A couple awesome things in my room

Figured I'd share a couple silly things from my room that I really like.

Nail Polish/Perfume Shelf from a CD rack

So my boyfriend had previously purchased, cut, sanded, stained, and even partially put together wood for a custom media cabinet. At the time, it would have comfortably held his DVDs, CDs, and video games with room to grow. Then I moved in, and unleashed his unknown addiction to the five dollar DVD bin. He used to only buy movies full price at Best Buy, ha! And thus, our collection grew exponentially. Disheartened by his original project not being able to be the all in one solution for our combined media storage needs, he never finished the project. He was a carpenter at the time he started the project, so he had an appreciation for real wood, so every component was made of quality supplies (a combination of oak and mahogany pieces, I think). He didn't want to throw the pieces away, and I'm a pack rat, so I wouldn't let him, so we've been storing the stuff for a few years now.

Anyway, enough storytime. I was inspired by RCKFELLA's post on craftster (http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=314533.0). Though my collection isn't as expansive as hers, I was also in need of a shelf for my nail polish, perfume, and various other beauty supplies, so from one of the many partially built shelves came this:


Long L Brackets (painted pink) are on the bottom, and short L brackets (more like what RCKFELLA used) are on the top. The shelf itself was a bit heavy, being solid wood and all, but with the four brackets, all directly into studs, it's secure.

The shelf is pretty deep (CD width), so I could potentially store much more stuff than what I have in it. This shelf is directly above my vanity, so it is awesome. Someday when the vanity is all organized, maybe its picture will also grace this blog.

Keychain Collection Finally on Display!

I've always collected keychains. If someone offered to get me a souvenir from someplace, it's always what I asked for. If I bought something in a gift shop, a keychain was usually what I got. I've never really had a way to display them, so they've been a long linked mess in a ziploc bag since I was like 12.

Since Ryan surrendered the guest room to me, I've been trying to come up with a way to display them. Hooks and key racks just never seemed to fit what I wanted. Then one day when I was hanging frame pictures, it dawned on me that I could just use nails. Sometimes the simplest things escape you until they're right in front of your face. I didn't need an elaborate shelf or ornamental hooks, I just wanted my keychain collection on display. I'm pretty happy with the results. And yes, I am purposely showing off my pink clock. Awesome dollar store find.


Above the door frame was a perfect place because the space wasn't really useful for anything else. There's another door right next to this one on the adjacent wall, so if my collection grows while I'm living here, it can just crawl along that wall.

Obligatory pics to show off the keychains themselves. From left to right they are: Carlsbad Caverns, Grand Canyon, Guernsey Island, Hawaii (which was given to me by my aunt and has a key to her house on it. She's in TX and I'm in NC, so I don't really need that key but so often), London, Meteor Crater, Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch, Tombstone, Winslow, Zion National Park x 3 (I've been there probably a dozen times)

No sew/glue adaptable photo board

I've got a room I'm decorating little by little. Before I moved across the country, I used to have a massive bulletin board I covered in pictures. With the limited space I had when moving, it was one of the things that didn't make it into the Uhaul. I've missed it, because I love pictures and it made it really easy to have them on display without the frames and nails and nonsense. I've seen quite a few of those fabric and ribbon photo boards, which I like because it means I don't have to poke holes in my pictures with tacks. I've been meaning to make one for quite some time, so last weekend, I finally did.

Here's the mounted board before any pictures were added to it:


And because I know someone out there is dying to know (ha), here's a run through of how I put it together :-)

Supplies used:
Package of cork tiles with double stick foam mount included
Fabric Remnant
Fringe Ribbon
Rickrack Leftovers
Thumbtacks
Painter's Tape (duct tape would have been so much better)

First of all, lets get the cork tiles somewhat connected. Lay them down and line them up as evenly as possible. If any of yours have weird printing on them like mine did, make sure the print is up because this is the back. That way if you use a more sheer fabric, you won't see it. Use your tape to connect the pieces.


After this, we need to carefully flip to the other side... But before that we have to curse angrily when it falls apart because we didn't use enough tape. I had even slid a plastic lid under to try to flip like a big giant spatula, but yeah....painter's tape is not duct tape, we must apply more generously.


And now we carefully flip over with a bit more success. You can try to be more awesome than me by either using duct tape, or knowing that you need to use more painter's tape before you attempt this step.


Next we lay our fabric on our board. I knew my remnant was going to be too small, hence the use of the fringe ribbon for space filler in the finished product.


Next we need to start pinning our fabric down. You can iron it if you want/need, or you can be awesome like me and just let the pins stretch the fabric into behaving. If you have a small piece of fabric like me, you may want to measure and mark in order to center it, or you can be lazy awesome like me and eyeball it. Depending in your fabric, you may want to hem the edges, or at least fold them under. Due to my lazy awesomeness, I left my edges raw and exposed, they were about to be covered with fringed ribbon anyway.

Here's a shot of one of my super cute tacks that I found before valentine's day at Office Depot. They came in a pack of 60, which was just about perfect for this project.


Pin generously, the nice thing about the pins is that they can be moved around. Here's my board with the fabric all pinned down:


After your fabric is pinned, if you're like me and have some more space to cover, decide what you want to use to fill the space. You can use more fabric remnants, ribbon, scrap booking paper, or whatever else you can think of. I'm alternating between blue and purple fringe ribbon I've had sitting around forever.


After your board is completely covered, decide on a design for your rick rack. I went pretty simple, and because I was using scraps, I used different colors. You do not have to use rick rack, I just used it because I had extra and because I thought it might grip the pictures a little better than plain ribbon. I only pinned the places where two pieces crossed, because the pictures need to be able to slide under the rick rack.


Once your board is covered and rick rack in place, mount to the wall with the double sided foam. If your cork tiles didn't come with this, you can buy foam tape separately. Just make sure to apply generously, especially if you used fabric with any weight to it.

Any finally, add your pictures. If you'd like to show more of your fabric, you do not have to apply the pictures as generously as I did :-)


You can of course use a sewing machine, fabric glue, hot glue, or whatever other tools to make your fabric/ribbon design more permanent, but I kind of like the idea that if I get sick of any one part of my design, it can be completely dismantled without even removing it from the wall. Thus far, the rick rack is awesome, the pictures haven't fallen or even slid. Pretty happy with the results.

Hope you enjoyed reading this :-)

Think I'm gonna share some stuff....

I've done a couple silly crafty projects lately and I've taken pictures, wanting to share them somewhere, and I figure here is as good as anywhere. I'll put up some stuff in the coming days :-)