A Little Tipsy

Creative Tips & Ideas

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Update Office Accessories with Spray Paint

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If you have read more than a couple of my posts you are well aware that I am a budget kind of girl. I figure why spend money if you don’t have to? During my craft room/office update I made good use of my trusty sidekick Mr. Spray Paint. It can give new life and use to all sort of items as you’ll see throughout this post.
I had these office accessories on hand, but I was over the black and needed a color that would flow better in my space and be a little more soothing.
A can of Rustoleum Ultra Cover 2x in Satin Granite was the answer. I love the dark gray against the barely gray walls.
I also used it on some non-conventional items. The best way to describe the former color of this 75 cent thrift store lazy susan is putrescence. It is totally thanking me for taking it out of it’s misery.

And can you guess what I used to hold my decorative tapes?

Yes friends, I spray painted a Pringles can. It was the perfect size!
These accessories were the perfect addition to my office update.
What have you updated with spray paint?

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File Cabinet Makeover

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Now that you saw the overview of my craft room, it’s time to dig in to the details about how it all went down. Being that it is the first thing you see when you step in the room let’s start with the file cabinet makeover shall we?
She was well loved and frankly a bit gloomy when we started out, but a few coats of paint and some creative use of wrapping supplies and she’s a downright diva. 

You won’t believe how easy it is to take your file cabinet from blah to aah!




SUPER EASY FILE 
CABINET MAKEOVER

SUPPLIES:

  • Metal file cabinet
  • White Spray Paint
  • Wrapping Paper
  • