton. I found a lot I loved... but the price tags made me gasp. I was not willing (or able) to spend $400-$500 on one of these babies. Enter CRAIGSLIST! I found this....

Now, I don't like the wharf design on it so that will get covered up (or opened so you can't see it). But I got this for $125 (and it has a lighted hutch). I couldn't believe that it was still available when I called the lady. I am pretty excited... but now I don't know what to do with it and here is where I need YOUR help!!! Do I paint it, do I stain it, do I leave it as is (and fold down the drop desk to hide the wharf?)?

Will you help me, pretty please?? I've got both black and stained furniture in the living room right now. My walls are cream colored. My gut is to go bold and do red with this piece. The sofa is leather, I have a greenish goldish chair that will be close by. If I was on the ball I'd show you pictures of my room... but that requires some advance planning and I just don't have motivation right now! :)

Halloween treats

For simple Halloween treats, I dipped apples and pretzels in caramel and chocolate candy melts and then added some nuts and sprinkles! Yum!

They are super easy & delicious!

Can I claim this as a healthy snack??

They're just apples right??

kid's closet

I'm following in Lindsay's footsteps today... cleaning up & cleaning out! I began to organize my daughter's closet this weekend while I was already in her room painting. Might as well kill 2 birds with 1 stone! My biggest hurdle...combining her closet (and everything in it) with my younger daughter's stuff.

Closet #1

Closet #2

I began with organizing all of their bows.

I realize they have a ridiculous amount!! My mom makes and sells them, so they're the lucky beneficiary of every color you can imagine. I simply tacked up 3 rows of ribbon. And I found these unused storage racks in the garage, which worked well for shoes and books.

2 hours and 1 goodwill box later, I ended up with this...

Much better! Now back to decorating...

De-Cluttering my cabinets

Don't you just love seeing how fellow bloggers "really" live? Well I do... I want to know that these lovely ladies aren't perfect and they live real (and sometimes cluttered) lives! If you enjoy knowing and seeing that then you stopped by That Village House on the right day.

This was our junk cabinet in the kitchen. As you can see... it is a total disaster. It houses the kids craft stuff, candles, cookbooks, medicines, lotions, etc. Finally I had had enough. Things weren't fitting like they used to. I am sure it's got nothing at all to do with the fact that there's no organizational tools whatsover, right? :)



And here's the AFTER! I spent an afternoon clearing out everything and figured out what I wanted the cabinet to house (and what it shouldn't!).

Ahhh... Glorious! I moved all the kids arts & crafts supplies to some neat organizational bins that are in our pantry (which is also getting a makeover that will be featured soon). I love that I can see all my cookbooks and that all my Scentsy bars are no longer falling out of the cabinet when I open the doors and I have a place for my camera bag so it doesn't have to live on the counter anymore. So... get after it... clear out your junk and don't live with clutter anymore! It's the little things that sometimes bring me silly happiness!