Kitchen Update!

I've made major progress in the kitchen!  Today I'm going to show you what I've been busy working on for about a month now!

Here is my kitchen before.

Blah.

And here it is now!  I painted the walls and the cabinet/drawer pulls and we installed new lights!

The wall color is Valspar's Smoke Infusion.  I love it.  The lights are made with recycled glass and were marked down to {drum roll please} $4.  Each.  Yup, you read that right!  Originally they were almost $80!  But don't ask my husband how instillation went...  We figured out quickly why they were a returned item...

The knobs and pulls got a spray paint face lift.  Why?  Well, you can see for yourself.

Before:

Different colors.  Lovely right?  And the previous paint job was wearing off.

I don't want to shell out big bucks to replace 50 knobs and pulls so I bought two cans of spray paint instead.  

I starting by priming.  We skipped this step last time.  Trust me, its worth the extra $5 and hour of time.  I poked toothpicks through a cardboard box to keep my knobs upright.  I'm lazy.  I left all the screws in the cabinet doors.

Then I sprayed two coats of Valspar's Metallic Oil Rubbed Bronze.  I painted the entire thing this time.  It was time to say goodbye to the off-white, always dirty looking center.

Ahhhhh.  Much better.

Feels good to have another project scratched off the list!

Dress Up Closet Tutorial

Last month I posted pictures of our Princess Bedroom Project.  Today I thought I would finally share how I organized the closet!  The girls needed a place to keep all of their dress-up clothes and jewelry.  The project began outside of Hobby Lobby when I spotted this cupcake frame in a clearance bin for $5!  It was marked down from $40 and the cupcake mat was falling off.  Instantly I had flashbacks to a very successful project and knew what to do. 

Supplies for Jewelry Frame:

Cute Clearance Frame

2 Pieces of Scrapbook Paper

White Poster Board

 Package of Mini Pegs

Recycled Cardboard Boxes

Spray Adhesive

White Spray Paint

Wood Glue

Mod Podge

First, I removed the hardware from the back of the frame and peeled the backing off.  Then, I cut a cardboard box into two squares (for double strength) that would fit into the frame.  It was nap time so another trip to the store was out of the question.  Luckily we had pizza the night before!  The boxes worked perfectly.  I also cut a square of poster board to layer between the cardboard and scrapbook paper so the paper would keep its color.  I used spray adhesive to bond all of these layers together.

Next, I measured out the placement of the mini pegs.  I found these pegs at Hobby Lobby in the unfinished wood isle.  Using a drill press, I carefully drilled holes for the pegs.  I wasn't sure how clean the drill would cut paper/cardboard so I attached the scrapbook paper after drilling.  I used spray adhesive again, but this time I clipped the edge in place before spraying.  This is the easiest way I've found to get the paper on straight the first time!  I went back and slit the holes with an X-acto knife.

  

The frame is ready to assemble!  I popped in my pretty paper/cardboard.  The back of the frame was gooey from the previous backing so I plopped the frame on my leftover poster board, traced the edges, and cut a new backing.  I also screwed the hardware back on in the original holes (be sure to take note of where your holes are before covering them with poster board!)

I applied a few coats of Mod Podge to the pretty paper to give it a nice shine. The pegs got a quick spray of white paint.  Above you see them stuck in the bottom of a styrofoam bowl.  When they were dry I used wood glue to secure them in the holes!

Jewelry Peg Board Tutorial

My dress-up jewelry frame is finished!  My girls think they are so grown up.

Now off to tackle the dress up clothes that tend to be scattered all over the floor...

Peg Board Supplies:

1x4 cut to desired length

Wood Glue

Wood Pegs

Primer

Paint

This was SUPER simple!  I bought the straightest 1x4 I could find at Lowes.  I cut it to the width of the closet wall and marked the peg placement.  This time I'm using Shaker Pegs that are about twice as big as the mini pegs from the jewelry frame.  I had a few mini pegs leftover so I threw them in too.  You can never have too many pegs.  I sanded the board, drilled holes for the pegs, and glued them in place.  One coat of primer and two coats of pink paint.  Screw your peg board securely into studs.

Princess Dress Up Closet

That's it!  The girls played in their new dress-up closet for a while and I sat on the couch drinking a large glass of ice water.  Did I mention the cutting, drilling, and sanding took place outside in the Oklahoma summer heat?  What was I thinking???

How do you keep your kids' stuff organized?