2011
Renovation Plans Announced!
Again. Apologies. Long time no post.
Original Floorplan Bryan made of the house by modeling it in 3d … he’s so amazing <3333
We’ve been busy working out the details of our renovation plans and am extremely pleased to announce that we’ve finalized them! Our goal is to turn our three bedroom Cape Cod house into a college rental that sleeps at least 5. We ran through several iterations on the plan, including replacing the second floor with a true full story addition turning the two upstairs bedrooms into four bedrooms, as well as building off the back of the house and putting two additional bedrooms downstairs.
After all the variations were played out, we decided to keep the footprint the same and work with what we have. We’re going to be adding one bedroom downstairs (for a total of 2) and expanding one of the upstairs rooms into the attic space to make it a double.
The downstairs bathroom will be moving, the kitchen shifting and expanding to become an eat-in-kitchen, the living room will be where my bedroom is now and the living/dining room side of the house will now become two bedrooms, full bath and laundry room (yay laundry room!! we have our washer in the kitchen right now and the dryer in the basement – again: this is how we bought the house. ick).
This floorplan is far less exact – I just quickly edited the original to reflect our plans.
Its a huge job. We’re still on a budget and planning on doing it all ourselves. Crazy? Probably. Lets do this!
Major Renovation Overview:
- Step 1: Super couch (what we affectionally call our gigantic Karlstad IKEA sectional) upstairs to the spare bedroom).
- Step 2: Collapse dinning table into storage
- Step 3: Build new front bedroom
- Step 4: Meg and Bryan move into new front bedroom
- Step 5: Create temp kitchen in the space between the new front bedroom and our office space (which is supposed to be the dining room)
- Step 6: Demo downstairs bath/kitchen/bedroom
- Step 7: Build new kitchen/living room
- Step 8: Super Couch moves into new living room; temp kitchen breaks down into new kitchen
- Step 9: Office moves to spare room
- Step 10: Build new downstairs bathroom/laundry room, 2nd downstairs bedroom
- Step 11: Upstairs reno (obviously we’re going to need to expand on this further when we get closer)
We’ve already gotten started. Pete actually has done quite a bit of work already while Bryan and I are at the 9-5. He started the project out by ripping up the disgusting carpet that was in the spare bedroom when we moved in.
Here it is before. You may be wondering, so I’ll just come out and say it: Yes. Every surface except the floor is covered in wood. Hott right?
So by himself, he took up the carpet.
Ummm… whats that?? you say! Well, just so happens, Pete discovered carpet number two hiding in plain sight under carpet under one. DOUBLE THE FUN!!!
And then after carpet number two, then came the padding…
…which literally had to be shoveled and scraped off the floor… ew.
FINALLY! THE FLOOR! and yes, now every surface in the room is wood. We call it – the Wood Room.
So after some Swiffering, vacuuming, and Orange Gloing, that meant we were finally read for step one: moving super couch upstairs.
Pete actually started this project by himself while we were at work (we McGraths are strong like bull!) before realizing he forgot to take before photos of the space… like a good brother – he BROUGHT THE WHOLE THING back downstairs, reset it up and then took pretty photos. And thus, I give you – the living/dining room (before renovation):
Those scalloped borders on the builtins are sumthin‘ aren’t they? eh?? Eh???!
The room you can start to see here over that half wall is what is supposed to be the dining room but we’re currently using it as an office. The living room as it stands today is gigantic so we had more than enough room for Super Couch and the dining table.
So when Bryan and I got home from work, we muscled through the heat (and it definitely was hot!) and got Super Couch first into pieces and then up the narrow and steep stairs to the Wood Room. Step 1: DONE!
(I will insert a pic here of super couch in the wood room later).
So to recap:
Major Renovation Overview:
- Step 1: Super couch (what we affectionally call our gigantic Karlstad IKEA sectional) upstairs to the spare bedroom).
