Category Archives: DIY and Upcycling

DIY Cookie Sheet Storage

Tim and I had set a date a few months back. We specifically picked April 4th because I would be on Spring Break and Tim is off on Thursdays and Fridays. I have had this date circled on my calendar since February and couldn’t wait to spend the day together. We had the most incredible day ever and I even get a bit teary-eyed thinking back on the events of the day. I know you are on the edge of your seats wondering what we did? Well, let me just tell you that this is something that has been a deep desire in my heart for several years now and yesterday, it finally happened. Now before I get carried away with our date, I have to tell you about the super easy and quick DIY project that I did in the morning before our date. I will fill you in on our fabulous date tomorrow….it is a long story and I was up way too late and can only commit to a quick post as I am bagged, but believe me this is a good one.

Here is a BEFORE shot. It doesn’t actually look as bad as it was.
Nail boards onto the bottom of the shelf (or top of the cupboard depending on your space).
Use your divider as a spacer between the wood pieces.
AFTER: The shelf has been placed inside and the dividers just slide into the channels.
Here is my new space. I was even able to add my loaf pans on the new shelf!

DIY Cookie Sheet Storage

You may recall me mentioning the sad state of my cookie sheet/muffin tin cupboard a few posts ago. I am not exaggerating when I say that a battle took place each and every time that cupboard door opened. Not one single item came in or out without a fight and I finally had enough. I knew what I wanted, but had put it off because I had never really taken the time to figure out how to get the job done and I honestly thought it was beyond my capabilities, but I was so wrong. This is one of the easiest projects I’ve done. First of all, I googled and within the first few links found a tutorial explaining exactly what I wanted to do. I was so excited! Here’s what I did.

  1. Measured the depth and width of my cupboard (7 1/2″ X 24″ deep).
  2. I knew that I would need two dividing boards and planned to use scrap pegboard that I already had in the house. The thickness of pegboard is about 1/4″.
  3. The concept is so easy. You mount boards along the base and top of the cupboard that are the same distance apart as your divider board which in my case was 1/4″. The space between the mounted boards creates the channel for the vertical dividers to stand in. I didn’t really have boards on hand that would work for this, so I went to Home Depot and picked-up 3 four foot poplar boards that were each 1/4″ thick for around $10. (This is actually a bit of a fib. It wasn’t until I went to stain that I realized I had grabbed a 3 foot piece of the 1 1/2″ board. It wasn’t worth going back, but I had planned to mount it on the top under the shelf so it wouldn’t be seen, but completely forgot and used the longer piece on top. Oh well, it is not like anyone will ever see the back of that cupboard again!) I was aiming to have the boards equal 7 1/2″ minus the 1/2″ to account for the channel between the boards (1/4″ X 2 channels), so I could purchase boards equalling up to 7″ wide. I ended up purchasing two boards that were 2 1/2″ wide and one that was 1 1/2″ wide for a total width of 6 1/2″. I couldn’t get the numbers to workout exactly, but just planned to leave the extra space on the outside edges close to the walls of the cupboard. It worked perfectly.
  4. I then stained the boards and cut them to 21″ long as I wanted the dividers to sit back a few inches from the front of the cupboard. So I ended up with 2 fat boards and one narrow board for both the base and top of the space. (I needed 6 boards in all).
  5. I didn’t want to waste any space, so I put those little metal shelf plugs in the pre-drilled holes on the sides of the cupboard. This allowed me to add a shelf and extra storage space above my trays. I had the plugs on hand and for the shelf, I just used a scrap piece from an old desk top that I had dismantled and re-purposed a while back. It is not in perfect shape, but it will be completely hidden and has a melamine surface, so it will stand up well. It just needed about 1/4″ trimmed off the side to fit perfectly in the space. I placed the pegs in with the shelf on top and measured a distance of 16 3/8″ between the base and the bottom of the shelf.
  6. I then cut the pegboard at 21″ X 16 3/8″ so that it would fit snuggly between the top shelf and base inside the channels I was making.
  7. This part certainly wasn’t hard, but I must admit I took a bit of time to think this through to avoid making a mistake. After cutting the pegboard I realized that I may have to accommodate the shelf pegs by notching out the wood because I couldn’t have the shelf rest on my wood pieces or it would raise the height and my pegboard would no longer fit snuggly. I ended up placing my shelf on the pegs and marking the underside of my board, so I knew how far the pegs sat out under the shelf. I removed the shelf and mounted my first length of board so that it would sit tight against the pegs. I then used my pegboard as a spacer and mounted the next board. When I went to mount the third board, I realized that there wouldn’t be quite enough room for the pegs, so I ended up cutting about 1/4″ off of the side of one of the top boards. (Of course, this was not necessary on the base.) I placed the shelf back in, and it rested perfectly on the bottom of the shelf, not the channel boards. (Lucky for me that I only bought boards equaling 6 1/2″ otherwise I would have had to do more trimming to account for the pegs.)
  8. I then used the same system to nail the boards to the base of the cabinet ensuring that the placement matched the boards at the top.
  9. Finally, I slid in my pegboard dividers and have myself an awesome storage system for my pans. Yay!

