Pure Organization Project #11: Make the Switch

We ended up not going anywhere for our Spring Break & just hung at home & enjoyed the sights our area has to offer.  We got so much JUNK cleared out of the house (even after only a year we have way too much!!!) and started a few more organizational projects. 

I might be a little late on this, but this week's project is to make the "Switch" from Winter clothes to Spring clothes.  Hit your closet,  your kids closets {if you have them}, and the coat closet. 

 It's such a great feeling... Spring clothes & coats take up so much less room thanWinter ones!

We still haven't made our bedroom closet "pretty."  (It's more than not "pretty"...  things accumulate in it because I have yet to find a place for everything.  It actually kind of stresses me out, but not nearly as much as it did when we first moved in.) 

...so the closet's on my list...

...as soon as we get the chance!

xoxo,

lauren

ps- i wish these were my clothes!  (imaginary wardrobe from anthropologie)

Pure Style Project #9: How To Make Wax Drip Candle Covers for Your Chandelier

Hope you had a great weekend!  We painted the nursery, organized it (finally!) & I started hanging things on the walls.  wahooo!!  Our washing machine broke and our house got so trashed from working on the nursery and neglecting everything else,  that we decided to head over to my parents' house and do laundry & order pizza & watch movies Saturday night.  They'd gone out for the night so we got to relax in their newly finished basement (redone after the flood.) (For those of you who haven't been reading this blog since the beginning, Dave & I had moved into my parents' last year to save up for this house.  It was one of the best things we ever did, although at the time it seemed like an eternity.)  It was cool to be back in our old "home" (the basement) Saturday night and remember all of our saving & dreaming & planning for a new house and to realize that we were there.   

Also, I've decided that because so many of our projects are decorating-related and not necessarily organization projects, I'll include both.  (BecausetTicking stuff off of my "to do" list gets me more organized even if it is purely decor-related.)

For this week's project I wanted to share with you the wax drip candle covers we made.  The stark white candle covers always bothered me on our old chandelier.  (We'd had to rewire it and replace the old damaged candle covers that were oroginal to it.)  I wanted pretty wax drip candle covers. 

So we made glue drips down the sides of the 30 cent plastic covers with Elmer's Glue.  I let a layer of drips dry before starting another one.  Here's the first layer (below).  Just start at the top with a glob of glue and let it drip down.  (As you can see from the pics it was a learning process.)  And use something better than a paper towel as the surface...  it sticks to the candles.  ;)

Once they'd dried and I had enough layers, I painted them with a cream paint we had lying around:

Here's a close-up:

I'm really way more into the orangey-aged color of the one wax drip candle cover below on the left (It adds so much to a chandelier) but I didn't have the right paint lying around. 

 So here they are for now & when I get the chance, I'll be recoating in a more orangey paint & antiquing:

But so much better for now.  (At least I don't cringe when people look up & examine my poor chandy or I put pics up on the blog.)  So if you have any chandeliers that are in need of new wax drips, please join in and link up!!  

xoxo,

lauren

ps-  This project's at your own risk.  I didn't use heat resistant paint, which I'm sure would be the smartest thing to do...  We checked our covers (prior to painting) and they don't get warm so we went for it, but that's up to you.  :)

On a Crafty Scale, I'm probably above-average for normal people but below-average or average for crafty bloggers/ blog readers/ DIYers.  I get very impatient & sloppy and like quick & easy projects.  This was sooo easy.   

*update -  also I didn't come up with this myself-- I think I must've read it in a magazine a few years ago**  :)

Pure Organization Project #7: Declutter the Kitchen

Somehow things just accumulate in my kitchen.  We have a little tray that's supposed to be for wallets & cell phones & sunglasses, but it ends up overflowing with coupons and batteries & lightbulbs & screws &chargers and other random annoyances.  Things just come into our house & if we don't stay on top of them, they build up, particularly in the kitchen...  cards, coupons, new (old) purchases, candles, etc...   Sometimes it's just stuff that needs to be put away in another room but remains in the kitchen for weeks.  argggg...  Now my junk drawer is clean, but the rest of the kitchen is starting to feel like a giant junk drawer.  eeek!  