- Step 2: Collapse dinning table into storage
- Step 3: Build new front bedroom
- Step 4: Meg and Bryan move into new front bedroom
- Step 5: Create temp kitchen in the space between the new front bedroom and our office space (which is supposed to be the dining room)
- Step 6: Demo downstairs bath/kitchen/bedroom
- Step 7: Build new kitchen/living room
- Step 8: Super Couch moves into new living room; temp kitchen breaks down into new kitchen
- Step 9: Office moves to spare room
- Step 10: Build new downstairs bathroom/laundry room, 2nd downstairs bedroom
- Step 11: Upstairs reno (obviously we’re going to need to expand on this further when we get closer)
2011
Armoires almost done!
Its been awhile. I know. What can I say. Its really hard to work full time, go to graduate school, work on house projects and plan a major renovation. But I have news! My armoires are almost done! HOORAH!!!
So last we left off, I was having second thoughts about the brass hardware. I attempted to Rub n Buff it but the finish wasn’t working out so great. I was hoping to try some different methods to get the finish I was after. I was going to attempt find something called Blue Magic, but Bryan recommended that we give the Rub N Buff another try.
While I was out with my brother Pete getting supplies for our fan installation, Bryan pulled out our Dremel and popped on a buffing wheel. He turned the dull, cheap, unbuffed finished from this:
To this:
Ahhh! Perfect! So then we just had to buff four handles. This took a while.
In the meantime, I removed the old hardware, filled the holes with wood puddy:
After sanding and repainting…
And then drilling new holes and installing the hardware…
I need better photos. They will be coming as I have a very few finishing touches that need to be put into place.
It feels good to be this close to closing out this project!
2011
SURPRISE! We bought and installed a ceiling fan!
Remember when I went on and on about the ceiling fan I wanted? It was this number from Home Depot and sold for $279 but I was confident I could get it on sale closer to $99.
Well I watched for a sale. Memorial Day rolled by: nothing. Then Fourth of July: still nothing. Every time we went into a Home Depot I looked to see if they had it in store: nope.
So I finally decided that it was time to move on. Spending close to $300 on a fan that will be mine for less than a year (since we’re putting the house up for rent next May) is pure insanity. Lest you forget, here’s what the original fan looked like:
(Note: this is the actual fan – the image in my initial fan post was just one that looked like it. See how they didn’t paint around the ceiling fan when they painted the ceiling? Classy.)
Bryan helped me look for a budget option that still met some basic requirements: had a globe light without a nipple (don’t pretend you don’t know what I mean!), was stainless or otherwise silver in tone, could operate the fan and light independently of one another.
So when Bryan stumbled upon this guy for a little over a hundred bucks, we pressed go immediately. Its called the Supra 44 by Minka Aire (funny enough, Minka Aire also makes the original of the knock off fan I wanted to get from Home Depot). We purchased it off ebay but Amazon has it for slightly more than what we paid.
Our fan arrived almost two weeks ago now – but two weekends ago, we were swamped with prepping and recovering from the wedding of my two great friends from college, Jess and Andrew. Didn’t Jess look insanely beautiful?
But back to the fan. So this past Saturday, we woke up determined to make it happen. First thing first – we had to get rid of the old nasty one.
We started by turning off the power to the fan by flipping the circuit in the breaker box. Then we just started removing piece by piece: lightbulbs, then globes, then fan blades, then the motor.
After this step – we had to disconnect the wiring and prep for the installation of the new fan.
Then we installed the motor for our new fan after wiring it to the ceiling. We also slipped in a classy little ceiling medallion. Like that, didn’t you.
Actually getting this step done took a long time bc A) we didn’t have electrical tape and had to go to Home Depot to get some; and B) the thing from which the whole fan hung, embarrassingly forgetting the actual term, was recessed into the ceiling a good half inch and so the screws that came with the kit didn’t reach aaaaand we had to go to Home Depot again to get new ones; and C) the instructions were terrible.
