A Pegboard Named Desire

Think those industrial looking pegboards are just for men who love tools? Think again! With a bit of paint and creativity, you’ll end up with an organizational jackpot suitable for anyone!

What you’ll need:

• Pegboard(s) and accessories (hooks, baskets, etc)- found at Home Depot and Lowes
• Spray paint
• Accent paint (either craft paint or a different color spray paint)
• Small paint brushes
• Stencil

Start by spray painting your pegboard(s) all over- you can totally stop here, and it would still look great! I used Krylon’s “Hyacinth.”

After the board(s) dry, grab your stencil (or you could free hand). I found this picture of a flower online that I blew up and printed out. I cut out the large parts to trace, and filled in the rest by hand. I put one flower on each board in the corners.

Now fill in your drawings with an accent color. According to Krylon’s website, you can use their paint with a regular brush (who knew??). I chose a pink spray paint called “Raspberry” which I took outside and sprayed into a plastic tub. It’s a bit watery, but it worked great!

Once your details dry, you might want to finish with a clear coat of some kind to protect your work-this is definitely a piece that will get a lot of use!

Hang your board(s), put in your pegboard accessories, and organize! Sorry for the quality of the picture, I took it at night and the lighting is bad in the basement (will be fixed soon!).

Wouldn’t a smaller version of this look sweet in a girl’s room over a desk? Switch up the colors and details for a boy’s room! But this purple and pink beauty is for yours truly, to keep all my craft supplies (which I obviously haven’t put up yet). He would never admit it, but I think my husband is jealous!

Cost Breakdown:

(2) 2’x4′ pegboards- $6.47/ea

(3) cans Krylon spray paint-$2.60ish/ea

Pegboard accessories-some owned, but will need to purchase more

Stencil-free

Paintbrushes-free

Total: $20.74, plus any additional pegboard accessories down the line.

Not too bad for an awesome way to organize your things (and keep them at arm’s reach) without taking up desk space, drawers, or shelves!

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Breakfast Of Champions

The tea and coffee shelves are up and ready for use! Some gourmet German honey and 4 varieties of tea adorn the shelves. I’m still looking for the perfect basket to hold the kcups on the shelf (the one we’re using now is too large for the shelf). What do you think?

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Tea? Coffee? No problem!

Remember awhile back when I posted about this drool worthy tea shelf. I love the idea of having gorgeous tea blends on display. Since we recently became the proud owners of a Keurig machine, I’d really like to turn the tea shelf into a general hot beverage station, if you will. How awesome would it be to have guests over for brunch and offer them several choices of gourmet coffee or tea? You know I love to be the hostest with the mostest. So, I began gathering supplies.

At first I thought that I should make shelves. But, after investigating what’s involved in making a floating shelf, I figured that two 24″ $9.99 Target shelves would save time and money. Next up, the totally awesome set of mugs I scored at Ross for $4.99. I would need a way to attach them, so I picked up a pack of bronze screw in hooks at Target for around $3 (and there are TONS in there). Also at Target, I saw these cute little containers with airtight closures. Two different sized apothecary jars from Walmart hold some tea I had on hand. I plan to purchase a reusable Kcup for use with loose leaf teas (and coffee if we feel like it).

I can’t wait to get these up and styled with some posh blends!

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Mail Drop

If your house is anything like mine, the mail gets tossed wherever there is a flat surface. With three mail receiving adults in the house, we needed a place to put it so important letters and bills wouldn’t get lost in the shuffle.

Enter this $5 wall mounted letter organizer from Target.

Now, the buck mail stops here!

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Tea Time

I love the idea of a sweet little tea station, complete with mugs. I think it would be neat to put some of my most used spices on display also (which would also free up cabinet space!). Check out this project on Design*Sponge!

I got this great set of black and white damask mugs at Ross for $4.99 which will be perfect for my shelf. I may even do two shelves since I have a ridiculous amount of spices. I can’t wait to try out some loose leaf tea!

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Make Me Over: Linen Closet

Behind closed doors, this closet has been suffering in mass chaos since we moved in over 3 years ago. Stuffed with towels, toiletries, first aid supplies, it was practically begging for a do-over.

Sorry for the blur, but it is indicative of how the closet makes you feel when you open the door!

