Tag: DIY

Laundry List

Today marks my debut into chalkboard paint!!

I know it’s a huge trend right now (love it!) but it might become dated… so I wanted to get in on the game in subtle, super-useful way.

Picture a pretty white list in nice handwriting.

I painted the inset on a cabinet door in the laundry room! I used to have a detailed list of chores taped up on it but the room got too humid (from the dryer) and the ink ran all over it. Go figure! So in 12 hours… (6 hours for paint to dry, plus 6 hours after coat 2) I can write the monthly list in chalk and…  it will get us to do chores! It’s easy when there are obvious options to tackle.

The list (can you think of anything to add?):
Daily: dishes, sweeping, make bed, tidy clutter, trash, clean kitchen surfaces
Weekly: wash sheets, all laundry, vacuum carpet, dust mop wood floor, dust surfaces, glass & mirrors, kitchen, bathroom
Bi-weekly: grocery shopping, recyclables
Monthly: wash comforter, paint touch-ups, mop kitchen floor, clean out fridge, Brita filter (every 4 mos)

Cost of Project:
Paint: negligible amount borrowed from my friend Peyton who had lots left over from her kitchen project.  $0
Chalk: came with a neat mug my friend gave me for Christmas (2 pieces)  $0

Total cost: $0!

Minor but Important

This Saturday we conquered 3 minor but important home improvement projects, two of which safeguarded us against fire hazard and one of which made the dining room better.

Speaking of the dining room. Big stuff going on in there this week. You’ll see.

So, first we did the easy thing.  Until now, the light in the dining room has just been a bulb hanging from a chain. Very depressing. I’d been thinking about getting a paper lantern shade at World Market, but seeing how I haven’t been to World market in months (and even then it was in Kansas City, not closer Wichita) that plan was looking dimmer and dimmer by the day (pun intended). So, plan A went out the window when I saw this nice shade at Target. We just unscrewed the bulb and hung this upside down and screwed the bulb back in. Easy peasy. Not perfect but better than a bare bulb (for another 12+months).

I love the natural fiber look.

Second, we eliminated a fire hazard in our laundry room. I am ashamed to say that we have had the washer and dryer for over 6 months and never addressed this problem. After vacuuming 6 months of lint out from the walls/floors/everything behind the dryer, we installed what I refer to as an elephant trunk:

Nice hole in the wall, right? Not my fault--the place came that way.

We got a fancy one from Lowe’s that goes into a vented container, since it’s impossible to vent to the outdoors. So we’ll just have to remember to empty the container once in a while. The hose leads to what we refer to as “the furnace room” because it’s a weird little room in the hallway of our building with the furnace in it. Which brings me to the next project.

Until Saturday, the furnace room didn’t have a door. Which meant that the whole hallway could hear whether our furnace was running or not (this used to come in handy actually, before it was repaired). There was a door IN the room, just not attached to anything. So we bought some hinges and tried to hang a door. It doesn’t close without being forced, but there’s a door attached now and it’s being held shut by a door stop, so we still count it as a win.

Have any visually unimpressive but necessary projects you haven’t gotten to yet?

Easiest DIY to Date

Yesterday I took you all through a tour of my teeny tiny kitchen. This is much easier to do virtually than in real life, because in reality the kitchen can only house 2-4 people comfortably.

Now I’ll let you glimpse my 27 inch stove and the easiest DIY I’ve done in the apartment so far.

Nice shot from a fancy crouching down angle.

The pots are hanging above the stove because they look cool and, really, where else would I put them? There really isn’t another place for them.

Luckily for me, the “hood” over the stove (which provides no air flow whatsoever and is strictly for looks) has a lip big enough for the dowels to rest on. Before I got the dowels, everything was hooked onto the lip so I knew it would be strong enough to hold all the pots.

The DIY involved me measuring the space above the lip, going to Lowe’s, buying some dowels and having the nice guys at Lowe’s cut them to size for me. Earth-shattering.

So, there you have it, a super-easy solution that in my opinion looks cool and brings all these important things within arm’s reach when I’m cooking :)