DIY Makeshift Mudroom

I don't know about you.....  But my kids bring home a lot of "stuff"!!!  The amount of "stuff" they bring home from school is mind blowing!!!  Even overwhelming!!  So after a month of stacking papers here, and putting papers there...  And trying to get the kids out the door in the mornings with all their "stuff"  I knew I needed a better system!

I friend of mine gave me the idea to make the area below into a mudroom a year before it was converted to this - Awesome Organized Mommy Station!!  I thought she was crazy - but she had the vision - WAY before me!  So kudos to you Amy!!  Now the mornings are a breeze - and all of their "stuff" is kept together!  I have space for jackets, backpacks, shoes, lunchboxes, papers and even hats and gloves!  ALL IN ONE PLACE!!!!  HUGE!!!

If you have kids and do not have an area like this - and your mornings are as CRAZY as mine were - then you are in luck!!!  I am going to help you get organized and maybe not eliminate, but cut down on the mayhem in the mornings!!!

Here is what my hallway between my kitchen and dining room looked like before...  Plain, boring and most importantly UNDERUTILIZED!!!  There was a lot of space here to turn into my Awesome Organized Mommy Station!!! Or as most people call them - A Mudroom....  

I have already hung my laser level in the pic.  A MUST HAVE if you plan on being a DIYer!

So, I knew I wanted a coat rack of some kind!  AND of course, it had to be as inexpensive as possible!!!  So I went to Hobby Lobby to see what they had....  I really wasn't that impressed with what they had, so I went to my next source of inspiration...  The Antique mall!  

***Before starting a project, get inspired!  Find pictures on the Internet, or magazines with items you LOVE....  Then head out and start looking around for what you loved and your imagination will take you places you didn't even know existed!!

As I was walking up the aisles, I came across a pair of reclaimed pieces of wood.  They were both about 6ft long and had some glorious age on them!!  BUT, the guy wanted $10 each for the wood!  I was like, "YOU ARE NUTS"!  For an old piece of wood!!!!????  As I stood there talking to him about his wood, heehee....  He told me that the pieces were from an old barn in Kentucky!!  Well, I graduated from UK and so did my husband - AND my husband is from Kentucky!  So I fell in love with his wood - even more!!!

 I then noticed the bench in the 1st pic..  It was narrow and almost as long as the pieces of wood! He wanted $50, AND it was from KY as well!  I knew I had to have it...  So we went back and forth and I got him down to $35!  And I got both pieces of wood for $7.....  Sold!!!  ($42 the bench and 2 pieces of 6ft wood)

So now I have the wood I need for my coat rack and a bench to go under it!!  I am pretty much set!! So I head back to Hobby Lobby and their hooks are 50% off!!  So I get 4 hooks, each for $3!

Cost of materials thus far:

Wood - $7.00

Bench - $35.00

Hooks - $12

So to make the coat rack - I needed to drill my coat hooks into the wood...  OMG!!  I am terrible at math!  It is so bad - I stood there measuring and placing the hooks for about 45 minutes, trying to get them centered!!  I finally gave up and just eye-balled it!  Ahhhh, much easier!!  Now, once you have the hooks into the board....  You are going to have to hang it!  Keep in mind...  These book bags are heavy!!!!  You will need to drill this sucker into the STUDS!!!  I drilled mine into 3 studs!  If you have never done this before, you will need a stud finder!  No this isn't a tool to find you a hot young man to do this for you.... ;)  This is a tool to find your studs in the wall...  And get your laser level..  To make sure you hang it level...   You can do this!!  But if your stud finder does find you a young hot man to do this for you - BY ALL MEANS!  Let him!!  My stud was out of town!!  LOL

Now for the finishing touches.  I got the Galvanized steel pails at Home Depot for about $12 each!  They go with my Rustic/Industrial look and I just love them!  I got my hot glue gun out and glued some sissle around the top to give it a little more character.  I got the wire basket at Marshall's for about $8 and then the file holder rack at Home Goods for around $20.  This comes in VERY HANDY with all that paper work that comes home!!  It was more than I wanted to spend, but with the vintage wire racks being to 'IN' right now - this was a steal!  I then got the mini chalk board tags at World Market.  

To write the boys names on the chalk board tags, I used a paint pen.  I am no good at that "chalk lettering" and with the traffic in that hallway - I figured this was the best solution.  My other addition is the oar seen here in this picture.  I found this at an estate sale.  It was just a plain piece of reclaimed wood - sawed into the shape of an oar that I got for $10!.  So I used painters tape and painted a few lines on it and added the number "5" to it.  To get the 'vintage' appearance, I just lightly rolled the roller over the board to give it a weathered appearance.  

