Just Hanging Around

I mentioned before we were putting our house on the market. Well it has sold. It must have shown well, because we had an offer in less than 24 hours!

Getting the house ready to sell took about a month of finishing projects, cleaning, and de-cluttering. As you may know, one of the difficult things with getting a house show ready is making sure everything looks as clean and organised as possible while still trying to live there (i.e. you can't get rid of everything). So after we de-cluttered as much as possible I started to focus on organising.

Our house was not huge but we seemed to have enough for a family of 10 (instead of 2) so organisation has always been a goal and a focus of of some quick projects around the house, such as my pegboard broom closest and backpack storage. After a quick organising once-over through the house I decided to focus on organising the bedrooms and in particular my pile of jewelry that normally sits on top of my dresser. I had saved this pin awhile back and thought it would be a perfect solution.



Via: Tanya on Pinterest

I decided to take advantage of the unused space on the back of my closest door since when it is closed it hides everything away, but when it is open when I am getting ready it provides easy access to my accessories. I also knew people would be looking at the closest when viewing the house so I wanted something that would keep everything looking nice.

Luckily for me I had a small Grundtal bar and hooks in my basement from my last trip to IKEA (this is especially lucky since, as I mentioned before, the nearest IKEA is 3,000 km away). I had purchased it with my shelf that I used as curtain rod/plant stand with plans to attach it under my cabinet and use it to hold mugs for my coffee station similar to this - but never got around to it. If, like me, you do not have an IKEA near by the same look (probably even nicer) can be achieved will a towel bar and shower hooks.

Since this was a temporary solution (as we were planning to move) I decided to use 3-M Velcro mounting strips so I could remove everything when we left without leaving holes in the door.

Everything held up fine until I moved about two months later. I also added another jewelry holder below for some bracelets and other accessories.
Sorry for the poor picture - I only remembered to get this quick pic as I was packing the room.

Jewellery Storage

 I even decided to use it again at my new place.

 

 

This simple solution is great and gives me easy viewing and access to my necklaces and prevents them from getting tangled up or ending up a a pile on top of my dresser.

A Little Paint Makeover

I have been busy lately preparing to sell my house and
helping plan a 2nd birthday party, so I haven't had much free time address the growing number of great ideas I have pinned. But I did manage find some time on a sunny afternoon to for a quick soap-pump update.

I loved my foaming soap pump that I had purchased a year ago. Partly because I find the foam fun, and partly because I am cheap and the foam soap pump uses less soap. But it was just not pretty enough to have out on my counter all of the time. So after looking through some of my pins I found the perfect solution.

The inspiration for this quick makeover was a pin that I have seen multiple times and is what I would call a "classic pin" - you know, one of those pins it seem that everyone has pinned and has been around since the start of Pinterest.



This is a very simple and quick process. Basically you:

1. Choose the pump you like and make sure it is empty and clean.
2. Spray paint it with paint for plastic.
3. Add soap and put back together.


The only problem.....I am the WORST spray-painter EVER! No mater what I do I seem to get paint drips and streaking. I try to follow all the painting tips, using a light misting spray, light coats, constantly moving while spraying, but it never seems to work for me. I think I'm too impatient and my light coats are not as light as I should be. So after my first few coats I used high grit sandpaper to even thing out a bit. Another light coat and things were looking better.

For someone with a better spray-painting technique this is a quick makeover. For me it took a little longer but was still easy. It doesn't look like a high-end soap pump,  but it does look 100% better then when I started, and I think it looks good enough to keep it in my bathroom a little longer.




Before                                                                      After

Since I was already in my painting grove - OK it was not much of a grove but my hands were already covered in spray-paint and I did have cardboard laid out on the grass - I decided to update a few other things with a little red spray-paint.

Curtain Call

Source: BHG.com via Tanya on Pinterest

This pin was originally for the curtains made from dish towels and curtain clips. It's a cute idea, but I actually pinned it because I loved the look of the shelf in the window for plants that doubles as a curtain rod.

This was one of those dream pins that I like to look at wistfully hoping that some day I could make it happen. It's not that his would be a complicated project at all - it is actually a simple 15min project (if you are not sewing your own curtains) - the problem is that the shelf is from IKEA, and the nearest IKEA is a thousand km away. So it's not like it is a quick run to the store.

Fortunately (I think) I found myself on an impromptu trip to Montreal this winter with the-other-half to buy his childhood dream car and drive it back.

Which meant I could make an impromptu IKEA run! Unfortunately the two-seater dream car was not designed for an IKEA trip so I was limited to a few small buys - but the shelf made the list.





Kitchen Window Shelf
using IKEA Grundal Shelf 

Shelf and Curtain Rod
All in One

Cloudy with a chance of keys?

Source: fab.com via Tanya on Pinterest

When I saw this magentic key holder I loved it. It is such a fun and simple design. And since keys go missing in our house everyday I was thinking this was just the thing I needed.

But when I started looking for them on the Internet I was surprised to find out that they retail for $12-24!

So maybe I didn't love it that much. It is cute but really, $24 for a plastic cloud with a magnet?



Not to be dismayed I was determined to keep looking, so I was thrilled to find them on focalprice.com* for around $6 including shipping.