* You might have noticed that I also mounted the base for a “Command” hook here. (You know the sticky kind.) I am going to hang my oven mitts here.

Spring Cleaning Gone Mad

Tuesday, I spent the entire day cleaning and organizing my kitchen. You know that kind of cleaning you do when you actually take the time to look beyond the forks and knives and notice all the little crumbs that have fallen to the bottom of the tray. I must admit that juggling work, family and daily blogging has taken a bit of a toll. I have had to become even more effective at managing my time and despite all of the projects I have been doing, for the most part my house has never looked worse. I just don’t have the time to clean in the ways I am accustomed to. I tidied up the fridge freezer and found a mind-boggling 22 frozen bananas…Yikes! Let’s just say my kitchen really needed a “behind the scenes” cleaning. After having spent all day in the kitchen, I am sad to say that the kitchen isn’t even done and to the “onlooker” it looks like I haven’t touched a thing because most of it is behind closed doors. Don’t you hate that?

I called this post Spring Cleaning Gone Mad because I actually felt like a mad woman yesterday. I went from cupboard to cupboard vacuuming drawers, wiping out shelves and re-organizing their contents. I did odd jobs that had been avoided for way too long and after a very long day of slaving away I was left with a longer list of “to do’s” than when I started. Isn’t that the way it goes…you take on one project and it seems like you’ve opened up a can of worms. Every space I attacked revealed something else that needed attention. The good news is I have lots of blogging ideas, but the bad news is I don’t have the time to do it all! Although I am not done, it is looking much better.

Here is what I got done:

  • Finally filled up my new sliding upcylced book shelf storage rack.
  • Finished the job of cleaning spice jars and organizing the drawers. I must admit that I was a bit surprised that even after all of that work, I still have two drawers, a cupboard and now a pull-out rack that contain spices! How is that even possible? The great thing is that it is neatly organized and streamlined, but I didn’t really create the extra cupboard space I was hoping for.
  • Managed to fit my cereal into a drawer and store the accessories for my manual food processor (that I absolutely love) behind the cereal boxes to make better use of the space.
  • Re-configured the cupboard beside the stove, so that all of my Epicure jars are not hidden in the back, but rather neatly stored and much more visible in the second spice drawer.
  • Removed all of my baking sheets and muffin tins, cleaned the cupboard and organized the space better. This cupboard is like a thorn in my side. I honestly get so mad taking things out and putting things in there that there should be an alarm that sounds warning my family it is not safe to enter the kitchen when I open that cupboard. Let’s just say it does not bring out the best in me. Although I straightened it out. I already know I will be in a rant by Sunday if something is not done. This project is next on my list and hopefully will get done today….I have a plan and am a woman on a mission!
  • Hung the cord from the under cabinet lighting that came loose about 3 years ago. Every time I noticed that sucker hanging down, I would be annoyed that it hadn’t been put back-up. Not yesterday….I finally took the 5 minutes necessary and did it myself. Perhaps not the way my husband would have done it, but clearly he was okay with it hanging down loosely over the stove, so his standards weren’t getting in my way. It’s done, my way and looks way better.
  • We had mounted an old grate for school mail and notes at least two years ago. When we originally attached it, the holes were drilled too high and we had to lower them. That was fine, but the holes never got filled. Yesterday, I filled the holes and will sand and paint them today….yay!

