hiding the chaos

We are finally breaking into the basement domain. To be completely honest with you, it's not an exciting space right now and we haven't even broken into what we would really call "phase one" of the basement renovation. We have made some small changes to make it feel more livable and organized. We aren't going to show you the whole basement today, just my desk area and craft storage area, that's where all the DIY magic happens anyway!

When we moved in we were thrilled about all the existing built in storage in the basement. The shelves in the finished part of the basement (seen below) make for such a nice space to keep all my craft and DIY items together in once place. In our last apartment we had to use multiple pieces of furniture to keep all these items organized and now I can see it all in one "swoop"!

This is the chaos that we have been looking at for months. It's all organized and I know where everything is, but it just looks like a hot mess. Our idea has been to hang curtains over the shelves to alleviate the immediate headache these messy shelves create but we wanted to re-use and not buy new. Due to the "reuse it" mindset we have, we had to wait until we moved things around up stairs until they were settled so we could see what there was left over. We ended up using curtain rods and curtains that came with the house. 

      

Rob installed the curtain rods for me while I put the curtains in the wash. They cleaned up quite nicely seeing as though (I believe) they have never been washed. 

As you can see, they are not "wrinkle-free" and they were much to long for the job we needed them to do, as well as unfinished/un-hemmed. I thought about what solution I wanted to use for about a day before just making up my mind and hemming them with the old sewing machine. I was going to hem them in such a way that they could be let down later but considering they were free and not a great quality curtain, I just decided to hem and cut. 

*Oswin was very concentrated on the noise the sewing machine makes. She is just too cute! 

   

I achieved an even hem by measuring down both side of the curtain and folding the hem to the same length. I went through doubled fabric for about two feet of hem (I didn't cut the excess off because I wanted the weight of the double hem on the bottom). I sewed the line up the full length of the curtain to add continuity since I didn't have any white thread on hand (I know, I know, what kind of seamstress am I?).

Once I had completed both sides of each curtain, I ironed the bottom to a crisp line in order to get a nice, even hem on the bottom. 

   

As you can see in the picture on the left, I was left with a pocket at the bottom of the curtain and I didn't like the way it pulled the sides in when it was hung so I cut the pocket out. The double hem still leaves plenty weight to keep the curtain down but keeps it from pulling in from the sides. 

The hem and a quick iron (can you believe it since they are still so wrinkly!) made the difference for these basement storage shelves. 

This is my whole desk area, the table folds down on both sides and we usually keep the right "flap" folded down but it's awesome to have the extended space for working on projects! The shelving unit to the left is from Ikea and just adds nice "quick access" for the things I use the most. The greenish yellow storage cubes are respectively filled with yarn, fabric, and desk items such as notecards, writing utensils and all the other odds and ends.

Like I said, the basement is far from finished and we are moving s.l.o.w.l.y down here because we want to make some major changes (ie. drywall, new stairs, etc). We are happy to make these types of simple changes in order to make the space livable in the time being. 

Did any of you take on project of this caliber this weekend? Nothing too crazy hard to accomplish but makes a big difference?

feeling pinspired part deux

I would love to commit to a once a week craft or Pinterest inspired project but the reality is that I won't ever live up to that commitment. Not only because sometimes time gets away from me but also because I will run out of places to put things! I think, instead, I will just create a series of posts that are "pinspired" (like this one here). This way, they will all be organized, you can see if these projects are something you would like to try yourself and I don't have to lie to you about getting a post up each week! Deal? Deal.

This week I did a project for which I have had the materials for months. I like to have somewhere to stick notes that is a little more specialized than the calendar or the fridge, where things can get lost in the shuffle. So while watching Alias (the third to last episode, OH MY!) I decided to complete this project. 

Ikea sells cork hot pads for 2.99/pk of 3 and you just can't beat that price! I decided, after seeing a similar idea on pinterest, to use these to make cork boards for our kitchen. 

This project felt free because it took me so long to use the hot pads after buying them but in reality it cost me a whopping 2.99+tax. 

I used two t-shirts from Salvation Army that I had bought for another project a year ago and they just happened to be the right colors for my current use. All the other materials were things I had on hand and waaalaaa another "free" project! 