Once they arrived I loved them.


Stealing an idea from one of the customer photos from the Focal Price site I decided to frame them and create a little key centre in our entryway.

Conclusion: I love them. They hold the keys really well (even my heavier set as you see in the picture) and it's just as easy to attach them to the cloud as it is to throw them on a table - and this way they don't get lost under a pile of stuff.

These magnetic cloud key holders make keys easy to find and grab them on the way out of the house.

* Focal Price is one of those wholesale/retail direct from China sites. Looking a reviews I was a little hesitant as some reviews are great but others were really bad. However, since they were so inexpensive I decided to buy 4 (one was for a birthday present) and if something went wrong I would be only be out $25, which is an amount I can blow on coffee and treats for a week. So long story short I receive my clouds 3 weeks after I placed the order, though I did have to contact them a few times to ask for my confirmation/tracking number which they forgot to send. Oddly enough the shipping date was the same date I contacted them - so if you plan to order from them I would recommend following-up with them right away if something is off.

Map Quest

We have a bit of a map theme in our living room so of course I found loads of things that I wanted on Pintrest.



Source: etsy.com via Tanya on Pinterest

Source: cityprintsmapart.com via Tanya on Pinterest

Source: designsponge.com via Tanya on Pinterest

 

As with any theme I try not to go over the top. I also like to keep my investment fairly low as I can be a little fickle and decide to change everything if  left alone too long on a Sunday afternoon (and because I can be a little cheap).

So I thought I would try this as a DIY project. And it was actually easier than I expected. The quality may not be the best, but from a distance it actually looks quite good.

If you want to give this a try this is what you need to do:

1. Find a  map of the area you want (I used google maps)
2. Create a digital copy of the image of the map (Ctrl + Print Screen for an online maps)
3. Paste the image in an editing program (I actually found Microsoft Word worked well)
4. Optional: adjust the image setting to enhance the lines for the roads
5. Flip the image so it is a reverse image.
6. Adjust the size and crop to the select the area you want.
7. Print the file on heavy weight paper (I used cardstock).
8. Using an x-acto knife, cut away all areas that are not roads.

9. Flip it over and frame.

It probably took me about 2 hours in total (truthfully more like 3 since I made a mistake and cut a few roads out on the first try). So it was fairly quick and easy to do. Though for more detailed cut-outs or more complicated areas the purchase price of inspiration maps seems quite good. And the quality is much better. However, for a quick weekend project I would suggesting giving this a try.

Pegboard Broom Closet

I love pegboard. I love how it can easily be adapted to fit your current needs. I love that you can change the configuration of hooks, shelves and holders on a whim and do not have to worry about filling holes and creating new ones.I even love the style of it, with the little peg holes in perfect rows.

I have been waiting to use pegboard in the house for some time now. I had started to collect pins to get ideas of where it could go and how I could use it.




Source: apartmenttherapy.com via Tanya on Pinterest

Source: apartmenttherapy.com via Tanya on Pinterest

The opportunity finally arrived after an impromptu renovation of the basement stairwell (started with replacing the side-entrance tiles and ended up with patched and painted walls, and a new wall cap, and new handrail). So after removing the old and ugly hooks that were used to gather random items that found their way in the side door, we were left with a blank wall that needed something a little special. At the same time we need a broom closet. The kitchen didn't have a space for brooms and other items, and they often got lost in the basement among everything else that gets thrown there.

This was a perfect spot for pegboard. This often wasted space can be difficult to make functional with the sloped ceiling and narrow depth. But with pegboard each item can be arranged to fit the space.

For this project we required 2 sheets of mdf pegboard, trim (important for uneven walls), paint (I used what I had leftover from the living room) and a pegboard accessory kit. Luckily the kit came with spacers to help hang the pegboard and allow for space to insert the hooks. We also found similar small plastic spacers with other hardware.

Pegboard Broom Closest

Baskets to hold smaller items

Conclusion:

I love it. It was easy to install (though a little tricky to cut with the ceiling) and holds everything perfectly. We even have some extra space that I am thinking of adding the pegboard shelf. Everything is also easily accessible and easy to find.

Since we had extra leftover we even used it in other parts of the house.

Pegboard in Storage Closet

Pegboard Tools

This is also a cheap solution. Though I did not remember to keep my receipt, I think the whole project was around $40 (using leftover paint we had).

Backpack Storage

Our house has very little storage, and a lot of our DIY projects and renovations around the house are based on creating more and better storage solutions. I saw this pin a week or so ago and loved it. It provides multi-use storage and does not take up much room. But I really didn't have a place for it.

Source: apartmenttherapy.com via Tanya on Pinterest

The front hall closest is one area that causes problems. We always seem to have more than we can fit in. Our recent problem is all of our bags for the gym and work. They pile up and often end up spilling out on to the floor.

Looking for a solution I remember this pin that offered a solution for keeping bags off the floor. Even more perfect I happened to already have the IKEA grundtal bar and hooks that were not being used.

So after gathering everything I needed I set to work, and 10 minutes later I had it installed and the bags off the floor.

Before

After

It may not be the final solution for our lack of front hall storage but it will hopefully keep our bags in order.