Here are some of the before and after shots:

Spice Drawer Insert

SPICE DRAWER INSERT: I’ve had one of these all along and still love it. It is actually hard to believe that the drawer was in such disarray because this really does help to keep things organized. I think that’s why the “before and after” shots don’t look that dramatic, but believe me it is so much easier to find what you are looking for now. (I had to saw the edges off of mine to fit this drawer as it was actually bought for a larger drawer.)

Spice Drawers

It may not look like much work, but scrubbing labels, washing bottles, filling and re-labelling took me hours!! (Just noticed the T missing from the word “yet” and I’m choosing to let it go. Not really my style, but even I have my limits. I have been working on this post for way too long and have re-done the screen shot of this collage about 4 times too many already. Oh well! I’m sure my readers can figure it out – consider it a fill in the blank lesson from grade school. I am absolutely not changing it.)

It seemed like we had cereal boxes everywhere! Hard to believe we were Paleo at one time!!Cereal Storage

So glad to have this eyesore taken care of…finally!Mounted Cord

These spice bottle look so much better and love the new rack!

Spice Bottle Update

The Nightstand Solution: Bedside Pocket Storage

Master Bedroom

You can see from the photo that there is no space beside our bed for night stands.

Our bed is set into a small alcove in our room. Although I love the look of this, the trade-off is that there is absolutely zero room for a bedside table. This posed a huge problem for me for several reasons:

  • I often read before bed.
  • I wear glasses and am virtually blind without them.
  • I have a chronic runny nose and never go anywhere without a tissue and that includes bed.
  • I use lip balm and hand lotion right before going to sleep.

I am a creature of habit and when we moved into our house, I knew that I would have to figure something out to make this set-up work.

The Solution:

I bought a piece of fabric that coordinated with our bedding and bedroom colours and made a very simple pocket system that stretches across the bed between the box spring and the top mattress. The width was approximately 16″ (before finishing the edges) and the length depends on the size of the bed you are making it for. We have a queen, so the finished length included the width of the bed plus the fabric needed to build the pockets. To save money, I made joins that were hidden under the mattress. (You could even use old sheets or fabric scraps for the hidden part as it will never be seen.) I finished the edges of the entire piece and then created the pockets by folding the ends up to the desired pocket depth. I then simply stitched the sides to the base and made two additional vertical stitching lines to create three pockets of varying size. This gave both Tim and I our own personal little pocket for our bedtime essentials without having access to a nightstand.

I love that the pockets are almost completely hidden when the bed is made! This is a perfect solution, and is in fact a much “cleaner look” than a cluttered night stand!

Have you ever considered working from home? A revolutionary new training system has hit the market.  If you are interested in learning how to earn money from home, you need to click this link.

 

 

Spice Space: Re-structured

We have a lot of spices and seasonings in our kitchen. In fact, we have them in the small narrow cupboard beside the stove as well as two drawers. They are a complete mess with doubles of some bottles and extra packages for filling up old containers. I really have only ever had one spice rack set. I used to have one of those spinning racks that hold the serving spoons in a large canister in the center. I trashed that years ago as I hated the clutter on my counter. Although we have the cupboard and drawer space for all of these spices and seasonings, the mess means that the space can’t be used for other things I would like to store more effectively. So, my book display rack upcycle has kind of taken on a life of its own. As I worked on it, my mind was literally flooded with ideas on how to make my kitchen space work better for our family. I have a feeling this will be a bit of a journey as many of the projects I have in mind will take some time to build or reconfigure, but I’ll just add them to my already lengthy list of “to do’s”. Here are some before shots of my “spice space” ~ Yikes! How embarrassing!