So,  I put every single item that needs to find a home or leave the kitchen on my kitchen island.  Here it is, my junk:

And today there's no "after" because it's still sitting on my island where I'm typing right now. 

So Project #7 is to Declutter the kitchen of everything that doesn't belong.  Find spots for the things that do need to stay and ditch the rest.  (Preferably to a good home in another room instead of making more clutter in another room as I'm tempted to do!)

Good luck & I'll be back on later today to add Mr.Linky!  (I am so strapped for time right now & didn't get a chance to look at all of last week's links but promise I will!!)

The Better Homes & Gardens crew arrives today and will be here all week-long for our Christmas shoot!!  The tree's up & we're getting ready to go.  I'll be posting to let you know how it's going & how it works.  (I'm so curious!!!)

xoxo,
lauren

Pure Organization Project #4: Update an "Ugly" (Bathroom Sink)

Well, you all said you were interested in even seeing the not-so-pretty projects, so this one definitely fits the bill!  Our kids' bathroom is AWFUL.  Really bad.  (And it's also the bathroom nearest the main living area so everyone uses it.)  Our house was built in the 70s and so was graced with beautiful green bathroom fuxtures!!  yum yum pretty...

When we replaced the old linoleum floors with hardwoord, we (Dave) installed a new white toilet. Since then, I've been dying for a new sink.  The green shower can be hidden by a shower cutrain but that sink is just out there.  We bought a new sink and then returned it, realizing that this bathroom isn't a space we want to put any money into right now.   So as a temporary fix, I decided to try out a porcelain refinishing paint kit from here for around $50.   It was a simple 2-step process of spraying on primer (2 coats) and then multiple coats of the spray-on Epoxy/ Porcelain Hard Finish. So here it is before:

And here it is now (san- new caulk-  that's happening soon):

It's SO MUCH better now.  My mom gave me these cute little blue gungham animal towel sets for the boys (from PB Kids)  and so I'm using these as the starting point for the design. 

I'm planning on sewing a sink skirt that removes with velco (thanks Eddie!) to hide a couple baskets of toiletries/ diapers/ etc.  I've also got a blue & white sheet to tun into the shower curtain & some art work for the walls.  Dave's adding in some woodwork for towel hooks.  We may or may not paint from there.  So, how did the spray on stuff work?  It looks much MUCH better but there is still a bit of a greenish hue about the sink when comparing it to the white toilet which is next to it.  If you look right at it alone it looks like a pure white as seen in this pic:

Since we haven't used it yet (we're letting it cure) I can't tell you about its performance.  I'll let you know how it's working in a month or so.  But for now, I'm very happy with it as an intermediate fix until we're able to do more in here.   When we're finished with this little bathroom redo, I'll of coures take pics & show you!

And now for Project #4:  Update an "Ugly"

Maybe you're lucky enough that you've already updated your uglies (Oh how I wish I were!!) and if so, you get the week off!! :)  But if you're like me and live in an old house or even a house that was done by someone else, or like to collect flea market pieces in need of a little TLC, you probably have some things that need a little updating or freshening up.  Door or cabinet hardware?  Any furniture you've been planning on repainting or refinishing?  Light fixtures?  Faucets?  Outlet covers?  Mailbox?  Door knocker?  Anyway, doing this little thing makes our whole bathroom feel 100 times less fugly.  Is there anything you can do to update a little something in your house?

