chalkboard |

From the Archives–My Very First Post Ever–Week-at-a-Glance Wall Chalkboard

Posted on April 5, 2013 by Christy

I thought it might be a little fun this Friday to repost my very first blog post, ever, from November 27, 2010. My, how things have changed since then! Bear with me on the formatting and pictures, but it’s still fun to see how much 11 Magnolia Lane has changed along the way. My Type A/OCD tendencies haven’t changed at all, though!

Happy Friday!

Week at a glance wall calendar

I am an organization addict. Combine a Type A personality with only-child syndrome and throw in a touch of OCD, and this is what you get! I have owned every Day-Timer and Filofax ever made, and for awhile there I was really good about keeping my schedule in my Blackberry, but now I am back to a good old-fashioned wall calendar that gives me the month at a glance and allows me to plan WAY far in advance (a must for every military wife and homeschooling mom). But for the current week, I have–drumroll, please–my chalkboard calendar on my kitchen wall!

Everyone laughs at my wall calendar, but I know that they are secretly jealous. They feel flattered if they “make” the calendar and then get to see their names prominently displayed in my kitchen. Since I have to write down every move that I plan to make or I will forget it, lots of people make my chalkboard in a week’s time!

The panels are simply chalkboard-style Wallies, the peel-and-stick wallpaper that can then be easily removed when the time comes. By the way, I haven’t tested that claim yet, so I am hoping that when we move they do peel off that easily, because I already will have enough nail holes to fill! Anyway, I bought the Wallies online from Amazon (click HEREto order them through our affiliate program), and I just measured and stuck those puppies on my wall. I suppose you COULD use tape and chalkboard paint, but that would obviously be a more permanent approach and our frequent moves make me more of a “temporary” than a “permanent” person.

Since there are eight panels but only seven days in the week (I know you know that, but sometimes I schedule enough for eight!), I have one panel left over for NOTES, where I keep a handy running to-do list of things that I have really been putting off for a long time (like make a new will and schedule our flu shots). My real, daily to-do list gets written on paper and stuffed in my purse, but that’s another post for another day! I also start my week on Monday, even though my pastor tells me that Sunday is the first day of the week, because I need to see the weekend days together. Of course, the beauty of the chalk board is that on Sunday, I wipe the whole thing off with a wet paper towel and get to start it all over again.

I should resolve that I will put more things on my calendar like “massage” or “lunch with the girls, “ or my personal favorite, “shoe shopping,” but unless someone creates that eighth day in my week, I’m not sure if I’m going to have time for those things before January!

Thanks to wordpress for featuring this post on FRESHLY PRESSED and for everyone who visited us from it!

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Posted in Office, Organization | Tagged calendar, chalkboard, organization, wall, week at a glance | 4 Comments

Chalkboard Paint Dog Food Container

Posted on January 14, 2013 by Christy

**Don’t forget to enter our January giveaway here–it closes tomorrow (1/15/13) so don’t delay!**

I’m sure you’ve noticed I’ve been doing quite a few pet-related posts lately, because we’re now up to two dogs, a geriatric cat, and a hamster. There has to be a system in place, or chaos (and animal hair) reigns!

I saw the cutest idea on Pinterest, by TidyMom, and knew I’d have to try it. She spray painted a big old popcorn tin and made a dog food container that looks just as good as the Ballard Designs one that I’ve been eyeing (that goes for $50 a pop).

I hit Goodwill last week and they had tons of these tins for $0.99 each. The price was right! Here’s what I started out with:

I’m sure my neighbors laugh at me, because the grass in my backyard is always spray-painted in a variety of colors!

I covered the Holy Family with two coats of chalkboard spray paint, but of course any old color would do to suit your decor. The chalkboard paint means that you can stop there, and just write your pooch’s name on the can.

I decided to take it a step further, and used my Silhouette Cameo and some white vinyl to cut out a white dog bone (purchased from the Silhouette store for $0.99) with Sunny’s name cut out in the middle (Boyz R Gross font–one of my favorites). I love how it turned out!

This is a slightly smaller tin that I wanted and would be better for a small dog or a cat, but it works for now and I will keep looking for a great big one. I suppose if you had two big dogs who ate the same food, which I don’t, you could buy one of those great big metal trash cans and use that.

Add a decorative scoop to jazz it up a bit:

If you haven’t checked out my repurposed shutters-turned-dog-gate, click here to see another cute doggie project.