After a full morning of hard work, it was finally in – and it worked too! There are somethings that obviously need some attention (ie: those creepy wood pulls) and the ceiling will eventually be painted bright white, instead of the horrible tan beige thing going on up there right now, but that will wait until we do some bigger more structural projects around this area.
So that’s it! Its great! I looks good enough and I can have the fan on the highest setting and barely hear it AND I can have the fan on without the lights on! Which is great, because I’m home sick today with the nastiest stomach bug in the universe. Lights off. Fan on. Thank you and good night.
I’m addicted to Craigslist.
Its true. And its a serious problem. I have Craigslist open in a tab, sometimes, multiple tabs (gotta monitor craigslist.org/fuo in as many as 6 local subsites [Central Jersey, North Jersey, NYC, Philadelphia and sometimes Jersey Shore and South Jersey]). I know I don’t have room for any more furniture right now. I know that I don’t. Buuuutttttt…….
I.cannot.help.myself!
Case in point:
This beaut just showed up. Its a fantastic mahogany china cabinet that needs a lot of work but it is crazy cheap at only $150. I instantly envisioned it looking like a multi-thousand dollar Restoration Hardware piece like one of these:
Salvaged Wood Vintner’s Hutch $1495
French Casement Sideboard & Hutch $1795 – $2195
Apothecary Display Cabinet $2995 Special $2495
So now what do I do? I can save this gorgeous piece of furniture and make it amazing. I could probably flip it if I wanted to. But I have little room to do these projects and I have a lot of school work and side projects and we’re supposed to maybe actually renovate this house at some point.
I should probably just let this go …. but lets email them to see if its still available, eh?
2011
Change of Hardware: From drop pulls to disco balls
A couple weeks ago, we swung by Anthro after work to check out the hardware options. At this point, I was pretty set on getting drop pulls, however, I had some reservations about the drawer handles. The option I picked out earlier were nice, but I was afraid they were a little too old lady-ish (don’t get me wrong, I love me some Granny chic, but too much of it and you really lose the chic part and just get dated and meh).
The other main concern was that the separation between the bolts on the current hardware was 5.5″ and the Anthro options were available in 4, 6 and 8″ so no matter what, I was facing some wood filling, repainting and staining.
So off to Anthropologie we went in search of the drop pulls we already settled on and something that would hopefully go nicely with them but not make it too Granny-ish.
I was able to quickly find the drop pulls I wanted. Yay!
But then as I was searching for drawer handles, I stumbled upon these:
I instantly began to question everything. First off, why was I going with brass hardware? I have a silver leafed dresser and silver toned metal lamps and I was hoping to buy a silver toned metal ceiling fan. Secondly… wouldn’t it be just so cool to have little disco balls on my armoires? Seriously! SO COOL! Right? Just me? … oh okay. moving on…..
With these little guys in my hand, I remembered that Anthro had some really cool glass drawer pulls that I had initially disregarded because the drop pulls were ceramic, so I wanted to get handles that matched.
The facets and hard lines of the cuts in the glass are so yummy. I think they are perfect tension for such a roundy lined armoire, no? Not convinced? Check out the fancy pants product shot of my disco ball knobs:
They look perfect together! Right???? Oh so you noticed that the handles are brass and the knobs aren’t and I don’t want brass, right?
No worries!
I ordered the handles and picked up the knobs and then swung by Michaels for the perfect fix for this problem:
Rub’N'Buff is this pretty amazing stuff. I first learned about it while working on Dear Genevieve and have been a total convert ever since. I used it in Savannah to transform a pair of matching $10 thrift store mirrors into this:
Nice right? Totally looks like a fancy and expensive Pottery Barn or ZGallerie mirror for about $13.00 for two!
Before getting started on the brass-redo on the handles, I quickly installed the disco ball happiness.
Ahhhhh they are so awesome!
