How May I serve You? Service Tray put to good use

So remember when I purchased those 2 melamine plates from WalMart to make the stand for our dryer?  Weeeeeeelllll... I may have purchased the tray that matches as well....
I thought that it would help with the corraling of items....

 

I used Krylon Duo - Paint and Primer in One - In White. This stuff really works folks!  2 applications of this paint, and it covered the bright colorful stripes you see above.  The 2nd coat was just as a pre-caution and it worked like a charm!

Then I spray painted it with Krylon - Bright Idea which is a gorgeously fun daffodilly yellow.  Since we will be painting our laundry room a beautiful grey/blue color I really wanted to accent in yellows and whites, make the room super sunny and fun!

Simple, effective, and practical, all in one location!

I am really loving the tray, the tower and soap, all together.
Such a simple fix that makes an impact!

Have you been inspired this winter/spring to organize an area or room?
If so, what are you doing, would you like to share with the rest of us and empower us with your discoveries?

Have a great day!

I wanna Wash and Roll Alllll Night... and Part of everyday...

oh wait... that supposed to be PARTY everyday... shoot... my apologies...

also... your welcome for the wonderful KISS earworm now stuck in your head.... your welcome...

Everyone has laundry soap in their laundry area... we all use it... power or liquid... everyone has their something (my golly today is the day of song lyrics, mercy).  I wanted to dress up my soap container, make it pretty as well as practical...

Let me introduce you to the drink dispenser, found in your local Target or Wal-Mart for around $20.00....

 

I set up the dispenser, the base comes with it and can be removed for easy storage.

This dispenser held was was left of this size container of All, plus two other smaller containers of ALL laundry detergent.

 

Onto the vinyl decal... "SOAP"

 

I used my Cherry Limeade Cricut cartridge, size 3.50"

Cut vinyl - make sure you use the Kiss Setting as to not cut thru the entire material - only want the vinyl lettering to come up, not the white backing.

 

Once the wording has been cut out, remove the excess vinyl, leaving only your lettering on the white backing.  Then apply your transfer sheet as you see below... this will be needed to apply the lettering to your project...

You can see here a full sheet of the black vinyl and the transfer sheet - before the excess black vinyl was removed...  Place it onto your project, making sure your lettering is where you would like it....

Once you have applied your transfer sheet, and vinyl lettering... gently remove the transfer tape at a 90 degree angle, this helps pull everything away slowly... and the letters do not get caught and pulled up/removed.

 

After the letters were shown, I then went back with an exacto knife and removed the inside vinyl (S, O, A, and P)  This picks up and then pulls off very easily... just go slow and at an angle.

 

 

Viola!  Soap Dispenser - labeled and super cute!!!!

 

 

Filled with Hope

I found an quote this past February that I adore - because I can see exactly why it was stated.

"The day the Lord created Hope, was probably the same day he created Spring" {Bern Williams}

Isn't that the truth... mercy... Spring is a season based on Hope... Hope for a great growing season,Hope for opening up the windows and enjoying fresh air, Hope that the winter's "ick and crud" leaves your family, hope that your kids can go outside and wear off their energy.  You get my point...  Spring is full of hope... it's one in the same... 

The word "Hope" has been my inspiration for our Spring Decor... and what better way to showcase that inspiration than the honor of our front door...

 

Keeping the same wonderful teal picture frame that I have used for many a door decor post before...

You can see my other posts here and here.

 

My hope is his simple statement as you walk by or up to our house offers you encouragment, brings a smile to your face... knowing that the opportunity for something better is available.  Have hope!

 

Tutorial on how to make this sweet awesome-sauce door decor!

Using my Cricut I cut out the letters with my Cherry Limeade cartride.

Size 7" letters

Using a Stampin Up banner punch I punched out multiple flags out of scraps of craft papers - many of them I have used elsewhere in the house - on the building blocks in our entryway entryway or in our dining room here

 

Using Elmers Hobby Glue, I then attached all the flags to the black ric rac ribbon that I have been using all over the house this spring for other banners (living room )

 

 

While that is drying, lets get the poster board ready and in our frame....

 

 

Measure your frame for the perfect fit, and then again measure your posterboard to ensure a perfect fit.

Cut to the correct size.

 

Here are my other materials for the front... cut letters and Elmer's Craft/Hobby Glue.

 

I glued the letters onto the black poster board using the Elmer's Hobby Glue...

 

 Attached the banner to the frame - no glueing needed... just run the ribbon thru the staples in the back of the frame, tie it off and you are good to go!

 

 

Welcome to our home... I hope you have a great time, we love having you over!

 

Laundry Room Items Organizer

We all have stuff we use repeatedly in our laundry areas....

1.) Dyer Sheets
2.) Stain Remover
3.) Laundry Soap
4.) Cleaner to wash your machines off
5.) Clothes Pins

I don't know about you guys... but I would like all my "stuff" in one spot, easy to reach and get what I need to get the job done.  How do you corral all your items to make your time in the laundry room more efficient?

So... I thought up an "organizer/holder" for the top of our dryer....

I knew that I wanted it to be pretty and practical.  Something heavy duty that would be able to stand up to repeated use.  Annnnnnd it needed to hold all my "stuff" that I "need".

Materials Used:
2 melamine plates from Walmart - 1 dinner and 1 salad plate
2 candlesticks, 2 sizes, one medium and one tall
Welder Adhesive Glue
Krylon Spray Paint - I used paint and primer in one - all White - worked GREAT!

 

I glued the small salad plate to the small candlestick holder - in the middle of the bottom side of the plate.

I did the same with the large dinner plate and tall candlestick holder....

 

Then after the glue had set, I glued the bottom of the smaller candlestick to the middle of the big plate... creating a two tiered tower.