Spice Bottle Upcycle:

The first thing I did was remove all of the tops off of my old rotating spice racks set of bottles. I got this rack about 20 years ago and you can see how some of the tops have yellowed over the years. Besides that, there are literally spices/seasonings in those bottles that have never been touched, so part of this overhaul involved tossing the contents of those bottles that never get used. In fact, two of the bottles still had the original seal under the lid! Once I did this, I was able to free up about 4 bottles and add spices that we use on a regular basis. The original set of spices had clear labels on them. I left the labels on those spices that remained the same, but peeled them off of those I was changing. I used “Goof Off” to remove the stubborn adhesive from under the sticky label. I then washed and dried the tops throughly and spray painted the tops. I used chalkboard paint, but regular flat black spray paint would work just as well for this project. I then began to top up the existing bottles if I had packages on hand and filled the empty bottles up with spices we use on a regular basis. The final step was labelling each lid. I did this free hand and without much thought or plan for design. I basically tried to print evenly and neatly. I wanted a “chalk” look without the hassle of smudging every time you open a bottle.  The solution was using a white Crayola Twistable for the printing.  This really helped to give the bottles new life and tidy-up this big mess. The bottles inside the drawer are still a mish-mash of sizes and shapes, but there are no duplicates and they are arranged in alphabetical order. This is a big improvement, but I have a new plan that will make this even better.

Here are the materials I used. I also painted a few old baby jar lids for this project. I included a finished bottle in the shot as well.
Old discoloured lids/bottles.
Painted lids.
Spice jar lids.

When I upcycled the book display rack, the height of the cabinet was over a foot shorter than the fridge. I would have loved for it to align perfectly, but that was not the case. I have decided to make a pull-out spice rack in the “dead” space above the cabinet. I think I can use drawer sliders, so that it can slide in and out easily. I can also make the rack much narrower than the bottom piece so that it fits all or most of the way back and closer to the wall. If I do this, I think I can actually fit all of my spice bottles in one spot!  Wouldn’t that be nice? I am not sure when I will get to this, but hopefully when I sit down and actually figure it out, it won’t be too much work and I can get on it right away. We’ll see.

Have you ever considered working from home? A revolutionary new training system has hit the market.  If you are interested in learning how to earn money from home, you need to click this link.

Chalk Art Storage Shelf

I removed the quarter round and changed the wheels on my cart yet again and although not perfect, it is sliding in and out of the channel beside the fridge much better.  I am so glad because getting that working and completed allows me to move on to my next step in the project. I have certainly used my fair share of chalkboard paint, but have only made things with a very practical purpose such as my menu board. I have never tried my hand at chalk art, but absolutely love the look. My husband thinks I am crazy for putting in the amount of time it took for this project. I probably spent about 3 hours on this from the design phase through to completion.  It wasn’t so much hard work as it was tedious and time-consuming.  However, I love the finished product and have my fingers crossed that it won’t be smudged within the first few days like my husband predicts. I have to admit that would be very disappointing, but we’ll just have to wait and see how it holds up. Unlike a sign or wall art, this unit will be used regularly and I may end up really regretting this idea, but for today at least ~ I love it!!

Chalkboard Art:

Like most things I attempt, I try to do a bit of research first as “reinventing the wheel” goes against every fibre of my being. Why would I make the same mistakes that so many before me have already learned from. So, the first steps, as always were preparation.  For this project, I was searching for font suggestions as well tips on creating chalkboard art and of course, the internet didn’t disappoint.  Here are some of the links that I found to be the most helpful.

The Scrap Shoppe

The Lily Pad Cottage

Indie Craft Parade

So, I basically followed the tutorial suggested on Indie Craft Parade. Her instructions for getting perfect lettering seemed simple and straight forward and didn’t require any special talents. Check out her blog for the full tutorial, but here is a summary of what I did.

