First improvement project of Spring

Before:

It’s a problem area.  Always dirty, always filled with shoes, and even with some cute hooks it still wasn’t very functional. 

After!

Now, it has tons of charm, is updated and cute, and BONUS, it’s functional!

This is how I did it:

The inspiration:

a pinterest pin (link!),

a completed project I LOVE on the other side of that same room,

and the fabric I am coordinating with, from here.

Work in progress:

One of my famous drawings that means that big things are moving in the Rose household.  My husband has a love/hate relationship with these drawings. 

In progress:

I had all the cuts done at Home Depot.  The gentleman that helped me was amazing.  It has a BIG sign that says they do not do exact cuts, but you never would have known it with the double measuring and careful care he showed my project.  He made it so much easier!  I just brought it home and put it together like a puzzle.  Well… sort of. 

The three horizontal boards were too long, so we took them back and had 1/2 inch cut off.  We needed to cut a hole in the beadboard for the plug with only a power drill.  That was a hour long fight, but once the bead board was on and the cuts were right, it really did go together like a giant puzzle.

Because my wonderful husband was wrangling kids the whole time I did this (outside, in the beautiful sunny weather!) So I took my own ‘in progress’ shots of building, nailing, sanding, painting, sanding, and painting some more. 

I LOVE the beadboard detail behind it.  That isn’t in the tutorial, but I had seen it on so many other projects I love that it seemed like the perfect fit for this one too.

Once the actual built-in was done, I couldn’t take how dirty the wall looked all around the newly painted shelf/hooks, so I had to paint it too.  My patient husband watched me go BACK to Home Depot (for the 4th time that day.  No joke.) and then I spent the evening painting too.

This picture doesn’t do this color justice at all.  But I am adding it for reference.  It’s a really nice grey/blue. 

I always try to put on the last coat of paint on a project right before I head to bed.  It helps me not mess up my beautiful paint jobs with trying to decorate while I am still dealing with tacky paint.  It is very important.  But this morning, I got up at 7 or so, and by 8am, it was done:

I just LOVE it.  I could stare at it for hours. lol!   It matches the mantel project perfectly but without too much coordination making it seem forced.  It looks updated and makes a purely functional space beautiful!  I’m thrilled.  I love walking in my door now.