Thanks to Cheryl (aka TidyMom) for the Pinspiration, and thanks for stopping by!

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Posted in Crafts, DIY, Pets | Tagged canister, cat, chalkboard, container, dog, food, paint, pet, popcorn, tin | Leave a comment

Progress in My Dining Room–Open Shelving and Chevrons!

Posted on November 12, 2012 by Christy

Sneak peek of the “after”

**There’s still time to enter our giveaway for a hand-stamped silver necklace from Pure Gratitude. Click {here} to read about it!**

I’ve been working on my dining room over the past few weeks. It’s the first room you see when you enter our home, and it’s always been my least favorite. I had two goals: to make it more welcoming and casual. Right now, we only use our dining room two or three times a year, and I’m convinced it’s because it’s such a formal room–and we’re not really formal people!

When we moved in, the walls were a deep chocolate brown and the trey ceiling was faux finished with a brown and gold treatment. The window treatments were lovely, but made the room really dark, and the paint color sucked all the light out of the room. I also wasn’t a fan of the chandelier. Here’s a “before” picture I dug out from my house hunting pictures.

Last summer, I scored a Ballard Grande Claire chandelier on Craigslist for $100, and sold the old one on Craigslist for $100. That worked out well, huh? My sweet husband painted the walls while the kids and I were away (“Camouflage” by Benjamin Moore) and we lived with it like this for about a year, but it wasn’t exactly right:

The week of Halloween, I reached the point where I couldn’t take it anymore. I sold the drapes on Craigslist (and they went FAST) and rolled up the antique hooked wool rug that our sweet rescue dog ripped last month. He didn’t mean to, but he was chasing the cat and skidded out. I think the room looks better without it, anyway.

I painted the walls “Fawn Brindle” by Sherwin Williams, but mixed at only half strength so it would be lighter. We have that color in our living room/great room so I wanted there to be a slight contrast with the rest of the downstairs. The painting went quickly because the bottom half of the walls is wainscoting and two walls are open to the living room.

Next, I decided to install open shelving over the buffet. I used Amy’s idea from her kitchen, and built my shelves from stair treads and corbels (both from Home Depot). At my store, they were in the same row. Here are the corbels I used:

I spray painted the corbels and the stair treads and hung them. In hindsight, I’d put them a little lower to make them more functional for storing dishes and serving pieces, but then I wouldn’t have had room to put the silver platter on the wall, and I really like it there. Read about how to hang silver platters easily {here}.

The next thing I did was to add a little chevron shelf paper to the doors of the buffet. I bought a couple of rolls when Amy found them at TJ Maxx and used them to redo her pantry and her butler’s pantry. LOVE the chevrons, and I should be able to just peel the paper off if/when I change my mind.

I pulled these two prints off the wall (I bought them at a thrift store in Virginia when we lived there) and decided to turn the gorgeous frames into chalkboards. Here’s the before:

And the after:

I hung the two frames on either side of the shelving–I’m a big fan of symmetry! Oh, and chalkboard art is TOUGH–but I’m going to keep practicing.

I moved the guitars upstairs and had a free corner to the right of the buffet. I decided to bring in a little antique metal stool that hasn’t really had a home in this house. It was painted celery green but I gave it a coat of metallic silver to make it look a bit more industrial. Here’s how it turned out:

Now we’re ready to have small visitors come to dinner!

Hobby Lobby is selling gray chevron fabric right now, so I bought enough to cover the piano bench:

Now, it’s not done yet. The windows are bare, although my plan is to buy plain white panels from Ikea or Target and paint stripes on them.

Here’s where we are so far:

Vintage decanters on the buffet serve as my bar area:

My mom and dad’s wedding announcement always gets pride of place:

If you’re really observant you can tell that I continued to tweak the styling and things aren’t in the same place in all of the pictures. Here’s a wide shot:

See Harley in the corner? He’s really sorry about the rug!

I left the ceiling brown; I had debated painting it a deeper gray, but with the antique bronze/gold of the chandelier and the brown wood of the furniture, it worked to keep it the way it was.

Here’s the BIG question, though, and I need everyone’s advice. I am seriously considering painting the table, chairs, and buffet. The table was seriously damaged in our last move (thanks so much, Atlas Van Lines!) and I’m going to have to take it apart anyway to try to repair the pedestals. The tabletop is damaged, too. So, I’d love your feedback on whether or not to paint; if so, what color (white? gray?), and also your opinions on different methods. I’ve never used chalk paint and hear it’s the bomb. Thanks in advance for your input, and thanks for stopping by!

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Posted in DIY, Home Inspiration, Real Spaces | Tagged chalkboard, chevron, Dining Room, gray, Grey, open shelving, painted, silver | 18 Comments

Organizing Giveaway!

Posted on October 13, 2012 by Amy

***This giveaway is now closed. Thanks to all who entered!***

We have put together a fun giveaway in honor of our “Organizing Life” {One small Step at a Time} Series.

If you missed any of the posts, you can view them here:

An Organizing Epiphany

Lunch Kits

Gift Wrapping Station

Master Closet Organization

Pantry Makeover

So, we are giving one lucky reader a collection of goodies to help, as we like to say, organize your life one ‘small step at a time’.

The collection includes:

{giveaway includes the blue paper shown on the left}

2 rolls of pale blue quatrafoil shelf paper {as seen on the door of my Pantry}

A pot lid rack from The Container Store. These are a huge space saver in your pot cabinet. Mine is on the wall as seen below, but its designed for a door.

A set of 10 medium chalkboard labels from JenMarie on Etsy.

AND

A CHALKBOARD PEN {a must, must-have!} also donated by JenMarie.

To Enter:

Leave us a comment on our post below telling us what organizing project you are working on that will help simplify your life. {1 entry}
Follow us {“Like” 11 Magnolia Lane} by Facebook or if you already do, just leave a comment saying so. {1 entry}
Visit JenMarie on ETSY and come back and tell us what you need to help with your project! {1 entry}
Follow us on Twitter {1 entry} keep in mind we post sneak peaks and good finds–like the shelf paper!–on Twitter so its a great way to stay in touch. {1 entry}

Giveaway will run through October 21st and the winner {by random number selection} will be announced on October 22nd.

Good luck!

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Posted in giveaways, Organization | Tagged chalkboard, giveaway, organizing life | 121 Comments

Halloween Must-Have: Out of Treats Door Sign

Posted on October 2, 2012 by Christy

Despite careful forethought and planning, I have run out of Halloween candy three out of the last four years. (NO, it was not because I bought the candy prior to October 30th and ate it all–I would never do that!) The good news is that I ran out closer to the end of trick-or-treating than the beginning, but I figured I’d better A) buy more candy this year and B) come up with a contingency plan just in case. I decided to make a sign to hang on the door when the candy’s all gone–that way I won’t have to look the sad munchkins in the eye and tell them I’m a loser.

I copied the idea from my “We Can/Can’t Play” sign that I made this summer. You can read about it {here}–if you’re a mom whose doorbell rings frequently, this will change your life! You can thank me later…

We Can/ Can’t Play Door Sign–A Summer Necessity!

This was a cheap project because I already had what I needed. I assembled my materials: a wooden plaque/sign from the craft store ($0.80 full price, but I used a coupon!), orange and black ribbon, eye hooks, black paint, and glitter (just in case–I wound up not using it). Also used, but not shown was black paint, glue (duh), white vinyl and my Silhouette Cameo.

I sanded the rough spots on the sign (sometimes I skip that part) and painted it black with acrylic craft paint. Once it dried, I screwed the eye hook into the top–no drill needed, just use your fingers to screw it in–and printed out the frame and the letters on my Silhouette. I used the free font Boyz R Gross. Wait? You don’t have a vinyl cutter? Don’t despair! Paint your wooden sign with black chalkboard paint, and then just use a white chalk pen for all of this–they sell them at craft stores.

Here’s the white frame:

And now here’s the sign with the words in place:

I debated a bit on which ribbon to use, and finally just used orange and white striped ribbon (I think it was 2″):

We’re not really into “scary” Halloween stuff here, so I debated on whether or not to glue a black plastic spider on the bow. Here it is without the spider:

And with the spider:

Do you have a preference? Let me know!

So this will go up when the candy’s gone at my house. Well, perhaps I will fib a bit and hang this up on my door around 8:30pm, when all the cute little Jedi knights and princesses go home to sort their candy and watch “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.” That’s when the teenagers come around to ring the bell, wearing a costume consisting of sagging blue jeans and a sweatshirt (how creative!), holding an empty pillowcase, and managing to NOT SAY A WORD TO ME as they hold their open pillowcases under my nose, expecting that I will just dump candy in there. Can you tell that I think there should be an age cut-off for trick or treating? I already warned my 11-year-old son that this is his last year! So the sign will either go up at 8:30, or I will hand out tofu and spinach to the surly teens!