  1. Prepped my new chalkboard by covering the entire surface with chalk and then erasing it. It was still pretty chalky, so I used a damp cloth to clean it off completely.
  2. Using the font suggestions on The Scrap Shoppe, I went to dafont (one of my favourites) and began to download a few of my favourite free fonts. I planned and designed what I wanted to appear on the board. In my case, this was a bit tricky because my surface was quite long, but only 4″ wide. I created a text box that was slightly smaller than the width of the shelf (using Pages) and then wrote my words in the box. I then began to play with the fonts, sizes and layout until I came up with a design I liked. The fonts I ended up using were Birmingham Elongated, Bergamot Ornaments, KG Eyes Wide Open, 2 Peas Heart’s Delight and Bumble Bee BV. I found free clip art for both the swirl and the salt shaker. I took a screen shot of the swirl and then adjusted the size for my text box. I decided to use Webdings to create the little hearts in lieu of salt!
  3. Once the design was finished, I printed it out.
  4. Using the printed design that was the exact size I needed for my finished work, I began to rub chalk all over the back side of the paper.
  5. I carefully laid out the design and once I was sure that it was centered and level, I taped it in place.
  6. Finally, I took a regular pencil and began to outline the letters and shapes and then colour them in with the pencil. The pressure of the pencil on the elements of the design transferred the chalk to chalkboard, creating beautiful crisp lines. This wasn’t hard, but it was somewhat awkward with the shelf being so narrow and I ended doing it in about 4 sessions with breaks in between each.
  7. Once I had traced and coloured the entire design, I carefully remove the paper. (The flower on the bottom was an after thought as I had no idea what to put in that space and it needed something. You can probably tell that it was not part of the original plan,  as it looks like one of my kindergarteners made it. Oh well!)
  8. The final step involves clean-up. Now this is where my patience began to wear a bit thin. From a distance it looks pretty fab, but if you go up close it is a bit smudgy in places. Oh well, not bad for a first try!  To clean-up the excess chalk dust, I first gently blew off what I could and then used both a clean damp rag (NOT paper towel) and wet Q-tips to erase the extra chalk and give it that clean look.
  9. When it was about as good as it was going to get, I sprayed the entire surface with hair spray. It is supposed to help maintain the art, but the effectiveness of this remains to be seen.

I am really excited about this whole project and will absolutely be looking for more ways to use chalkboard art in my projects.

Have you ever considered working from home? A revolutionary new training system has hit the market.  If you are interested in learning how to earn money from home, you need to click this link.

Book Rack Upcycle: The Final Steps

I thought I was so smart when I thought of re-using the wire hooks to help keep the wheels in line and prevent them from rotating.
If you look carefully you can see all of the holes demonstrating how many times I moved these stinking wheels. Ugh!
I love the industrial look of the metal strapping.
Here is the look when slid in its spot beside the fridge.

The Challenges:

For such a simple project, I have to say that I have been a bit frustrated. The rebuild was quite easy and everything came together quite nicely, but I am still not completely happy with the wheels and its mobility. I have mounted the wheels in several different places, trying to find a placement that provides enough stability and allows the cabinet to move easily in and out of the narrow channel between the fridge and the stove. I have run into issues with both:

  1. Stability – the cabinet is quite tall and narrow, so even without wheels, stability is an issue.
  2. Wheel Mobility – this has been impacted by two variables:
  • one being that the wheels tend to spin when you slide/turn the unit and it seems like they need to remain lined-up nicely in order to work properly.
  • the second issue is the baseboard and quarter-round on the wall. I suspected this might be an issue all along and am pretty certain that removing it will solve most of my challenges. My husband said “No.” Every once in a while he doesn’t quite buy into my plans and removing the quarter-round seems to be something he takes issue with. Oh well, I am on spring break this week (YAY!!) and he isn’t, so we’ll see what happens when he goes to work. This may sound a bit cheeky, but I know from experience that he usually agrees with me when all is said and done.  For now I have left it as is, but at the very least I will be removing it to see if it makes a difference to the mobility.

The Next Steps:

As far as the stability goes, it really isn’t that much of an issue, but I had planned on adding some extra hooks in the very narrow space behind the pull-out rack. In most instances, you would only be pulling the rack partially out to get what you need and the fridge and wall would provide plenty of support for it to stand. However, if I want to add the extra hooks behind the cabinet, I would need to pull it out completely in order to gain access to the items behind. I was thinking of storing my cooling racks behind there because they are light weight for hooks and are too bulky for my cupboards. The downside of this is that I use them quite often, so I might be better placing items that are rarely used behind there. I am really not sure how this will all work out, but for now, I am waiting for a few touch-ups to dry and will then be ready for the final steps.

  • Cleaning and reorganizing my current cupboards in order to use my new storage rack in the most effective way possible.
  • Chalkboard art – I am really not sure what I am going to do yet, but I wanted to try some kind of chalk board art on the vertical face of the cabinet.

I’ll keep you posted.