… but as should be expected with this project… the Rub’n'buffing didn’t yeild the results I really wanted. The silver finish looks kind of cheap and I’m not sure how durable it will be; right now, it seems to just scratch right off.
So now I’m trying to figure out what to do. Should I return the remaining three un-Rubbed and non-Buffed handles and look for something else? Or do I do something drastic and hard to reverse like spray painting them to look like Oil Rubbed Bronze. I’m actually really considering doing this. But before I do, I may cross my fingers and hope its only brass plated so I can achieve something like this drop dead gorgeous lamp transformation by the folks at Style North
Now to find a tin of Blue Magic!
2011
Smock Paper Update
UPDATE
Smock wants their paper back SADFACE!
Good bye pretty paper. I should have kept my mouth shut. :(
2011
Another Drawer Update
I know this is getting boring at this point. But working full time (+ some) and going to graduate school doesn’t leave much time for projects at night. Maybe one day my day job will be to stay at home and do projects all day…. until then, the snails’ pace wins.
The paper from Smock arrived on Saturday while I was in New York City for the day with friends who were in town from LA. I dragged the huge box inside in the wee hours of Sunday morning when we finally arrive back home. Sunday morning proper, I opened up the big box, which I thought was probably a bit too big for the 10 sheets of paper I had ordered to find this:
I was instantly mad. (I get mad far too easily). There were several rolls of paper I definitely did not order. There were some that I did, but not 10. HUMPH!
I took a deep breath and tried to approach this more logically. I look at the rolls of paper and realized there were two sheets of paper per roll. Okay … and there were 5 rolls of the paper I ordered. Okayyyyyy ….that makes 10 sheets.
Still! What the heck were all the others about?
More digging revealed a small box that included several packs of thank you cards and gift tags.
At this point, Angry Irish Meg began to realize that the nice people at Smock must have simply sent me some samples of their other paper products. oops.
(I wanted to make sure that this was the case, so I sent the good people at Smock an email to verify and correct the mistake if they sent me $50+ of free goods by mistake. I’ll let you know what they say!)
So after a full holiday weekend that not only included a trip to New York, but also a family bbq and a night of fireworks in Red Bank, followed by a Fourth of July at my parents house helping with yard work, I’m back in the Ewing house after a full day at work attempting to line my drawers.
Here’s where I would love to give you some great process shots and project deets followed by a snazzy reveal. But this isn’t “reality tv”… this is just plain ol’reality.
The short of it, the project didn’t go according to plan. I want to say it went BADLY, but that is just me being hyperbolic again, and that’s something I’m working on. So here’s what happened:
- I measured the inside of one of the white drawers
- I used my omnigrid to cut a piece of paper exactly to size
- I trial fitted my paper into the drawer and found I was off slightly enough to make it not fit well at all.
- I re-cut the paper as best as I could and now it fit decently
- I put matte mod podge on the wood drawer and let it set up a bit
- I put the paper down and it immediately started “not going according to plan” (cough badly cough)
- bubbles and creases appear everywhere
- I screamed for Bryan to come help!!!
- He brought me a rubber spatula to smooth out the bubbles we could and smooshed the bad creased bits as best we could
- I sulked in utter devastation for 5 minutes
- I wiped the tears from the corners of my eyes and became determined to save it.
- I put a top coat of mod podge on top of the paper and things didn’t look so bad
- I put the drawer back in the dresser to dry
- I checked on it in a few minutes and more bubbles!!!!!!!!!!!
- more tears in the corners of my eyes and a super pout
- stomped into the office and IM’ed Bryan who was sitting next to me and said:
- I HATE PROJECTS!
- I googled around a bit for people having similar issues
- Figured I should grow up
- Went back in, smooshed the bubbles. things looked better
- Cut the next piece and went to trial fit
- AND DISCOVERED THIS!!!!:
(that’s a Smock logo on the paper I was about to glue to my drawer)
That’s when I gave up for the night. Too many mistakes. Too many tears in the corners of my eyes. I want things to be perfect and they were definitely not going perfectly.