 

And Voila!  A makeshift Mudroom!  For a total cost of about $100!  You know how I love to do my projects on the cheap!!  

I wanted to add my picture of inspiration that I used to develop this project:

I loved this!  But they wanted $60 just for 1 oar!! and I almost bought it!  But couldn't bring myself to do it... And so I began looking for items to make my own.  Doing projects on your own isn't the fastest way to get things done!  You have to get creative to find things that will work AND for me - also to stay on budget!!  But it is always rewarding to me to know that I did something all by myself! It may not look like the picture from Pottery Barn exactly, but close enough for me to LOVE my new 'Mudroom'.  

Feel free to ask any questions below and leave any feedback.  Thanks!

  

The New and Improved Yarn Chandelier

Oh - this light!!  I have a LOVE/HATE relationship with this light!  I LOVE the way it looks!  I LOVE that it gives this room the much needed TEXTURE it was so desperately lacking!  I LOVE the ambiance that it gives to my dining room.  But, I HATE how much time this took and the frustration that came with this project! 

Let me start from the beginning of this projects "story"....  

Here is my inspiration for my light....

I thought this light was really cool looking!  I liked that it could be BIG, UNIQUE and I could do it on a BUDGET - holla !  So I went to the Hobby Lobby and bought a few different types of yarn...  Big thick yarn, and small thin yarn - even sparkly yarn..  Once I decided which one to use I gathered my materials and got ready to start - my first attempt that is......  

Material List:

*Yarn of your choice - get 3 just in case you want more depth (different sizes, colors, textures)

*Disposable table cloth

*Disposable paint tray (Dollar Tree has them for $1)

*Fabric Hardener (I used Stiffy) 

*Yoga Ball (I used medium size)

*Light fixture (I used the HEMMA fixture from IKEA)

*Chain and Cap for ceiling (possibly from the fixure you are going to replace) - just paint it - I did!

*Paint to paint chain and light (I used Rustoleum Oil Rubbed Bronze)

*Light Bulb (sounds silly, but I forgot it first time - SMH)

*An old (or new) 3 strand hanging plant pot chain

 LOTS OF PATIENCE!!

First, get out your NEW Yoga ball - or lets admit it, you just pulled that one out from that cabinet next to your DVD player...  SO then - dust it off....  Get your yarn and STIFFY out - (giggle giggle) - and lets get to work.  (DON'T FORGET YOUR TABLE CLOTH TOO).

After you lay out your table cloth, get out your supplies.  Lay out your paint tray (this is to work with the fabric hardener and let you get your yarn "wet".  The "Stiffy" is simply liquid glue.  I learned to unroll a good bit at a time to work with - because it gets tangled easily and "Aint Nobody Got Time for That"!  I learned that I needed a starting point (from my first attempt) so I added a crochet ring.  I taped this to the top - using the yoga ball plug as the middle starting point.  This comes in handy later.  Tie the 1st yarn to the crochet ring and wrap the yarn around the ball.  Wrap and wrap all around, and around and around in everyway possible!  Always wrapping around the crochet ring.  This is key because when it comes time to deflate the ball, because you are going to need a way to take the yoga ball out of there....!!  

Once you have applied your yarn - you need to allow this to dry for up to 3 - 7 days!  I know...  Its hard!  And its even harder to keep curious kids away from it as well!!  

This is the pic of my first one..  Which was ruined by my 3 yr old..  But I realized I didn't take any pics of the 2nd one.  But this is how it will look once the yarn hardens..  

IKEA LIGHT - HEMMA Light fixture
**Make sure you buy the correct one you need.  Are you going to wire it into the ceiling/wall?  Or
do you need a plug in fixture?

I needed one that I could wire into my ceiling so I chose a hard wire.

Here is the light assembly from IKEA.  I thought that my INSPIRATION PIECE was cool, but was to simplistic for a dining room.  I didn't like that you could see the light bulb, so I wanted some sort of shade in there to make it look more elegant - I suppose...   But this fixture is cheap looking, but I needed something that would fit INTO the my crochet ring.  ***Make sure when selecting a light fixture to go in your "GLOBE" that it fits into the crochet ring!!!!***  So, to make this lamp shade look more expensive, I took the chain from the GOLD chandelier off and painted it with my goto Rustoleum Oil Rubbed bronze and the cord as well.  I also removed the plastic IKEA cap and used the GOLD one from my chandelier and painted it Oil Rubbed Bronze as well.  I thought this gave it more elegant effect as well.  

Once that was ready to go...  It was time to deflate the ball...  Oh this part sucks!!!  Seriously!  Do it slowly and use a butter knife to push it off the glue soaked yarn as it deflates...  