PS If you are interested in checking out the previous posts on this project, here are the links for the first and second post.

Have you ever considered working from home? A revolutionary new training system has hit the market.  If you are interested in learning how to earn money from home, you need to click this link.

Melted Plastic Crafts

I posted the steps for creating cool melted plastic necklaces last week and decided to use the melted pieces to make some other items as well. When I was away, I picked up a package of black hair clips for a couple of bucks. Although these could be a cute addition to a bun, I was thinking more in the lines of another twist on a scarf clip. I simply used my E6000 glue to adhere the plastic piece to the clip. The clips are a bit longer than the plastic, but once it’s embedded in the fabric of a scarf I don’t think it will matter.

I also added a little piece of the magnet tape I bought a few weeks back and made one into a fridge magnet. I was concerned the tape wouldn’t be strong enough to hold the weight of the plastic, so I added E6000 to it as well.

Again, these plastic shapes are super easy to make and the ideas for how they might be used are limitless. They are inexpensive and each one is unique in both shape and colour.

Have you ever considered working from home? A revolutionary new training system has hit the market.  If you are interested in learning how to earn money from home, you need to click this link.

Melted Plastic Necklace

I actually learned this craft when I was in elementary school. They were made by melting clear plastic pill bottles in the oven. I used to make them with my students, but over the years it became too difficult to get the right kind of plastic bottles. A few years ago, I tried making them with clear plastic disposable cups, but they were too big and wide at the top and just didn’t turn out as well. I was in the dollar store earlier this week (Surprise! Surprise!) and spotted clear plastic shot glasses. I immediately thought of this project and it occurred to me that these might work. The package of 30 was only a dollar, so it was clearly worth a try. I was so excited when the project worked, as this was much easier than the olden days when I had to ask everyone I know to save their prescription bottles for me.

Melted Plastic Necklace:

Materials:

  • Dollar Store clear plastic shot glasses (package of 30 for $1)
  • Old Crayons
  • A pencil sharpener or knife to create shavings
  • foil lined cake pan
  • baked marbles (optional)
  • Rotary Tool like a Dremel (optional)

Method:

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
  • Place a small amount of crayon shavings in the bottom of a cup (no more than 3 colours and be careful of the combinations you choose or you’ll end up with a yucky brown)
  • I decided to add baked marbles to a few of mine. Although they look fine, they are a little hidden and didn’t have the impact I had hoped for.
  • Place the cups on a foil lined pan. They won’t really expand, so they can be close together. *However, if you want to poke a hole in it (necklace, key chain, etc.), you will need to work very fast and I would suggest baking one at a time.
  • Cook until melted ~ approximately 1 1/2 minutes. If you aren’t loving the shape, you can actually poke at them a bit to “encourage” them to melt in a slightly different way. The pill bottles used to take longer and probably weren’t very safe to bake because they had quite a toxic smell while baking.  These babies didn’t smell at all and melted really quickly – this is way better than the original.
  • Remove from oven a poke a hole, if desired. I used my new rotary tool to grind the holes after. I picked this up at McMunn and Yates for about $40 and love it! It is like a knock-off Dremel and can do all sorts of things like cut glass, etch, sanding small areas, etc. I just got it, so I am still getting used to it, but can already tell it was a great purchase.

When I was a kid, we poked a hole in the hot plastic, put a string through it and made a necklace. You could also add a ring and make a key chain or do what I did with my students and add a pin to the back to make a nice broach. These really do look beautiful and the ideas are only limited by your imagination.

I tried putting marbles in the middle cup as well as the right cup.
Baked marble inside.
I wrapped a baked glass bead in wire and hot glued it inside.
I hot glued a baked glass bead on the outside lip of this one.

Have you ever considered working from home? A revolutionary new training system has hit the market.  If you are interested in learning how to earn money from home, you need to click this link.

 

Upcycled Book Display Rack Update

Well, I survived my marathon schedule for parent teacher conferences last week and even made it through the weekend without getting sick. Usually, I am so exhausted that I end up getting sick right after. I am still tired from the busy week, but managed to spend a bit of time on my new kitchen storage rack. I primed and painted it over the weekend and am hoping to complete the finishing touches early this week, if I’m not too bagged after work.

