Mail Center

We had a space on the wall between our kitchen and dining room that was just begging for something. I was also starting to get annoyed with our calendar being perched on the countertop (see picture above). It was starting to feel really cluttered, but since we use the calendar all the time it needed to be somewhere easily accessible. After I found a wire storage unit at Marshalls a while ago, a plan started to formulate... we needed a mail/organization center! 

It didn't take long to hang up the wire baskets, and the calendar was a cinch as well. For the calendar, which did not have any hanging device, I just hot-glued a bent paper-clip to the back. It works really well! 

I also added two extra dots of glue to the bottom two corners to help keep the calendar straight and level on the wall. 

Now, our mail has it's very own place to live. I love the wire mesh, but it was looking a little messy from the front when you could see all the various papers. So, I added in some cute Amy Butler paper that coordinates with our dining room hutch. Perfection!

It's so nice to have the calendar in plain view (it was a $2.50 purchase from Target a year ago- best $2 I have ever spent!). Plus, when I want to write on it, I can just pop it off the wall with no trouble at all. I'm glad I went the paper-clip route rather than using something more permanent!

I hemmed and hawed about the height to put the wire thing at, but finally decided that this was the right height. I wanted to make it level with the green cabinet, but it was just too low. If I made it level with the kitchen cabinets, it would be too high! So, I decided to go with the height of the basket for a little bit of visual continuity. I think it works ok! 

Now the kitchen counter feels less cluttered, and our mail and various papers have a cute little place to be stored. Getting organized feels great! 

Project Week- Recap

So, you may be wondering how I did with my self-proclaimed "Project Week" last week. I had a laundry list of things to do, and I was aiming at finishing them off before the end of the week. So, did I make it?

Well, almost. =) I was SO close. Here's the list of things that I had to do:

• Paint Bookshelf #1
• Paint Bookshelf #2
• Finish Curtains
• Organize and clean music room
• Prettify music room using things I already have
• Finish wooden tray (I found an awesome wooden tray at Goodwill that needs a makeover!)

And here's what got done.

Bookshelf #1 got a nice new paint job to transform it from this:

 

 To this:

Bookshelf #2 gave me a bit more trouble.

After priming it and painting 2 coats, I went to put the polyeurethane finish on and the stupid stuff turned my white bookshelf yellow. I may or may not have cried in angst at that. So bookshelf #2 will probably be repainted sometime in the near future. Grr.

#3 on my list was to finish the curtains I had started a couple months ago. I'm happy to say that they are all done and doing their job quite nicely!

#4, organize and clean the music/craft/office space went pretty well too. It really helped to finally have a functional place to put things! All of my teaching books are now happily housed on the new bookshelf.

#5, prettify (is that a word?) the music/craft/office space, is off to a good start as well. I used things that I already had on hand to try and bring some continuity to the space.

 

One of the biggest changes in that area was the addition of an oversized print that I purchased a few years ago. I didn't have anywhere to put it for a long time, so it was sitting in the garage! I didn't know if the colors would work in here since I'm going for more of a green and white combo, but I really like the zap of color that the teal brings. 

There's definitely more that I would like to do in that regard, but at least it's off to a decent start!

Project #7 was also derailed by a bad paint job. I found this tray at GW and planned to give it a makeover, but the paint I chose did a really poor job of covering it, and then I decided I hated the color anyway. You win some, you lose some!

All in all, I'm really happy with how the project week turned out. It's nice to know that the Summer didn't completely get away from me before I was able to carve out some time and get things done! Just in time for some Fallish weather, it seems.

Just to jog your memory, here's what that room used to look like:

The wall where the piano is still looks pretty much the same and will need more work, but I think it's definitely come a long way! So, what projects are you finishing up this Summer?