Fall List :: Shoe Storage

Hello!

 

I know I said that I would be back with my normal posts this week, but I wanted to do just one more from my little Fall to-do list. Because, really, who doesn't love a good before and after??

 

Here's where we left off:

 

{check out how we revamped our good deed system, redid our junk drawer, found a place for school papers, redid our kitchen command center, and took control over our snacking situation}

 

Awhile back, I had mentioned that I had gotten a bug in me to basically rearrange every room on our main floor. And by me, I mean I told Jason where to move everything :) Well, when we did that we totally opened up our living room....but totally took away the shoe storage we had. Originally I had a sofa table behind our sofa that faced our entry. It held four baskets that the kids used to throw their shoes in. Each child had their own basket (and one extra to throw other stuff into), and this system had worked better than any other system I have tried. Therefore, I knew I wanted to stick with the same general idea.

 

A couple of months ago, I had picked up this little bench at (you guessed it!) Goodwill:

 

Simple, and thin, I actually bought it planning to use in our family room, but then I got the idea to put it at the beginning of our hallway. I bought a few baskets from the dollar store that I planned on recovering in fabric to make them look amazing....but they were just much to small for the shelf and drove me crazy {let it be know that I did attempt to keep this project super cheap! ha!}

 

So, they were gone and replaced with some beautiful baskets from HomeGoods that fit the shelf perfectly. And, better yet, they required almost zero work from me. I believe for all 3 I spent less than $25.

 

Next came work on the bench. First I primed the entire thing. Then I spray painted the bottom shelf and legs since I planned on doing a color dip method like our dining room chairs.  

 

The pictures below show the first green we used. I hated it right away, but Jason kept saying it looked great, so I went ahead with the painters tape.... just to tear it all off and repaint it in a much better color :)

 

While I repainted the legs, retaped it all AGAIN, and painted the top a nice cream, I switched up our baskets just a little bit. The name plate in the front was awesome as is...it just happened to be a little too dark for this project. Since this bench is in the hallway, I wanted everything light and airy. I just used some acrylic paint I already had and painted the fronts. I also printed up some labels {Jason had a great idea to use chalkboard paint, but I eventually went with white labels to make it lighter}.

 

Ready to see it all together??

 

I made two small pillows. The blue one was fabric I bought for a different project but ended up not using. It looks off center in the photo, but it's even in real life :). The small pillow I made using this method of printing on fabric.

{hey, mom, does the quote sound familiar??? :)}

 

To get an idea of where this bench is, here is a photo taken from further away.

 

To the right is the hallway that leads to the kitchen; etc. In front of the bench is our living room.

 

 

...and how it all came about:

 

We love how it turned out. The kids are {pretty} good at using it. The shoes almost always end up in the baskets. It's just the baskets don't always end up in the bench! I choose my battles around here, and I would much rather move one basket back, than 15 pairs of shoes ;)

 

 

Happy Tuesday!

 

xo,

Rachel

 

 

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