Book Display Rack:

In the first post, I shared how I planned to re-make and repurpose an old book display rack for kitchen storage. I had to cut it down in width in order to make it fit into the space between the fridge and wall. This made for extra work, but I was determined to make this work. After cutting it down and re-building it, I filled the holes and sanded the repairs.

Over the weekend, I got it painted. This was a bit of a process as I didn’t have much energy and opted for two colours. Whenever you use more than one colour, you are essentially doubling the work. First, I had to give it a light sand to scuff up the original finish.  I then primed it and had to let the paint dry thoroughly, as I didn’t want to peel the primer when I taped off my colour lines. I then had to paint my first colour and wait for the paint to dry between coats before moving on to my second colour. One colour would have been much easier, but of course, I had a vision for how I wanted the finished shelf to look. I can’t say that yellow and black were exactly what I had in mind, but I didn’t really want to go with white and the only colour I had on hand that would work was yellow. I am all about trying to use up paint I have on hand, so I decided to go for it. The black chalkboard paint is on the outside edge only. I was thinking I might try to label it in some way…not quite sure yet. If you check out the background, you can see the state of my unfinished basement. This has been on a “to do” list for quite some time, but its not my list!!! Ugh.

The paint is still drying, but my next steps will be to add supports across each shelf. The original supports were plastic covered wires. They worked fine, but I was wanting a bit more of an industrial look. I picked up these pieces of metal strapping for a couple of bucks each and will bend the ends and screw them from the inside. I contemplated distressing the finished cabinet, but have decided to leave it for now and see how I like it. I also need to find a pull handle…not exactly sure what I want yet.

Wire cord that used to hold the books in.
Metal strapping that I plan to use.

Have you ever considered working from home? A revolutionary new training system has hit the market.  If you are interested in learning how to earn money from home, you need to click this link.

 

Collapsible Wardrobe Repurposed as a Spray Paint Tent

spray paint tentI do quite a bit of painting and over the last year or so, I’ve started to do more spray painting for smaller projects. The idea of spray painting seems so easy…you know point and spray. However, anyone who has spray painted can tell you that it takes patience and a bit of practise to master the technique. I am not always great at taking my time. I like to do a very good job, but am always strapped for time and you can’t rush spray painting. It is much quicker to spray paint, but trying to get it done in one quick thick coat rarely works well. Believe me, I have messed up enough projects to know that very light thin coats work and a heavy spray finger may mean you only need one coat, but it also often results in ghastly drips. I am still learning the art of spray painting, but one thing that has really helped is having my own spray tent.

I used to worry about “off” spray, dust in the paint, wind, etc. It seemed like there was never a perfect location for painting. I was concerned about painting inside and have spray dust land on the walls, floors or other objects not meant to be painted. Outdoor painting also posed problems such as bugs and dust landing in the freshly painted surface. When I saw this idea for creating a spray tent, I put it down on my “garage sale list”. (Yes, it’s true, I have a garage sale shopping list….a list of items that I am on the look out for). So, I placed “collapsible wardrobe” on my list and was lucky enough to find one that was in poor shape and only cost me $3.  I rigged up the top and base to stabilize it and hung it from the rafters in my unfinished basement. It provides the perfect tent for spray painting. I simply set my projects inside and spray through the open front flap. This contains the paint perfectly and protects my projects from dust and bugs. Of course, it is not that big and therefore I am somewhat limited in the size of projects I can use it for, but if they fit, the spray tent works wonderfully.

Here are some shots of my spray tent. It is in a bit of an awkward spot in my basement, so I didn’t have much room to take my photos, but you get the general idea. Mine has a zipper across the top and a second one down the right side. When I bought it, it didn’t open right up for painting because there wasn’t a zipper across the bottom. Easy enough….I just used a craft knife and made a cut straight across the bottom. You can see that the cardboard base has seen better days and I will need to replace it with a lightweight board. I have oodles of scrap wood and can probably cut something that I already have to fit in the base in lieu of the less sturdy cardboard that currently sits there. Love this!!

Tent is suspended from my basement rafters.

If you are interested in learning to blog, do not miss this opportunity to learn how the pros blog with a revolutionary new blogging platform.  Click here to learn more.