Or if I get into the candy stash, the sign might have to go out much earlier!

Thanks for stopping by!

Linking up to:

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Posted in Autumn and Fall, Crafts, Halloween, Holidays | Tagged candy, chalkboard, door, goodies, Halloween, hanger, sign, treats, trick or treat, tutorial | 26 Comments

Organize Your Closet with Chalkboard Shoe Labels

Posted on September 19, 2012 by Christy

Did you see my closet makeover? Read about it {here} if not; it’s one of my favorite rooms EVER! When I started out, though,I hated my closet because I thought it was too small. Seriously? It’s a walk-in closet, and it’s about 5′ x 8′. So I sound kind of spoiled when I say it’s too small. Obviously, the problem was with me and my overabundance of STUFF, not my closet.

So my closet redo started with a major purge session. That means that I spent a day sorting everything by color (yes, that was a little bit OCD) and season. Goodwill got several bags of stuff that were just taking up space, and I freed up a bunch of space. I also realized that while I have a lot of clothes, there’s not much money tied up in my wardrobe. The bulk of it seems to be from Target or thrift/consignment stores, but don’t tell my secret!

In a continuation of the closet post, today I’m going to show you how I organized my shoes using chalkboard vinyl labels and plastic Sterilite bins. This small and inexpensive change made a huge difference in the look of my closet!

I’ve used plastic Sterilite shoe boxes for years to organize my shoes. I’ve noticed that the sizes vary a little bit from one store to the next, so I try to buy all of mine at Wal-mart. They used to be about $1 apiece, and might still be, but I haven’t had to buy any in years because I have a strict one-in, one-out policy when it comes to shoes. I remember buying them a few at a time until I had all that I needed.

I used to use a white square label and a sharpie to label the boxes, like this:

I know, it’s not very pretty. Once I painted and redecorated in the closet, it was time to jazz up the shoe system a bit. I peeled all those old stickers off and whipped out my vinyl cutter and a roll of chalkboard vinyl.

There are tons of cute frames out there, but if you happen to have a Silhouette (I have a Cameo), I used Design ID # 2296 (frame border). I cut about 40 of them out, slapped them on and labeled them with my chalkboard pen. I even had a couple of empty boxes left, just in case!

The plastic bins let me see the shoes, as well as keeping things uniform and neat, and the labels let me write a short description of the contents. And when it’s time to enforce the one-in, one-out policy, I just wipe the label clean and start again! As is true with most organizational systems, it’s simple and neat–and that’s the key to sticking with it.

What if you don’t have a vinyl cutter? I would buy a roll of chalkboard Contact paper and a scrapbook punch and make them that way (you can buy chalkboard Contact paper online). I’ve seen some really cute paper punches lately–some round with scalloped edges, some rectangular and very similar to the frame I used. Then you can reuse the punch for all kinds of fun tags and labels in the future.

Below was my biggest problem with the shoebox project: Harley, our newly rescued furry family member, realized there were DOZENS of pairs of shoes spread out in the bedroom, ripe for the picking! He has good taste in chew toys, yes?!

I forgave him. He’s too cute not to!

Don’t forget to enter our fall giveaway for a pack of darling teacher notecards {here}. Giveaway closes Tuesday, September 25th.

Thanks for stopping by!

Linking up to:

to:

Posted in Closets, Organization | Tagged chalkboard, closet, labels, organization, shoe box, shoes | 2 Comments

Easy, Sanity-Saving Craft Idea: We Can/Can’t Play Door Hanger

Posted on April 30, 2012 by Christy

{Enter our current giveaway for a printable party package HERE}

A few weeks ago, I went on a personal mission to find a cute door sign that would easily telegraph to the neighborhood kiddos whether my two were available (or not) to play. Some days it’s just easier to hang up the sign than to answer the door multiple times, right?