UPDATE**  I LOVE getting all your photos & seeing them, but I'm getting so many that I've decided to use Mr.Linky's widgets so that you can link up to your photos straight from the post.  As soon as I figure out how to set it up, I will add it on to the end of this post so check back!! :)

Goodl luck!!    THANK YOU!!!

xoxo,

lauren

ps - Don't forget to vote again for Eddie's window!  (The top right pic on my sidebar is a link to the voting and you can also text "1" to 89800)

And tonight is that last night for the LISA LEONARD DESIGNS GIVEAWAY (previous post) so be sure to enter!! :)

Pure Organization Project #2: Coat Closet Makeover

Hope you had a great weekend!  Ready for Project #2?  (In case you're new, we're attempting to do an organizational project almost every week of 2010.  I'll show how I did it & then I'm inviting you to come along & do the project at home & send me pics.   This way, we are sort of holding ourselves accountable to each other ;) Before I get to Project #2, I wanted to share some reader photos of Project #1 from last week.  Thanks so much to everyone who followed along at home!  I love how each person took her own unique angle on the project.   Here's my version:

Tina, in Austalia, used these beautiful Martha Stewart tags for her leftover paint:

She wrote, "I used simple twine and my precious Martha Stewart gift tags that I have been saving (lets face it they are too gorgeous to give away on a gift only to be tossed into a bin!!)"  SO pretty!!!

Berta, in Virginia, used this cute little bear container below for her paint:

Yvalie used these mini paint cans for her leftover paint.  She attached typed labels (the words are in German) to the cans along with a sample of the paint on the lids.  How cool?!!!  Love that perfectly clean metal:

And finally, Jennifer found this great idea in Parenting Magazine of using pversized pill boxes for your paint samples.  perfect!!

Thanks so much to everyone who joined & is planning on joining in!  Just knowing we're working on the projects together makes it less of a chore!!

And now onto Project #2:  Organize the Coat Closet

I'm actually embarrassed to show you the 'before' pic of our coat closet.  Yes, we've been living like this.   We threw our shoes in the bottom of the yucky closet where they got smashed & lost.  An overflowing box sat on the shelf and it housed all of our hats, scarves, mittens, gloves, etc.   Miscellaneous items like extension cords and shopping returns got thrown in the mix.  Uggggggh:

And here's our coat closet now:

We took all of this...

... And removed it so we could paint the walls in aqua paint (leftover from our basement).  The best part about this project was that it cost $0 because we just used things we already had. 

The first the step is getting everything out & starting from scratch.  For me, I enjoy projects so much more when they can be a little pretty.  Clearly the closet would be just as functional without the aqua paint, but opening the closet door & seeing this fun color just makes me happy, so it was really worth repainting.  (Thank you Dave!!)     

Next on the "pretty list" is matching hangers. They're a MUST. If you don't have them already, just head out to the store & grab some- even Home Depot sells them. I love Ikea's (cheap!) wooden hangers & have been using them for years so I can tell you they hold up well.

The closet door is an often-underutilized space for storage.  Here, I hung a canvas shoe organizer and filled it with all of our winter accessories:

If you have kids, you can put their things at the bottom to encourage them to put their things away by themselves:

We're trying really hard of getting into the habit of heading to the coat closet with all of our winter gear on instead of dropping it off in the entryway.  (Our coat closet is up the stairs & down the hall-  argggg.)  It looks like we need to put Christian's hat on the next row down:

I put our lint-rollers in here for a quick fix on the way out the door:

I switched out the overflowing box on the shelf...

...with a basket we had.  The basket is a lot bigger & (now emptier) and we'll juse it to corral miscellaneous items like shopping returns and anything too large to fit in the door organizer.  (I think empty overflow storage is a good idea if you're anything like me & just need to stash things for quick clean-up sometimes.  When they get too full, make sure to clean them out. )

Here's our mess of shoes before:  (so embarrassing! :)

And now it's so much better!  Dave made this awesome angled shoe rack out of leftover wood:

It's a shelf attached on the sides with a little lip at the bottom so the shoes don't fall down.  We put it in all the way at the front for easy access to the shoes and because there's hidden dead space in the back where I put the shoes we rarely use.  (Again, another overflow space:  it'lll get messy but I won't see it on a daily basis and when it gets cluttered, I'll reassess.)