 

Allow your glue to set up (I let mine go overnight)

I spray painted the tower - using Krylon Duo - Paint & Primer in One.

 

 

Now to add my items that I use on a weekly basis...

2 spray bottles from the Dollar Tree, labled with the contents

Scrubber for those not so nice stains that need a little encouragement

Scissors - stings, tags, etc. 

 

 

Now I have everything within reach of my washing machine - very handy! 

What can you take away from this gathering and organizing of every day items?
How can you make your items work the most for you when doing laundry?

How much is that bicycle in the window?

The one with the flowers and wavey bunting?

LOL...

Forgive me... A.) it's Friday and B.) it's nice and sunny out.... I get giddy sometimes... and giddiness leads to my weird sense of humor... my smark aleck cheecky remarks sometimes tend to get out of hand...  Need to REEL it back in... 

Focus......

Ah yes... the bike in the window...

SERIOUSLY... how fun is that! 

We have a bay window in our dining room that we typically have pillows and a padded seat that sit in there almost year round, except in the winter time we have to take them out, as it creates a barrier and the moisture seems to freeze on the windows (when you have worked at Pella Corporation you tend to learn about wicking moisture away, blah blah blah - engineering stuff) 

So now I have this open space... and it's not really pretty... rather blah... so.. 

I brought my bike inside and put it in this spot.  This bike was found at the What Cheer Flea Market and I negotiated the price to $20.00.  I was soooo jazzed... adorable blue and cream bike... old school looking at that... however... no gears... just straight leg power is fueling that bad boy... (hills are a killer)

I wanted white wall tires, got those at Bobzilla's Bike Shop in Oskaloosa - they cost more than the bike did LOL!   They look great though!!! Seriously... great!


To dress up the bike a bit I added:
a flower basket - you could use a bike basket if you have one, just something that will sit over the handlebars.
Yellow Tulips - I live in Pella... we love us some tulips!
Some Fake grass as a filler
I made another bunting to hang on the bike, in the same colors I have used around the house already.  you can check out an up close view here
I actually added a black bird made out of poster board, scrapbook paper and a bamboo skewer...
I traced the bird from our entryway onto black poster board, cut two of them out, glued them together and viola!  insta bird in a basket.

 

Here's an inside evening view from inside our dining room. 

 

Have a great and happy Friday everyone!  Thanks for stopping by, hope you were inspired to try something different, get outside the normal box.

Help Pick our Laundry Room Paint Color!

We are getting ready to redo our laundry room...
You saw our post the other day with our 3-D layout along with the view of the room in its current state.  In case you missed it, you can see it here.

I have been mulling over paint colors for this room.
I would like the following criteria:

• fresh color
• one that coordinates with white and a white wainscotting and chair rail. 
• needs to be soothing/mildly neutral
• would look good in florescent lighting and no windows/natural light

I had picked out a couple off greige blue colors from Lowes, now I cannot find them online.  Thankfully I have the paint chips, however that doesnt do alot of good here on this post.  They were both Valspar colors, one is Woodlawn Silver Brook (5001-1B) which is a color from the National Trust for Historic Presveration, and the other was Autumn Fog (4007-1B).  You can go to Valsparpaint.com and check out these colors if you would like

Here is the links:

Autumn Fog (4007-1B)


Woodlawn Silver Brook (5001-1B)


I do however have some color swatches that we can all view on the post directly and vote to see which is the winner - the other two above are also contenders, I just cannot get their color chips online, so this will have to do.

 #1 Clothesline Fresh

 #2 Cool Sheets          

 #3 Feeling Blue        

 #4 Eggshell Sau        

 #5 Morning Jog        

 #6 Peaceful               

 #7 The Harbor          

 

What's your choice? What do you think would look the best in this room?

 

 

 

And the voting starts NOW!

 

 

Lets Air our Dirty Laundry .... Room

Just typing that title gave me anxiety...

You are about to go where most people do not DARE to go...

{Can I interject something here?} - I am sweating and my chest is feeling a tight - I am really not excited to share my mess with you...  LOL

I am about to show you a room that we dont show off.... EVER...
ok I really feel like I am writing some drama/horror story line...

It's our Laundry Room!  GASP! 

 

Ok... now that I have broken down and shared one of my secret disaster areas with you...

 

 I would like to release a couple of statements:

 

a.) no judgement pretty please :)

b.) I am already signed up for Pine Sol users anonymous, no need to send me the literature.

c.) should we come into some sort of soap apcololypse, please do not call me.

d.) Hi my name is Michele, and I am a hoarder of cleaning products...

 

 

SOOoooooo.... as you can see... there is quite a mess in this room... it does alot of work... and it literally is overlooked and ignored as much as possible... frankly its an ugly room... really... really quite drab and boring.  However it really needs some organization and some "prettying up" as well. 

 

My very talented and creative hubbalicous came up with this 3-D design layout for our new and improved laundry room!  Thought I would share the layout with you, and share our ideas on how to make this room work for us. 

 

We have top loading machines - when we purchase new ones, we are thinking the Whirlpool Cabrio Washing Machine and Dryers from Lowe's - now leaving dream land and heading into reality...

• We would like to install 2 cabinets along the far wall when you face the machines.

These would house our laundry products (aka, my soap collections)

 

There would be a clothes rack in between the two cabinets, so hang up clothes when they come out of the dryer.

 

The black bar  that shows up in this photo is a retractable drying rack that will attach to the wall across from it. 

 

Underneath the shelf that is inbetween the two cabinets we would put our laundry baskets for dirty clothes. 

 

There is space above the cabinets for some storage boxes/baskets. 

 

 

 

I am looking forward to finding the perfect cabinets for our laundry area.  I feel a shopping trip coming on!!!!!

 

How are you adding or organizing a hard working area in your home?