There is nothing better than sleeping with the windows open on a cool summer night.
I love falling asleep to the crickets and waking to the birds.
To mark the warmer temperatures as of late, I made the switch to our summer bedding today.
Goodbye heavy duvet and flannel sheets.
Hello light coverlet and cotton sheets.
I can’t wait to crawl into bed tonight.
With 2011 drawing to a close on Saturday, I thought it would be neat to look back and reflect on the most popular post of the year at The 236.
When I looked back into my stats, the clear winner was my Operation: Jewellery Storage post (with close to 1,000 hits — small peanuts to some, but this blows my mind!) back in August.
I have to admit that this project was one of my favourites of the year mainly because I get to use and admire this piece every day. It makes getting ready in the morning so much easier — I can easily see all my jewellery within a quick glance and pick what I want to wear in mere seconds.
Plus, the organizer holds so much! Since installing it, I have filled almost every tack with either a necklace, bracelet or set of earrings. Love!
This project is also a great gift. In fact, I made an even larger organizer for my best friend as a house warming gift for her large walk-in closet. A much appreciated gift for someone who has so. much. jewellery. Jealous!
2011 has been a great year for The 236 — in fact, this year was a first for The 236 and for myself as a blogger. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting other great bloggers with similar interests as me through this wonderful platform and finally found an outlet for my crazy projects and creative inspirations.
I have high hopes for 2012 for myself as a blogger — and, of course, for The 236. In fact, I’m going to my first blogger conference called BlogPodium in Toronto on January 27, 2012, at the Interior Design Show. If you are going too, please let me know — I’d love to meet up with fellow bloggers!
Here’s to a wonderful 2012 ahead for all! Happy New Year from The 236 and thanks for stopping by.
Linking up with…
Southern Hospitality
Sew Woodsy
Home Stories A to Z
Savvy Southern Style
The Stuff of Success
Making Lemonade
Tatertots & Jello
Jewellery. It’s beautiful, dresses up an outfit and is fun to purchase or receive as a gift. There is no such thing as having too much jewellery (isn’t that every girl’s dream?)….but, what to do with all of the jewellery?
For years, I had my jewellery stashed away in organizers in my closet. It was a great system — it kept everything neat and organized. And, that’s about it. Neat and organized. Oh, and stashed away.
When getting ready in the mornings, I couldn’t be bothered to dig through my organizers to pick out accessories. So, I never really wore my jewellery, except for a few key pieces. I needed to find a solution, and when I was working on my Closet Vanity project, I came across this wall-hung jewellery idea. I had to make it!
Ted had some leftover baseboard trim stashed away in the basement that was perfect for this project. All I needed was a piece of 1″ pine and trim to top it off. And, someone to cut the pieces for me!
(Yes, my husband is cutting the trim in his slippers! And, of course, Mason is supervising.)
Next, I needed to stack the three pieces of trim, glue and nail them together, fill the holes and silicone the gaps. I chose the spray paint the organizer in Rust-Oleum Painter’s Touch Multi-Purpose Paint in Heirloom White.
The last step was to add upholstery tacks to act as the hangers. This required a lot of measuring, patience and thumbs (I hammered my fingers more times than I’d like to remember). I chose to do three lines of tacks in equal distances to maximize the number of pieces I can hang.
And, ta-daaaaaa…..here is the final piece hung up in my Closet Vanity.
As you can see, I still have plenty tacks to fill up, which means I can go out and buy more jewellery!….or, even better, receive them as gifts (Ted, are you listening?)
Overall, this project was easy to complete with minimal tools and resources. It’s also a great use of leftover pieces of trim. Also, I completed this project as party of Young House Love’s Pinterest Challenge. It feels good to actually complete a project that I pinned on Pinterest a long time ago! You can follow me on Pinterest over here.
How do you like to organize your jewellery? I’d love to hear about it!
Linking up with…
Thrifty Decor Chick
Young House Love
Beneath My Heart
House of Hepworths
Chic on a Shoestring Decorating
A few weeks ago while perusing Pinterest, I came across a really cool project done by Liz Marie — it was her bathroom closet turned vanity project. I thought it was a super great idea and made sure to pin the idea on my Master Bedroom Ideas board.
Fast forward to last Sunday and Liz Marie’s project was all I could think about. I had to do something similar in my home!
Since we live in a 1970’s bungalow, we don’t have the luxury of having a master bathroom. For the past four years, Ted and I have been sharing the main floor bathroom. Thankfully, he leaves for work earlier than I do in the morning, so we never have to fight over the bathroom. But, I know the constant clutter of my make-up, brushes, hair products and other girly things was starting to get to him. Turning half of my closet into a vanity space was a great idea!
Even though we are not blessed with a master bathroom, I can say that we are doubly blessed to have two full-sized closets in our bedroom. Ted has his and I have mine. Amen to that! This spring, after cleaning out my closet, I was left with only half of my closet full. The other half was just being taken up by an old dresser from Ikea that stores my socks and other unmentionables, and the top of the dresser was a dumping ground for jewelery and other accessories. The dresser was still useful and functional, I just had to reframe how I was to use that side of the closet.
First, I cleared out all of my jewelery and accessories taking up space on the dresser. The dust was out of control!
Then, I easily removed a few shelves, rods and brackets from my Rubbermaid Configurations closet organizer (which, by the way, are THE BEST closet organizers out there — so versatile and easy to install…and uninstall!)
Next, I measured the space in between the two wall brackets of my closet organizer. I knew I didn’t want to fully take out that section of closet since I may need it one day. After looking on the Ikea website, I found this mirror, which was the right size and price and had a small glass shelf for added space. Off to Ikea I went!
When I came home, Ted got to work installing the mirror. He’s a handy guy to have around who loves to use his tools anytime he can!
What a guy!
On Liz Marie’s blog, she also had a great post on make-up storage. I loved her idea for organizing and displaying her make-up brushes. I happened to have a nice vase on hand, so I quickly ran over to Michael’s and bought a bag of crushed glass for my filler.
I absolutely love the final product — my closet vanity makes getting ready in the morning a snap since I have all of my make-up, hair products and other goodies close at hand. Best of all, if I don’t have time to neatly put everything away, I can simply close my closet door! No more having to run into the bathroom and stash things away when company unexpectedly drops in and no more annoying clutter for Ted.
I’m also glad that I didn’t remove the closet rails — they are great for holding clips and hair ties. Also, the existing lighting in the closet is super great for applying make-up.
This project is almost all complete. I want to find a cute, miniature boxwood plant to go in one of my pots that I picked up this week. I think it will add some nice colour to the space — even a closet vanity needs to look pretty! I’m also in the process of building this functional, yet beautiful necklace organizer posted by LDH on her blog. More on that project in another post! 🙂
So, what do you think? A smart use of an under utilized space? If you have done something similar, I’d love to hear about it! And, kudos to Liz Marie for the inspiration!
Thanks for dropping by The 236!
the 236 