Remembering that I used to have a darling door sign when my kids were little that warned visitors away from ringing the doorbell while Baby was sleeping, I told Amy what I was looking for in regards to play time and asked her if we could put our heads together and create a cute sign. But, as sometimes happens, before we could get to work, I found the perfect sign at Positively Splendid and figured, why reinvent the wheel when I can just follow a tutorial? I loved what Amy (Positively Splendid’s Amy, not our Amy ) had done with the idea, as well as the colors she chose. Please head on over by clicking {here} and let her know that I sent you! Here’s what she came up with:

How cute is that? Don’t you just love the Tiffany blue paint combined with the black and white striped ribbon? Can you see why I chucked the idea of coming up with my own concept and just followed her easy tutorial? I got to work right away because I had everything I needed in the house already to make this project. Here’s what I did:

1. I painted wooden plaques I had from the craft store (they were 80 cents apiece). I used regular acrylic paint and did two in robin’s egg blue and one in light green. I’m going to do hot pink next time!

2. I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut out chalkboard contact paper for the sign. I used chalkboard contact paper because I had scraps of it left from my North Carolina pantry makeover. Silhouette makes chalkboard vinyl, which I’ll be buying and using from here on out, but the contact paper worked perfectly. I just used the cutting mat because I had only a few small scraps left. If you don’t have a Silhouette or other craft cutter, why not use chalkboard paint (spray or brush-on) to paint your sign? You can use tape to tape off the edges and do those in a bright color; or, chalkboard paint now comes in some gorgeous shades!

3. I screwed a small ring hanger on the back of each plaque (eye screws would work, too, but I just used what I had) to hold the ribbon.

4. Using the Silhouette again, I cut out the words “We” and “Play” from white vinyl. I used the free font “Boyz R Gross” and I love how playful it looks. I like Amy’s idea of using a white chalkboard marker (or chalk) to write “Can” or “Can’t” in the middle, but you could certainly write the entire message out with chalk, and that way you could use the sign for other things (like “We’re Around Back” or “Shh…Baby Sleeping!”).

5. I cut a length of 2″ ribbon and fashioned a loop and bow. I have a ribbon addiction so I had lots to choose from, but I just loved Amy’s black, white, and blue color combination so I made mine out of those shades. The green one I gave to a friend as a little birthday gift, and I gave another one to my neighbor (so my kids know when to stay away from her house, too!). So cute and easy–and inexpensive! Amy, thanks for the great idea–we all need one of these before summer!

Thanks for stopping by!

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Posted in Children's Activities, Crafts, Projects & Printables | Tagged can, can't, chalkboard, door, front, hanger, Kids, play, project, sign, tutorial | 4 Comments

Easy Chalkboard Picture Frame & Vintage House Numbers Giveaway Winner!

Posted on January 30, 2012 by Christy

Happy Monday! Well, maybe not so much…things are pretty busy around my house, and I’ve been fighting off a cold all weekend. But, with a full week of homeschooling, swim team, karate, ballet, and piano, who has time to be sick?

Thanks to all of you who entered our giveaway for the awesome vintage house numbers from Ramsign. Thanks to Random.org, our winner is….drumroll please…#19 Christina! Please check your email. Many thanks to Ramsign for hosting such a fabulous giveaway–love those enamel signs!

And now, because I didn’t want to leave you without a little bit of fun, here’s a quick and easy project that you can complete in an hour or two. I’m getting ready to put a small desk in the master bedroom sitting area, and one thing I’ll have on that desk is my chalkboard to-do list.

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To make it, I just took a picture frame that I didn’t like much anymore (it probably would have wound up at Goodwill) and spray painted the frame white. Then I took the glass and sprayed it with a couple of coats of black chalkboard spray paint. Easy-peasy! The glass works just fine as a chalkboard surface, and now I can sit it on my desk rather than mounting it on the wall, although you could certainly do that if you preferred. I’ve seen this done with mirrors, too, and it works just as well. You just have to tape off the frame when you’re painting the glass, and vice versa.

Here’s the before:

And here’s the big pile o’ stuff that I’m collecting for my desk area. Some people are classy and use inspiration boards (or pinterest), but I just make a big pile in the middle of my room! Note that the chalkboard is in that mess, and now it’s got 1. Pray 2. Run 3. Blog on it (that’s about the right order for things, too).

Hang in there; one of these days I’ll have a reveal to show you in the sitting area!

Thanks for stopping by!