I realized that I should have mod podged the back of the paper in addition to the wood of the drawer. That may have helped with the bubbling. Having two people to slowly apply the paper to the drawer would also help. Not being tired after a long weekend and a day of work would have definitely helped.
So … reality wins. And I don’t know when I’ll have time to work on this more this week to be totally truthful. My friend is getting married on Friday and I don’t have a dress that fits (since I’m being so.dramatic. I’ll allow myself to whine about the weight that graduate school has put on my hips and tummy which is making all of my adorable fancy dresses not fit these days) so I’ll be at the mall tomorrow after work.
Sometimes, things don’t go according to plan. Thats okay. It will just have to take longer.
2011
Dream Bathroom Design
My previous post about the small improvements we made to our extremely tiny bathroom got me thinking about what I want the bathroom to look like after the renovations were complete.
I turned to Pinterest for inspiration, naturally.
I am of the opinion that bathrooms should be black and white. Not only is it simply the most classic of all possible color combinations, I also believe that since this is the area that many of use to get ready for the day, that black and white designs make the perfect backdrop for nearly every outfit one could wear. These kinds of bathrooms let you focus on making sure you look great – not if you look great with the mint green walls behind you, or the floral pattern of the wallpaper.
As if you needed more convincing:
On a side note – I’m not sure I’d be too keen on having a family photo gallery in the bathroom… don’t really want all those people looking at me just about then, eh?
For me – this last bathroom is near perfection. I simply adore it. However, having lived with a pedestal sink in a full bath – I’m not really a fan. Remember: I need function first, form second. Also, considering this will be a college rental – a lack of accessible storage will quickly mean that this bathroom will likely turn into a real mess real quick. No thanks.
Also – as much as I love, and I really do mean love! me some claw foot tubs…. again, college rental. A bit too shi-shi, as my colleague Rob,would say, for college kids.
So what would our bathroom reno look like, keeping it as affordable as possible (say under $1k) and as this-is-going-to-be-a-rental conscious as possible?
I figure we’re going to have roughly about 70sqf of floor space in the bathroom, but will lose roughly 15sqf or so with the tub. Lets say 55sqf of tile is needed. These are the options I’m liking:
All these options were found on Overstock.com which has a really impressive collection of beautiful tiles at affordable prices. The reviews on Overstock and other blogs are consistently really favorable. Heres the breakdown:
- SomerTile Basket Weave $55.99 for 6.7sqf which would be roughly $448 for the 55sqf needed for the bathroom reno. Pricey..eh?
- SomerTile Victorian Penny $55.99 for 9.2sqf for a total of $336.. better.
- SomerTile Victorian Hex $59.99 for 9.06sqf for a total of $360
- SomerTile Spiral $52.99 for 11.1 sqf for a total of $265 <– cheapest option!
Obviously, my favorite is the most expensive. I think I could easily be convince that the almost $200 savings for the Spiral tile would be well worth it.
I’m leaning toward using dark grout with these options – definitely with the all white tiles. Grout always gets dirty if you don’t really keep up with it and college kids definitely will not. A once a year, in-between-tenants cleaning won’t cut it. Dark grout will hide many sins.
While tile is a great option and will look really classic, it may be worth investigating continuing the vinyl faux wood flooring we’re planning on installing throughout the house into the bathroom as well. Allure Trafficmaster is sold through Home Depot and is supposed to be waterproof – great for high traffic use and use in areas that can potentially see water like kitchens, bathrooms and basements. We figure a waterproof option is going to be a great way to college proof the house.
I think we will go with a medium brown like this one in Cherry. At a whopping $1.79sqf we could do all 55sqf of the bathroom for under $100. Sold.
For the walls, I am pretty set on a board and batten treatment. Cue inspiration for Pinterest!
