Organization, here I come!

I really like my house but I do not like the layout of my house as you enter from the garage.  You must go through the VERY small laundry room and then straight into the kitchen.  There is absolutely nowhere to put coats, gloves, shoes, hats, and purses.  They typically get thrown on the backs of the kitchen chairs rather than walked through the kitchen, down the hallway, past the dining room to the front closet.  Which, by the way, has hangers my girls can't reach.  Hmmm, whose fault is all the mess?  Okay, mine.  So, thanks to Pinterest, I have a new plan.  There is a small corner (18x36) of the kitchen that just isn't used.  Once upon a time, it was the place we stashed the high chair, but those days are gone.

So, here's what I did.  I bought this bench from Target ($59.99)
and two of these stackable cube things, also from Target ($24.98 each).

Then I purchased a panel of white beadboard from Lowes or Home Depot, turquoise cube baskets from Lowes, a 12x36 shelf board, trim, hooks, fabric and two bookends that I mistook for (cheap) corbels.  Here's the end result!

The first step was to assemble the items from Target.  I knew I wanted the bench to sit against the wall but my baseboard was keeping the bench about 3/4" away from the wall.  So, I did some retro-fitting.  Essentially I moved the back panel of the bench toward the front of the bench by about an inch.  This allowed me to cut out a small section of the sides where they were touching the baseboard.  Voila!  The bench would now sit against the wall without having to remove baseboard!  Here's a pic, in case that didn't make sense.

Next, I knew I wanted beadboard on the side of the shelving (see first picture) but the screws holding the shelves would be in the way.  So, when assembling the shelving, I made sure to countersink my screw holes before putting in the screws.  Ok, so that's not true.  First, I assembled the shelves, then, realized my mistake
(thanks, dad) and then, I removed the screws and countersunk (countersank?) my screw holes.  In case you've never done any countersinking, it's just a drill bit that makes your hole a little bigger so that the screw head can sit down in the wood and, therefore, be flush when screwed into place.


You may have noticed that the shelf from Target came with a cushion.  The cushion was a blah-tan and too big since I was eliminating some of the seat for the shelving.  What to do?  Hack up the cushion, of course.  The cover has a zipper so the blah-tan came off easily.  I used a serrated knife to cut down the foam inside to the new, proper size.  I used some cotton fabric left over from a valance project and white piping to sew up a new cover.   In case you need some instruction, like me, I used this DIY from thecsiproject.com.

I painted the beadboard white (yes it was white to start with but it always looks scuffed straight from the store) and my dad and I cut it to fit on the wall and left side of the shelving.  It's glued (Liquid Nails) onto the shelving unit and screwed into studs on the wall.  The screws holding it to the wall are behind the shelving unit and under the white board on which the hooks are attached.  I hid the screw holding up the white hook-board by placing a hook over the screw. Yes, the board covers a screw and is held up by a screw covered by a hook.  Just keep putting stuff up til it's all covered up, got it?

The shelf is a simple 12x36 shelf board from Lowes painted white.  It rests on my corbel (aka bookend) on the right side.  The corbel is nailed into the stud on that side.  The corbel on the left is just decorative, fulfilling my need for symmetry.  Essentially, it's nailed to the shelf.  When I say nailed, I mean nailgunned.

The last step was the trim work.  I am lucky to have a retired Industrial Arts (Shop) teacher for a father.  Not just any shop teacher but a shop teacher with ALL his fingers.  Yep, he's good.  He took care of the trim work for me.  We (he) trimmed the edge of the top shelf and trimmed the front edge of the left side of the shelving unit to hide the ugly edge of the bead board.

I love it and without inspiration from Pinterest (My Mudroom Pinterest Board) and my dad, it would never have to come together!

Thanks for stopping by.  Hopefully, you got some inspiration for a small corner of your room!