Posted in Before and After, giveaways, Organization, Projects & Printables | Tagged chalkboard, frame, giveaway, photo, spray paint | Leave a comment

Snow Day #3–Reorganizing the Kitchen (Still)

Posted on January 12, 2011 by Christy

We’re in North Carolina, and we were hit on Monday (and Tuesday) with snow and then a bit of ice to top it off. Now, I’m from Maryland, and while that’s not exactly the frozen tundra, I do remember that it took more than this for them to close school all week. ‘Cause that’s what we’re looking at so far. The kids are home today, and they’ve already called a 2-hour delayed opening tomorrow. So they’ll have a full day Friday, and then a three-day weekend.

Here we are, all snowed in. The house is looming up in front of you because my 7-year-old took the picture from her lower perspective, but I thought she did a pretty good job anyway!

Now, I really like my children, and I even homeschool my son (and probably my daughter next year, because I’m a glutton for punishment!), but this has been a long week! I’ve taught them how to play Rummikub, we’ve read several books, we’ve been sledding, we’ve been walked by the puppy walked the puppy, and we’ve watched Barbie: A Fashion Fairytale at least three times (my son wants you to know that he was in NO WAY involved in the watching of the Barbie movie, not even once). I’ve also reorganized the computer armoire, where I keep my homeschooling supplies and books; the armoire in the kids’ loft, which mostly contains arts and crafts supplies and games; and the cabinet under the stairs, which sounds very Harry Potter but really just holds all of my cleaning supplies. I even became desperate enough to consider cleaning out the Tupperware cabinet in my kitchen, but I’ll wait until cocktail hour for that!

One thing that I needed to organize was my glass-fronted cabinet in my kitchen. The dishes that we use every single day are in here, and sometimes it gets a little cluttered, so what better time to tackle it? Since most of my dishes are white, with a little black and pale green thrown in, that’s what I went with. Here’s the little reveal (I say little because this is just one small space, so it’s not a big reveal). Oh, and I’m still getting the hang of wordpress, and likely will be for the next few decades, so if you want to see the picture close-up, just click on it.

Green, white, and black--my favorites!

I found this set of canisters at TJ Maxx a few years ago. They have held flour, sugar, and coffee beans in the past, but I switched to larger glass canisters for my baking supplies (I needed a wider mouth for scooping), so right now they’re purely decorative, and filled with faux limes.

These cool “B” knobs are from Hobby Lobby. I bought them on sale and they were only about $1.50 apiece. I am a firm believer in the “you can never have enough monograms” rule of decorating, so you will see lots of B’s throughout my house!

I had to include a close up of this awesome bacon platter that my sister-in-law, Jill, made me for Christmas. Doesn’t everyone need a bacon plate? She’s really talented at painting pottery, and I’m always happy to be the recipient of her artistic genius.

OK, this is a bit of an ADHD moment, because this is NOT my cabinet, it’s the top of my refrigerator. But I had to show you the B plate that Jill made me for last Christmas. Should she start a business, or what?

…And here’s the gratuitous puppy (and girl) picture of the day. This is the reason that my entire kitchen can’t be photographed–too much puppy paraphernalia!

Thanks for stopping by, and let me know what you’re organizing on your snow days!

Linking up to The Shabby Chic Cottage Transformation Thursday!

AND…

Weekend Bloggy Reading at Serenity Now

Posted in Before and After, Home Inspiration, Organization, Real Spaces | Tagged black, cabinets, chalkboard, green, kitchen, organization, white | 8 Comments

Pantry (Re) Organization

Posted on January 9, 2011 by Christy

Happy New Year, everyone! First of all, let me apologize for my lengthy absence from blogging (especially to Amy and Terry, who covered for me while I was on hiatus). And, while you read the title and know that this post is going to be about how I reorganized my pantry, let me show you one of the reasons I haven’t been online much.

Gratuitous Picture of Our Darling New Family Member!

Yes, we have a new puppy, delivered on Christmas Eve! Our golden retriever, Madison, died last Christmas (the night of the 25th, to be exact), and our house just hasn’t been the same without a dog. I thought of a million reasons NOT to get a dog right now–at the top of the list is the fact that we’ll be moving this summer, and, oh yeah, our hundred-year-old hardwood floors. But despite all of that, it just seemed that the timing was right.

So, forgive my digression, but I just had to explain what I’ve been doing instead of blogging (i.e., following Bodie around to make sure he’s not peeing or chewing where he’s not supposed to when he’s out of his crate).

Now, on to the pantry. Don’t we all feel the urge to organize come January? I think it’s because we spend time in almost every room of our houses, taking Christmas ornaments and decorations down and putting things back in order. Although, usually after a month of Christmas preparations and celebrations, things aren’t really back in order, are they? Plus, as I try to integrate all our lovely presents into our home, I realize how much junk stuff that we have.

