I'm sure almost everyone has heard of Pinterest and I'm sure at least half of you are addicted. And if you're anything like me, the ideas that you "pin" rarely make it off of the computer screen. Well, not anymore! Don't get me wrong, I've made some of the recipes I've tried and I've used some of the party ideas as inspiration but I've yet to complete a home project/craft/remodel that I've pinned...and I've pinned a LOT.
My house is 80 years old and from my understanding, has undergone a few remodels/additions. That made the set-up extremely weird and difficult to work around. For instance, my kitchen has two closets. One is set up as the master closet (yes, we have to hang our clothes up in the kitchen closet ~ that's what the previous owner said he made it for) because the closet in our room isn't deep enough to hang anything bigger than a baby hanger. And sadly, my clothes do not work well with baby hangers. So, we have a clothes closet...in our kitchen. The other closet is the same as my bedroom closet, it isn't very deep, the door is just small bi-fold door but the closet is VERY wide...if I take out the shelves that I put in, I could fit my family of 7, comfortably, in this closet. It would be nice to have such a wide closet, if it was a little deeper and the door a little larger.
As I said, my house is set up weird. decorating and arranging furniture in the living room has been almost impossible...probably because I'm a perfectionist and like stuff to have a certain look or feel to them. I've managed a few different ways of arranging the furniture but to me, it always looked just a little weird. You see, we have a beautiful archway in the living room, that I love. But, it splits my living room: 2/3 of the room on one side and 1/3 of the room on the other side. We don't put any furniture on the 1/3 part because it would look weird (maybe one day, when my kids don't have toys and books all over the living room, I'll post a picture). We've only ever used the 2/3 portion of the room as our standard living room. Which makes it really small. With one wall being the front door and windows, that only leaves two walls and an open space to put the couch. If I put the couch on one of those walls, it takes up the entire wall. Which makes finding somewhere (that looks decent) for the entertainment center is hard. I don't have many options!
The other 1/3 of the living room only has one wall (the other side being the archway area, one side going towards the bathroom and the other side being completely open to the kitchen. We've had our fish tank set up there before and I've had my desk set up there as well. But that made it feel really crowded (and it quickly became a place for the kids to pile a bunch of random stuff).
So, after taking down our Christmas tree, I picked out a few ideas I had pinned and got to work. I painted just that one wall an accent color...every other wall in the house is white (I love renting!). I managed to snag a very beautiful shade of gray paint from Lowe's "oops" section ~ $5 for one gallon, and I have plenty left. I bought 2 small boards to run in the center, I still need to find some black vinyl (Michael's was all out), and I need to make the game frames but after that, the Family Wall will be complete!
Now, I have 5 kids so money is always an issue. I think she used square plaques for her backpack hangers. Well, those cost about $4-5 each. Multiply by 5 kids...about $20...just for the wood! I used one board that measured 1"x3"x4' that cost me $2. This turned out to be the best option for us because, as I was searching for studs to anchor the board down, I found that half the wall doesn't have any. There are two, about 5" apart and then the next one is 3 feet away. And I just don't feel comfortable not having a stud behind something that will hold heavy backpacks. I also bought cheaper hooks that still cost $3/each. I didn't do the message center above the backpacks, even though I love the idea, because I did this:
So really, what my wall looks like right now, I have the two boards (Painted black and edges sanded); one with clips and one with hooks. My next thing to do was to use my Cricut to cut out the "Masterpieces" but Michael's was sold out.
Once we get our next paycheck, we plan on purchasing the rest of the wood we need to do this:
So, what do you think? Can you see my final vision? Do you completed any of your "pinned" projects?
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