      

I opened up the t-shirts at one of the side seams and then looked for an interesting part of the shirt. After finding what I wanted, I laid the hot pad on the shirt and roughly traced a 2 inch border circle onto the shirt. Once it was outlined, I removed the hot pad and cut out the circle. 

      

I used the hand staple gun, with 1/4 inch staples, to fasten the material to the pad. I placed a piece of cardboard on our coffee table just in case of any rogue staples. Because the material of the shirts was nice and stretchy, I was able to get a nice smooth edge around the circle. 

I used one shirt for one circle and the other shirt for the other two cirlces, with plenty of material left over in both shirts! 

To hang them on the wall, I used a small piece of yarn knotted at both ends and secured them with two staples. These cork boards aren't heavy at all and adding notes won't add much weight so this hanging method is plenty sturdy! 

We decided to hang them in our side entrance hallway. Because of the way the stairs turn at this entrance, we are able to see these at eye level from the kitchen but they are above our head on the landing. It's a perfect spot so we don't forget important things as we are walking out of the door! 

   

As you can see, we haven't done anything in this area of the house yet: yellow door, cream organizer, etc... all to be addressed at another time! 

This was a nice little project that took me about twenty minutes once all my supplies were gathered and I even got my first note! He's my "most favorite" too! 

Have any of you put your own spin on something you found on Pinterest?

feeling pinspired

I always have a lot of projects rolling around in my brain, sketched out in some book, pinned on pinterest, etc. and because there are so many, I have to decide which ones are necessary.

I would love to do all the projects that I think of or find, but the reality is once you finish the project, you have to have a place for it. Well, our small house doesn't allow for much "extra" without looking ultimately more cluttered than decorated; it's a fine fine line!

When we first moved into the house we had a garage sale that was a joint effort between us, my mom, Rob's mom and my aunt. At the end of the sale I collected a couple pieces that I thought I could repurpose into other things (these Christmas trees were one of the things I gained). Another was a frame with a print of three peppers, a little dated but intriguing to me, so I snagged it! 

Originally, I was going to use this frame to create a dry erase calendar for the kitchen but as I was painting, I decided that I didn't want there to be a white background as a part of the calendar and so I decided to set it aside. 

   

I did go ahead and paint the whole frame black so that I could use it for a project in the future. I switched to a different floating frame that I wasn't able to use anywhere else in the house for my calendar idea. I used the same aqua cards, pictured above, to make the date squares - the pinterest idea suggested paint chips for an ombre affect but I thought that would look too busy. Because of the frame size I went with 1.5inch x 1.75 inch rectangles and I was able to get six from each card. 

   

After placing all the cut out rectangles on the glass with rolls of scotch tape, I simply put the frame back together. I didn't add all the dates because they change every month and I didn't want to have to take apart the frame every month. Dry erase markers, which was my idea from the beginning worked out perfectly. 

   

With such clean lines it adds nicely to the kitchen without adding clutter to the walls! Last year our calendar hung on the fridge with magnets so I wanted to put it somewhere near it's old location, hence the wall next to the refrigerator. 

Project one, complete!

Once I finished the calendar, I went back to the pepper print. I still liked it and thought it was interesting, it just needed some modernization. I first used an Xacto knife to remove the green matting. 

      

Removing the matting made a great difference but the print itself still looked quite dull. I decided to try my hand at adding some contrast to the image with a black ink pen. I simply followed along all the original lines with the pen to really make the print look modern and far more updated than before. 

I think that the black outlines did wonders for the print and made it good looking enough to live in our kitchen! The corner that I placed it in was one that I was never settled on before, thinking that something was always missing. I think this nice graphic of peppers is just was the doctor decorator ordered! 

Overall, these projects cost me... NOTHING. It was a free crafting day at the Rebhan house and I was so happy to be able to not only repurpose one item, but two for our kitchen! 

Pinterest is a wonderful thing and I like it even more when I can create something that I find without having to spend one single cent! Always a win in my book. 

Thanks for following along, we are tackling some fun projects coming up so stay tuned! 

Until next time,

Lindsey