Pottery Barn Hack-- Metal Baskets

Do you ever save pics to your computer, and then "lose" them? I haven't figured out Pinterest yet, but when I do, I hope to be better organized with my inspiration photos.

Well, this itty bitty before and after project has been waiting for you for a while, but looking for the (gone forever!) inspiration pics took me longer than the actual project did.

This project was inspired by dark metal baskets in the PB catalog holding fresh white towels. You'll have to trust me on this.


I found 3 Elfa hanging drawers at the thrift store for less than $2 each.

Then, I spray painted them with Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint.
Voila! Industrial-chic towel baskets!


Love them! Alas, my bathrooms are too small to have them sitting jauntily on the floor like in the PB dream-world.

What other uses can you think of for these refreshed cuties?

Vacation Round-up

Dear Readers,

Thank you for weighing in on whether or not I should read the bathroom copies of Us Weekly, etc., on my beach vacation. For the record, I did NOT. Considering, however, that we got evacuated Thursday morning because of Hurricane Irene, there's really no telling if I would have held-out had we stayed at the beach an entire week.

Highlights of the trip:

Hanging out playing cards and drinking wine with dear friends.

Reading Oliver Twist aloud in the car.

Watching back to back episodes of Friday Night Lights thanks to Tom and Netflix.

Private pool.

Perfect Weather, impending hurricane notwithstanding.

Date night with Tom. Out by 5:30, back by 6:30. Are we sizzling or what?



Yes, I'm wearing a shirt.
Speaking of back by 6:30, when I saw the pics Molly took of us before we left, I realized I was having An Inch of Gray Emergency. Nothing like capping off a hot date with some Root Touch Up on the deck. What a guy!


North Carolina Aquarium. We even saw box turtles mating.

Evacuation Trip to Great Wolf Lodge.
My face looked a lot like the kids' did when I realized that after almost a week of earnest-- okay obsessive-- lice prevention at the beach house (plastic bags, sequestered pillows, lots of laundry), I would have to rest my weary head at a KIDDIE RESORT. Oy vey.

Fine dining.

Yes, that's leftover beach house fridge salad, saved in a cooler for dinner at Great Wolf Lodge. Tom wanted to pizza delivery; I wanted the buffet. He thought the buffet was too expensive. Soooo, we ordered the kids the buffet and we adults sat there with ice water, scowling at each other.

Instead of breaking down and ordering, which I really should have done, I stuffed my face on bag salad, cheese, and Oreos back in the room, before falling asleep in bed-- with Molly. Nothing like keeping the aggressive in passive/aggressive.

Tom and the kids had fun on the awesome slides...

but none of us feels compelled to go again. It just wasn't really our vibe. If we're not even going to spring for meals there, you can bet the resort didn't get buy-in from us for: building our own wolves, having a robot serve us ice cream, getting kiddie pedicures, filling plastic cups with candy ($8!), and sporting temporary tattoos.

Let's remember that when Tom took Jake to Legoland in California, he bought him a $3 Lego mini-figure as a souvenir, and when I took Molly to the American Girl Doll Store in NYC, I got out of there having spent just $19. I would tell you that our entire honeymoon cruise bar tab amounted to $2.50, but that's simply too depressing.

Simply put, it was time to come home.

So now we're home, the laundry is in the machine, and we're awaiting a hurricane that may or may not batter the East Coast.

And you? What are YOU doing as summer winds down?

Beach DO or Beach DON'T?

As I mosey down the boulevard of broken boogie boards, also known as a family beach vacation, I desperately seek the advice of my wise friends.

The dilemma:

If your rented beach house had a basket chock full of tempting and trashy magazines such as Us Weekly, Star, Cosmo, and People, would you read them?

Yes, you say?

Well, what if this basket was in the main BATHROOM of said beach rental?

Would the gross-out factor of reading a magazine that has been read by many strangers, in the most intimate of settings, override the siren song of learning about what Nick and Vanessa are doing, whether Lindsay is in jail or not, or who will star in the movie adaptation of "The Hunger Games"?

For now, I'm going with the gross-out factor. No promises as the week progresses. What do YOU think?

A-Door-Able!

Sorry to be so quiet these last few days.

I was taking our side door (and primary entrance) from this:

To this:

I was hoping the black would tie in with our new sensor-light (Lowe's) and also help hide some of the inevitable grime the door gets. The old paint was matte and off-white which showed EVERYTHING.

I love it! What do you think?

I hesitate to go through the steps I used because there are only two, and I'm not sure if you should copy me. I just taped off the windows (annoying!) and painted it with 2 coats of oil-based black paint I bought on clearance at Lowe's. The grill around the window is plastic; the door itself is metal.

