Ooh, aah! Baskets were a steal at $15 for 2 on Amazon Prime.
...And so is the pegboard-over-the-stove project! That one turned out to be ridiculously easy and cheap! We bought an $8 white pegboard from Home Depot, cut it to size with a circular saw, hung it up using stainless steel bolt spacers between the wall and the board, and hung up a bunch of utensils that were taking up ample drawer space... A-like so:
I'm pretty excited that my green mason jars fit perfectly in that basket, so my non-hangable utensils are still out of the drawer and within easy reach.
The baskets were purchased in a set of 3, also from Home Depot, and I ordered the J-hooks from Amazon since I couldn't find them at HD. Can I just take a moment to mention that Julia Child's kitchen was covered in pegboard? So I'm feeling like a legit chef right about now. And I'm fully appreciating the fact that locating my cork screw is easier than ever without all those pesky spoons and ladles in the way.
My kitchen chalkboard is also nearly complete. It has taken 4 coats of chalkboard paint, 4 sanding sessions, and like 2 weeks, but at least I'm done painting now. We still have to pick out trim for the frame, and then cut, paint, and install it. It is going just to the right of the open shelves.
So the other day I was so excited to be in my kitchen with my satisfying updates, that I mentioned to the Hubs that we should finally replace our awkward old stereo cabinet/bookcase with the big bookcase I acquired from my old job. While the old bookcase was too short and too deep, the "new" one is completely the wrong color to go in our living room and I've never gotten around to painting it like I initially planned. But we really need the storage space, so I decided color scheme be damned, storage is more important and I'll get around to painting it eventually...one day...maybe. Well we got it done, and even though the color is all wrong, I still think it's an improvement:
Before: This cabinet/bookcase is short, narrow, and deep (you can't tell from this pic, but it's like 18" deep). The room looks super cluttered. And in case you're wondering, yep, Max's "changing table" is in the living room. The joys of living in a 900 square foot house with 4 people.
After (but before I really organized the shelves): 7' tall and 3' wide, but only 12" deep, it looks more streamlined, and makes the room feel more spacious. I'm planning to paint the frame black, and the back of it to match the wall.
And while I was waiting for my BIL to show up and help hubs move the 7' tall bookcase from the garage to the living room, brilliant inspiration struck! I decided to remove the feet from the old bookcase and use it at shelves in my bedroom closet, where we currently store Max's clothes. We'd been using yet another old storage device - a 2-drawer mini-dresser-thing, but the crap cardboard bottoms fell out of both drawers so that it was completely useless. Now none of Max's clothes are hanging anymore but the closet looks much better and I can actually find what I'm looking for when I get him dressed.
The more projects we complete, the more I find to do - like now I need to clear off the top of the fridge and microwave, and we're considering trading rooms so that Cadence and Max can share the bigger bedroom and keep their toys in there. I'll probably tackle the fridge and microwave first though.