***I ended up using an old hanging plant chain (with 3 chains) to hold it while I worked on it.  This was very helpful and I ended up using it on my final design...

Once you get the ball out, you will probably need some of your left over yarn to wrap around the crochet ring to "finish" where you had to cut the string to get the ball out.  This is really a learning experience and it is hard to explain here...  Once you get the hole ready for your light, its time to hang the light. 

To keep costs down, I have cheap labor...  XOXO - The hubs is very handy!!  He practically finishes all of my projects for me!  He is the BEST!!  Thank goodness I married and engineer!!

 Like I said, I ended up using my old plant chains to hold the globe centered and attached it to my chain - which I threaded my light fixture cord through.  So basically the IKEA light fixture and chain are the only part attached to the ceiling.  My yarn globe is attached to the chain hanging from the ceiling with the old plant chains....  Make sense?  I hope so...

You can see here, The larger ring is the crochet ring.  The smaller ring is the old lampshade I put on the light.  I wrapped yarn around both to give it a more finished look.  You can also see the plant chain and how I painted the cord, chain and cap.  

And there you go!!  Now you have a beautiful  and UNIQUE light in your home!  Everyone that sees it - just raves about it!  Its one of a kind and you can make it as bold or neutral as you like!  

I know that a lot of people feel as though they don't have TIME to be creative and do these types of projects...  

But I do!!  I have the time!!

Let me help you be creative!!  And to strech every dollar!

Thanks for reading!  Post any questions or feedback below!  

Restoration - RE-Creation Orb Chandelier

The house of my dreams came with A LOT of things that I wanted to change.  Many of which was the GOLD lighting all over the house!  No offense to GOLD lighting, some are gorgeous - its just not my style.  Unfortunately, Restoration Hardware and Pottery Barn are my style...  But, with me staying home with the babes right now - I cannot afford those gorgeous lights I see on my frequent trips to the mall.  So, I decided to try my hand at making one of the items I saw at Restoration.  

Restoration Hardware $1195...

This is the chandelier that caught my eye!!  The Foucault's Orb Light from Restoration Hardware!  How cool is this light!  I am so into the Industrial - rustic look right now!  Oil rubbed bronze and reclaimed wood are slowly becoming a part of the decor in my home.  

 I made this for under $50!

Let me just say, keeping the price as low as possible is the name of the game for me!  In fact, it has become a GAME for me!  To see how "cheap" I can keep my projects!  And then I brag about it to everyone that sees my projects- lol!  

At first I thought, I was going to use old window blinds.  I thought that I could take one apart and bend them into the shape of an orb.  But I couldn't find any in the length that I needed.  So I made a trip to my local "Habitat for Humanity Restore" to see what I could find to use in my chandelier.  I asked a guy that worked there if he had anything metal or aluminum that was long and that I could bend into large circles.  He took me in the back and we came out with 7 aluminum door - air shield  or weather strips.  He sold them to me for $7 (for all of them)!!! 

 I took my aluminum strips home and put on my gloves and started bending...  

One great things about using these weather strips is that there are pre-drilled holes.  So it made it easier to start making my loops with the holes already there.  Once I looped them, I had screws on hand to put in there.  Once I had all my loops, I put them in the shape that I wanted, into my orb....

Now, I'm not gonna lie!!!  This was a lot of work!  My hands hurt afterwards from bending these things.  I also made numerous trips to Home Depot trying to figure out what to use to make this thing!!!  So my learning curve is your gain people!!  ;)  You can see from the pic above, I had the middle loop on the outside, this was moved into the inside after many attempts at getting this to work!  

And see in this pic, how the ends of the loops are "sticking out".  I had to figure what to use to get these to lay down for me and make it a perfect round loop.  I ended up using these screws that had a loop attached to them that tightened as you turn the screw.  I found them in the plumbing department at Home Depot.  

They worked really well to get them to lay flat.  Once I had it in the correct shape - I ended up replacing the large screws with EYE loop screws.  This was to give it a more decorative look then just screws.  And the plumbing screws I really ended up falling in love with - because I felt that it gave it a more Industrial look!  So, I used even more than I needed for an additional decorative effect!  Once I had the orb made - Now I needed a light to go in it.  I was not mentally prepared to try to tackle a light assembly yet - so I made a trip back to the Habitat Store.  I bought this chandelier for $20 and took it apart and painted it with Rustoleum Oil Rubbed Bronze along with the Orb I had created.  

I added the basketball to show size of light.

My VERY TALENTED and  HANDSOME hubby drilled a hole in the top and put the light fixture through the hole and then we hung it! 

 I am very pleased with how it turned it out!  You can still have all the things you want....  Sometimes, though, you may have to work a little harder to get them...;)

Thanks for reading and feel free to ask any questions!!