Having the shoes down low, again, encourages little ones to help:

Christian was so proud of himself for putting away his shoes (a little crookedly! ;) on the shelf. 

"Yay!!!" he said:

This project has made us feel SO much better!!  I don't dread stuffing shoes in the closet or rummaging for Christian's hat when we're running late.  Everthing has a place and that's the key to getting it right:  just make sure everthing that will realistically be in the closet has a spot.  (1)  Then, use your door for storage (2) by getting a shoe organizer or some other type of system, make sure to use matching hangers (3), and add in some type of empty overflow space (4)- like the basket.   Finally, if you're anything like me, making it pretty (5) somehow- whether it be paint or wallpaper or color-coding your coats or a pretty box or anything else- will make you so happy when you open that door. 

Hope you enjoyed & I look forward to seeing & hearing about your projects!! (Just send me an email by Sunday if you want me to include your project in next week's post.)   Did anyone else join in last week? 

xoxo,

lauren

Pure Organization 2010: Project #1

So I had an idea for 2010.  As I mentioned before, this year we're really going to focus on getting our house organized.  We've hit most of the major eyesores in our 70s split, but open up almost any closet or drawer, and you'll see a mini trainwreck.  Not good. 

In our old house,we tackled every nook & cranny and it seemed that as soon as we'd gotten everything perfect, we moved.  And I don't want that to happen again.  SO this year, we're going after our closets, our drawers, our fridge, our laundry room, our pantry- one space at a time-  And I'm inviting you to come along!

Each week we're going to do a little job or tackle a project---  most of them are small EASY steps we can take to make our life more organized and run a bit more smoothly--- and you're welcome to join me.  It's sort of my way of holding myself accountable.  If I tell you I'm going to do a little job each week, then I'll do it.  So if you're anything like me & want a friend to hold you accountable, join me!!  [image below from here]

Every Monday, I'll list a new task or project we're working on.  On the following Monday, when I list the new "to do" job, I'll also show readers' photos -THE PROOF!- of the completed project from the week before & ask for feedback from anyone who joined in.   (I'd love for you to send me photos of  your completed project & I'm even thinking of figuring out the Mr.Linky gadget for those of you with blogs who'd want to link up. )  (Some projects we're doing are pretty to look at whereas others- as you'll see- are more functional than pretty.  So maybe we'll just do pics of the pretty ones??  I'm up for ideas! :)

Some of the things we tackle will be things you've aleady done & other things we do might not appeal or apply to you, but if any of the projects are ones you're interested in, then join us! :)  I think it'll be helpful & a lot more fun if we do this together!  (And to clarify:  in most cases I'm really not talking big projects.  I'm talking about those little jobs we've been putting off.  The things that make life easier &/or prettier but don't take much effort. ) [image below from martha stewart.]

Now, for PROJECT #1:  Fill mason jars with paint for touch-ups, label them, and store them in the room where they're needed with a small paint brush. 

Paint scratches, walls get scuffed, and it's SO EASY to do touch-ups when the paint is accesible.  It only takes 5 minutes!  The big hassle is finding the paint & getting out the can & the brush and taking it to the right room.  Eliminate the hassle, and it's really no big deal.  Today I did Project #1 and it only took 15 minutes- most of it spent cleaning out out old jelly from the jar.   I also attached the paint brush with a ribbon so it will always be with the paint.

I hope some of you will join me on a few of these projects, and just think how much more organized & beautiful our homes will be after 50 weeks of baby steps!

Anyone game???
xoxo,
lauren

ps-  Thank you SO much to Joni of Cote de Texas for including a renovation of ours in her post "The Top 10 Best Renovations of 2009"!!!  It was such an awesome surprise to be listed with such a talented group of bloggers!!  Check it out here.

UPDATE:  I'm getting some awesome pics from reader!! :)  Keep 'em coming!!