Girls come with a lot of accessories. We have purses, shoes, scarves, jewelry and a plethora of other crap things. This is often why we require so much closet space to store it all. Most of my rarely used handbags and shoes are packed away, but my often used purses, scarves and shoes need to be close at hand, and thus can be kind of a mess.
To get them out of the way, yet keep them accessible I decided to hang some knobs inside our new master closet to hang my favorite accessories.
The problem with knobs is that they are meant to be screwed into a cabinet. This means that they have what you call machine screws (screws without a pointy bit) to attach them to the cabinet. They screw through the back of the cabinet into the knob. This makes them impossible to attach to a wall without some DIY’ing.
Here’s what you need to do. Take your knob screws out to the garage and cut off the heads of the screws using a saw with a metal blade. This now makes them headless screws (which means they can be screwed into things on both ends. )
Head back inside wielding drywall anchors and a drill. Attach your wall anchors into the wall where you want your knobs.
Then simply thread your now double sided screws into your knobs and your wall anchors. Ta Da! Knobs on a wall.
Now hang your accessories, and get your nagging husband off your back.
You can easily do this with all sorts of knobs, for holding towels in the bathroom, coats at the front door, or even the dog’s leash handy but out of the way.
SOURCE LIST:
Materials: Saata Knobs (6 pack $1.49) – Ikea
EZ Ancors – Home Depot
Fueled by El Granto’s searching for a specific article of clothing that never got unpacked when we moveed (yeah I know!), we did a bit of a mini organization session last weekend. It involved taking every single thing out of our closet, organizing and purging and filling five, yes FIVE! bags of clothes to donate.
We also made some room in our closet and dressers by swapping all our summer wear into storage, and getting out all our cold weather clothing.
After doing all that work in our closet, it inspired us to clean out a few more areas around our house. We had a few bigger pieces (dvd bookcases, a dishwasher, an office chair & some bedside tables) that were taking up too much real estate. A few minutes taking photos and writing up Craigslist/Kijiji postings, and we’d sold over half of it in less than 24 hours! (and given away a few items for free!) The cash made will get re-invested in home projects, and now there’s some extra room in our garage and basement!
I always forget how easy it is to purge old unused things, and kick myself for not doing it more. I may not need things anymore, but I bet someone does.
For our clothing to donate, we set up a pick-up appointment with The Canadian Diabetes Association’s Clothesline program. You can call, or schedule it online, and they will come and pick up your donations. (and no one needs to be home, just label everything with a “D” and put it on your front doorstep.)
The garage also got a tidy, and up next I am looking at you basement…
I love Pinterest. I have used it for organizing my wedding ideas, dreaming and planning our home renos, and even a recipe or two.
Most of all it inspires me. It’s like looking through magazine after magazine of gorgeous ideas. A few minutes of Pinteresting and my head is full of great ideas and projects, much to the chagrin of my husband!
So when Sherry @ Young House Love was discussing this years fall edition of their Pinterest Challenge, I decided to jump in with both feet.
I have been obsessed as of late with paintable wallpaper. I just love the texture and depth of it. Take for instance my inspiration shot from Emma @ The Marion House Book. Her use of the paintable wallpaper with a dark dramatic colour in her office is just stunning!
I already have a wallpapered wall in my Master Bedroom, but I have been thinking about adding some drama to my master closet. It’s not a walk-in closet, nor does it have room for a chandelier or an ottoman or any sort of art. Its just a standard double closet, but why should that stop it from being awesome?!
So I set out to add some drama to my closet by wallpapering & painting the insides of my closet doors! Yeah that’s right, the insides of my closet doors, so that when you open the doors they will scream TA-DA! It will be like having your own sexy magicians assistant hidden inside your closet.
So to put inspiration to fruition. We picked up a roll of (0n sale!) Martha Stewart paintable wallpaper in a pressed tin design, as well as a tester jar of dark purple paint.
We removed the doors from their hinges, then set them up on some saw horses in the guest room. The doors were a bit wider than the roll of wallpaper, and I could have taken the easy way out and just done a paneled insert for the door, but I decided to do it right and cover the entire door. So I laid out my first sheet of paper, wet & booked it, then applied it to the straight edge of the door. We smoothed out the bubbles and ensured the edges were well pressed down.
We then lined up a second 1/2 sheet of paper (split lengthwise, so I could use the other half for the second door). Matched the pattern, wet & booked and applied the wallpaper. We then did the same thing on the other door.
I left the wallpaper overhanging the edges until it all dried. At that point I flipped the doors over. Placed a piece of scrap wood underneath to use as a cutting board. I then cut along the edges of the door with a sharp blade, cutting off the excess wallpaper and leaving a smooth edge.
We then gave the wallpaper two coats of purple paint with a brush. It was a pain to get the paint into all the little crevices! The second coat went much faster than the first.
While the doors were drying, we gave a coat of dark grey paint to the closet, and prepped for new rods & organizers. We re-hung the doors, and this is what we have now! (sorry about the pic quality, we haven’t had an ounce of decent natural light in days with this storm!) I will take better pics once some sunshine decides to come out and play.
SOURCE LIST:
Materials:
Martha Stewart Paintable Wallpaper in Pressed Tin – Canadian Tire
Behr Sample paint – Home Depot