I really love the top two images as they both have the additional shelf space on top of the woodwork which I can assume will come in really convenient for placing some small decorative objects and such. I also love how the hooks in the last image and the towel hooks in the first image look against the board and batten.
Above the crisp white board and batten, I’d definitely paint the walls a very deep, dark charcoal grey. I think the grey will soften the look ever so slightly but keep things grounded and consistent. Like the grey in my fav inspiration pic from above:
I figure it will cost about $75-100 for primer and paint for this room and probably somewhere between $50-75 for the wood to do the board and batten (total guesstimate here, whoa “guesstimate” didn’t trigger my spellcheck!)
With the bathroom in its expanded state, it will definitely be able to accommodate a double vanity. Except double vanities are reeeeeallllyyyy expensive. Like way over a grand expensive! So I propose to DIY it using unfinished kitchen cabinets from Home Depot.
Two of these, side-by-side will be 60″ wide. Painted a soft matte black and then built into a frame, with a shelf below and space behind to run the plumbing? and perhaps adding a little more molding around the inner raised edge of the door so its like the cabinets in this photo?
I would get a simple wood top for the new complete vanity and then paint it with the Rustoleum Countertop Transformation kit in Black Onyx.
YIKES! Nevermind. Just looked up the cost of this and the kit will cost over $200! Here I was thinking this was going to be a budget option. Oh well. Considering this new change in plans, I’d either just paint the wood top with the same paint as the cabinet or I’d investigate getting remnant stone cut to size.
On top of my custom double vanity, I’d put two crisp white vessel sinks. I love this one from Overstock:
At $135 each, this could be the pricey-est thing in the bathroom! Maybe I should look for more affordable options (later).
For the tub, I would probably use this Kohler drop-in model ($350) and build a paneled surround for it, possibly painted the same matte black as the vanity.
The walls of the tub alcove could be tiled in simple white subway tiles installed in a herringbone pattern with dark grout. Then paired with a rainfall shower head like this one (a steal at under $20.00):
The biggest challenge I see is managing the balance of contemporary and vintage styles to make it look cohesive, stylish, young and hip, while still maintaining the integrity of the house.
I think we’re on the right track. Probably weighing in at little closer to $1500 rather than my $1k mark, though.
2011
Lining the Drawers – Updates!
Our weekend didn’t go totally according to plan. Saturday, my wonderful father came over to help Pete clean out the gutters around the whole house in an attempt to resolve a water disaster (more on this later, I’m sure). I spent much of the day making sure Mira, our dog, didn’t run away.
I did, however, look up the hours of Joy Cards studio in Princeton, to see how late I could swing by the shop to pick up the paper for my project. Unfortunately, I discovered, that they really aren’t a store, in the traditional sense. You have to make an appointment to meet with them. They are also more of a real studio where you get custom paper projects designed rather than a store where you pick something off the shelf.
Bummer.
Luckily, I discovered that there is also a Paper Source right in down town Princeton! Open late on Saturday and most of the afternoon on Sunday!
I made the trip out on Sunday afternoon, after a quick trip to Home Depot with Bryan to get supplies for another project (deets to follow!). I was greeted by row upon row of amazing paper:
When I was at Home Depot, I grabbed replacement paint swatches for the colors I had selected for the armoires. (I like to keep these on hand so I can reference the colors on the go!) I pulled them out and went to work finding something that would match.
This was my favorite but there were only two sheets on the rack. I kept looking and found this option which was still pretty good.
Unfortunately, this one only had a few sheets as well. I was going to need 10. There were none that really seemed like they would work really well in coordination together, so I went to find a sales person to ask if they had more stock available somewhere.
“Nope, sorry” I could order some if I wanted, though.
I thought about it quickly and decided if I had to order something, I’d try to order that Smock paper I found on Pinterest last week.
First thing I did was email Joy Cards Studio to see if they had any in stock and if so, if I could schedule a time to come by to pick it up. Joy got back to me quickly and said she didn’t stock the paper, only their invites, but I could order online directly from Smock.