Since we’re moving this summer, I’ll be going through virtually everything we own over the next few months, deciding whether it’s worth taking along or not. That’s one benefit of being married to someone in the military–the frequent moves give you ample opportunity to pare down and streamline.

One area that’s been crying out for attention is my pantry. I love our kitchen, and it’s the biggest one I’ve ever had, but the pantry is a bit lacking. The reason is that the owners knocked out walls and combined three rooms to make the kitchen, and so there’s tons of cabinet space, but no walk-in closet-style pantry that newly constructed homes have. I find that it’s hard to find places for my infrequently-used appliances, like my food processor and bread machine, and I don’t want it all out on my counter. I’ve solved the problem in part by keeping most of my grocery stockpile downstairs in the cellar and minimizing what stays in the kitchen. My kids may complain when they have to walk outside in the winter to go into the cellar to retrieve an ingredient for dinner, but it could be worse–they could be walking to school in the snow, uphill, both ways, like we did!

This is the home we have been lucky enough to enjoy these last few years. (Click HERE for the whole tour).

And here is one that shows some of the kitchen:

The kitchen

So, here’s the before picture of the pantry. I feel a little bit embarrassed about showing this to you, but don’t we all have trouble spots in our homes? My bread machine was in use on the counter, so that’s why there’s open space on the left side–usually things are falling out when I open the doors!

First, I pulled everything out. I know that some people can take several days to do a project like this, but I am not one of those people. Having all that junk stuff out on my counters and floor is incentive to get things done!

I decided to jazz the pantry up a bit by adding 1/2″ wide ribbon to the front of the shelves. It was on sale at Hobby Lobby, and I just glue-gunned it on so that I can pull it off easily if and when I’m tired of it.

I also ordered chalkboard Contact paper online (click HERE
to order it from Amazon through our affiliate program–this is where I got mine). It nearly killed me to have to wait for it to be delivered, and it took forever. I’m an immediate-gratification kind of girl! I put chalkboard contact paper inside the cupboard doors so that I could write menus, grocery lists, or just let the kids doodle. I didn’t want to use chalkboard paint because I wanted to be able to remove everything when the times comes without a lot of fuss. This worked out perfectly, and I had enough left over to put chalkboard labels on my big jars of flour and sugar on the counter and on the smaller jars I bought for the pantry.

I did take a page from some of the awesome pantry reorganizations I’ve seen online (like Shelley’s from House of Smiths–you must look at it–here), and decanted whatever I could into mason jars, baskets, glass bottles, and canisters. The baskets are from TJ Maxx–I already had them–and most of the glass decanters are from Wal-Mart and Marshall’s (any excuse to go to TJ Maxx and Marshall’s–plus they’re usually less than the big-box stores).

After organizing but before doing the doors.

Note the obligatory row of San Pellegrino bottles that everyone has to have in their re-organized pantry, I guess because they’re so darned pretty. I actually drink mine–love S. Pellegrino!

I had to take a close-up of my chip rack. Like my wall chalkboard calendar, it is an object of humor (derision? envy?) from my friends, but I love it. Fortunately, this pantry has adjustable shelves, so I was able to remove a shelf to make room for my chip rack. I will confess that I have a second (larger) one down in the cellar, and I use whichever one fits best in whichever house we’re living in. I think I bought them both on Ebay for $20 (with shipping). I’ve seen them at garage sales and flea markets before, but remember, I’m all about immediate gratification, so I had to just buy the sizes that I needed when I saw them!

Is this OCD or what?!

Here’s the finished product–hope you like it! Oh, I forgot to mention the black and white polka dot paper. That’s just scrapbook paper that I adhered using repositionable Photo Mount, so we can pull it down when we move. The cabinets are all white with black granite countertops, so it might work for the next residents.

I hope you like it!

This pantry was featured on HouseLogic.com and the writer, Lisa Kaplan Gordon, did a tremendous job with the write-up and includes some details that I didn’t think to mention in the above post. So feel free to click through and read about it HERE if you’re interested in more on my pantry!

P.S. We’ve moved to a new house since, and I redid that pantry, too. It’s MUCH bigger, but I had just as much fun. Click {here} to read all about it! Also, Amy’s gorgeous pantry redo is {here}.

Thanks for stopping by!

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