Here it is now, after about an hour of work and a $12.99 set of baskets at TJ Maxx

I started by emptying the closet completely and sorting everything. This included throwing out things that I was never using (hard for a toiletry/cosmetic collector like myself!) I decided I’d need a basket for first aid/sun care supplies, one for medicine and extra toothpaste/mouthwash and another one for the rest of the items. By getting rid of a lot of stuff, I was able to consolidate everything to fewer shelves, leaving an extra that now serves as toilet paper/paper towels/lightbulb storage.

Now we can find exactly what we’re looking for without topping a host of bottles to the floor or through the cracks!

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Project Clutter

We all have one of those places- a drawer, cabinet or  shelf that we just throw all our clutter in to hide it away. Well maybe you don’t, but I certainly do.

After the initial shock, I emptied the entire contents of the cabinet onto the counter.

Sheesh, it’s gotta get worse before it gets better, right? I began sorting and came up with a few categories of items:

1. Recipes/Cooking Booklets

2. Office type stuff that we use a lot: tape, pens, pencils, batteries

3. Stationary/envelopes for letter writing as well as mail that we haven’t sorted.

I grabbed a plastic paper organizer from upstairs that I wasn’t using, and readjusted the shelves to allow for the height. I corralled the tape and batteries in a little basket, and the pens/pencils in an extra pot I had around. I created an area for stationary and mail.

I even had space left to keep our extra grocery store bags (we have the reusable kind, but need these for cat litter cleanup so every other week we’ll make a trip without the totes). Our lunchboxes (how cute!) moved to the top shelf from the pantry which freed up a lot of room in there!

Now I challenge you to tackle that junk drawer or cabinet! You’ll feel much better if you do!

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Bejeweled

I recently decided to give my jewelry a place to reside in style. Rather than stuff it in a box or try to hang it on hooks, I wanted a set up that would allow me to see everything. A girl has to know her options, you know.

I had been using this tweeny gadget to hold my earrings for some time.

I guess the pink never bothered me before my super sophisticated bedroom makeover. Now it was a huge eyesore, begging to be made over itself.

New paint or not, that would only take care of my earrings, and I needed something to corral my necklaces as well. Enter this picture tree I picked up at the thrift store for $1.99.

It’s pretty blah here, but I knew I could give it a new look worthy of wearing my jewels. After performing a very delicate sequin flower-ectomy, I used the $0.99/can spray paint as primer for both pieces. The earring holder got a fresh green and the newly dubbed necklace tree a soft ivory. Here they are with their crowning jewels. The awesome glass bottle in the background came from a thrift store, I love the built in bling.

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Nooks and Cranies

Today we started work on our basement, it’s a nice large space with huge potential that has been used mostly as Mike’s workshop. Recently we decided we could make better use of the space, organize a little, and perhaps finish part of it. The first step was moving things around to get an idea of a good layout.

We made use of some Goodwill cabinets to create a laundry nook.

A new coat of paint freshened things up, along with a plywood counter top painted white to complete the look.

Here we are with the upper cabinet installed and new hardware. You’ll notice I’m missing a knob on one cabinet-that’s because I recycled these knobs from this desk into this dresser and now these cabinets. I’m hoping to find a match tomorrow.

I like the “built in” look, which will be complete when I fill the gap below the cabinet. Eventually we’ll also put drywall up on those studs, but for now it keeps all our laundry items hidden!

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Mason Jars Are A Girl’s Best Friend

This has to be the coolest and most affordable piece of decorating genius ever to grace our house. No, we don’t make jam or can marinara sauce, but we do buy Mason jars. Why?

Well my brother uses them to make liquors. Lemoncello, Apple Spice….now I’m getting off topic.

I use them for whatever strikes my fancy. I’ve filled them with decorative potpourri, colored glass rocks, fresh herbs from my garden, and most recently- flowers!

Everything from tulips to daisies to the poshest of posh peony looks super sweet in a mason jar. It’s sort of a “yes I just had these beautiful flowers laying around and happened to pop them into this jar” casual look. I love that it’s a total fake out. Plus, you don’t have to be a super talented floral designer to do it-just get a few stems of the same flower and put them in. It will look perfectly simple every time. Make your flowers last longer by giving the stems a trim every few days and changing the water.

Some other Mason jar ideas to try:

– Souvenirs like sea shells from vacation

– Desk items like paper clips, pencils….go for a bunch of the same item in one jar

– Natural items like corks, clothespins, and rocks

– Cuttings from your garden

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