While I was waiting for her reply, I also found that Smock sells their papers on Etsy. But again. They only had 1 set in stock. So I sent them an Etsy convo and hoped they could add more inventory.
When Joy got back to me I checked out their website more closely – and there it was, a simple “Add to Cart” button. So I put the necessary amount of paper in my cart and checked out!
The paper should arrive sometime this week. Cannot wait to finish this stage of the armoire makeover project (started here, here and here). Next up – I have to order new hardware (as discussed here).
2011
Adding Bathroom Storage
I told you it was tiny.
Well, there you have it, its the big bathroom reveal. All 42.5″ of it. Our bathroom is really narrow, but thankfully, at least it is rather long.
Sorry the image quality is terrible on these. My camera can’t focus on ugly. harhar – no really. I got a new Canon Mark II 5D for my six year anniversary with my Mister and have yet to invest in a flash or a quality lens for it. Despite that its the best camera in the world, these limitations and the fact that I am most certainly an amateur in this regard… well, sorry for the image quality!
Back to the bathroom: as you can see – it is tight and there is very limited storage. I brought in this small wicker shelf to hold extra towels and some things like extra tubes of the toothpaste and toilet paper. Its very helpful to have these shelves, even if it means the door can’t open all the way. It still opens enough to get in the bathroom – so we can deal for now.
As a side note, this shelf has been with me for a long time. My mom gave it to me one Christmas while I was a freshman of sophomore in high school. It came with me to college. Then to Brooklyn:
And then to Savannah:
So that was the start of turning this non-functional space into something that we could use on a daily basis until the renovations begin and this bathroom gets entirely redone and expanded!!!
The next issue was dealing with the pile of wet towels that ended up on the bedroom floor each day because the built-in towel racks were completely unusable. Seriously – at best they could hang one towel each… which is probably they were designed for as that bathroom can likely only realistically work for one person. The other thing we needed to accomplish was putting in some more storage for things like tissues, qtips, hair accessories, and all the other little bits that you need access to in a bathroom.
All of these solutions needed to be as affordable as possible since they were really only stop gap measures until we could design the new bathroom. Enter Ikea!
Bryan grabbed the SÄVERN wall shelf and Grundtal towel rack this weekend at the Paramus Ikea and last night after the day job, we went to work on putting these up in our uber tiny bathroom.
First up: the wall shelves.
After measuring out and marking where our holes needed to go to attach the frame to the wall, we were able to quickly drill some pilot holes, pop some mollies in the wall and screw the support pieces to the wall.
We adjusted where the shelves go by loosening the hex screw, sliding the supports to the new desired position and then re-tightening. As they come, there isn’t much room in between the shelves to store things and this has got to add functionality to this space – not just looks!
Onto the towels!
It was kind of hard to get process shots on this because we were working a) behind the door in about 30″ of floor space, b) our dog mira kept pushing the door open to check on us and c) if bryan was drilling or hammering, I couldn’t manage to get the camera around him to document what he was doing.
The long and short of it is that this was straight forward. Decide where we want it. Mark the holes. Drill pilot holes. Tap in mollies. Screw towel rack into wall.
We chose this location because even with the door open, the door wouldn’t hit the towel rack because the door can no long open all the way. We were simply thinking ahead when we put those small wicker shelves in, eh? Anywhere else in the bathroom, they would limit the very much limited already walk space.
So there you have it! Now we have some place to store clean and in-use towels, as well as other bathroom essentials like qtips and tissues.
It may not be pretty. Okay, okay. Its definitely not pretty. But at least now it functions a little more. And no. I did not buy towels to match the clown colored tiles in that bathroom. The yellow ones were purchased for Brooklyn and the blue for Savannah. Its just some kind of bizarre coincidence that they match exactly. And that they are the colors of our Alma Mater which is 500 yards down the street from this house.
Psst check back later in the week for more storage we added in other rooms throughout the house!