If I were to do it again, I'd do it in a less smelly, more environmentally friendly way using primer and latex exterior paint.

For a step-by-step lesson on painting a door using that method, check out Sherry and John's blog. They happened to paint their door the most adorable yellow the same day I painted mine.

Good thing I still have a front door-- I may need to go yellow!

What's in Anna's Head

So I've written before about some of the crazy stuff that goes on in my head.

Like when I wake up and think maybe, just maybe, I've lost 10 lbs in the night. Then I step on the scale and become, well, genuinely disappointed.

How if I get an email or a phone call that indicates that someone "needs to talk" to me, I immediately assume I'm being fired, chastised, blamed or upbraided for some unknown offense.

Or how when I was all of 10 or 11 years old, I'd keep my movie ticket stubs in case I needed to prove my whereabouts if hauled into the police station for some crime I didn't commit. This from a pre-pubescent girl with a Dorothy Hamill haircut and terry cloth jumpsuit.

Or when I'm at an awards ceremony and hear, "The next recipient knows what it's like to grow up a poor, African-American boy in rural Alabama..." and I'll think, "ME? Could it be? Me!!"

Or how whenever someone didn't want to date me, I'd just assume he was gay. Not that this didn't happen to me a few times over the years (Hello, Ill-fated Study Abroad romance!) but it certainly couldn't have been true EVERY time. Could it?

Well, lately I'd kind of convinced myself that one of my friends, who wasn't ever available to hang out with me, must be suffering from debilitating depression, and/or agoraphobia. How else could she possibly stand not being graced by my presence or that of my charming family? Let me tell you it's kind of hard to keep this fiction going when she seems to have a rather full and fulfilling life even without my taking a central role in it.

So, on this beautiful Friday, I'm just wondering if anyone else is up for sharing some of the weird/unfounded/narcissistic stuff that pops into your head?

Anyone?

Crickets.

Before and After: Pier Chest

My computer seems to be happy tonight, so I'm putting up another post while I can!

Found this Pier Chest on the side of the road. Peach paint, except for 2 drawers that had goopy brown paint. I was afraid that some of the hardware was missing, but was thrilled to find it in one of the drawers. Yay! A big THANK YOU to whoever was throwing it out.

This was the perfect time to try Annie Sloan's Chalk paint for the first time! I used Duck Egg.
No priming or sanding; I just painted 2 coats on with a brush. Then, I brushed wax on 2 of the drawers, but I didn't like how it looked kind of streaky and weathered, so I just painted another coat of paint right on top.

It left a lovely, matte finish.

I sprayed the hardware with Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint.

I like how it looks like it is smiling at me. What do you think?

Linking up to Piece of Work Wednesday at Primitive & Proper.

Almost-FREE Decorating Ideas

So my computer died and I can't upload photos from my camera. I have to limp along on a borrowed computer and use cell phone pictures. If you can excuse the poor photo quality, I'd like to share 4 no-to-low cost ideas I used in Molly's tween bedroom re-do.

1. Ribbon drawer pulls. This inexpensive dresser previously had TWELVE knobs butterfly knobs that Molly didn't like anymore. I did not want to pay for 12 new ones, which would probably have cost more than the dresser itself, so used satin striped ribbon for drawer pulls. Because the drawers glide open easily, the ribbon is an easy, inexpensive solution that will last a long time.

2. Carpet tile area rug. The shag rug we wanted from Target was 60 dollars, which was more than I wanted to spend. I went to a carpet store and asked for carpet samples. They gave me as many as I wanted for free! I put them in a pattern I liked, flipped them over, and used duct tape to secure them to each other. When I flipped them over again, I had a rug for ZERO dollars!




3. Spray painted hardware. On the room's other 3 dressers (yes, I know-- too much furniture!) I spray painted the hardware to match the room. This should be an easy change when Molly wants to change her color scheme again (ugh!)
4. Duct taped stool. Molly's new bookcase is very tall. Fortunately, Tom secured it to the wall for me. Still, I needed a way for Molly to reach the top shelves. We found an aged (gross!) step-stool on the curb and I covered it with turquoise duct tape. Nearly free and super fun! Colored and patterned duct tape is very popular with the tween and teen set right now. In fact, I think Molly's favorite part of her room was the extra roll of duct tape I gave her to go with it.

Before:

After:
So there you have it. If I've learned one thing from my kids, it's that their taste in room decor does not last forever. Having some free-to-low cost projects helped me create a fun room without breaking the bank.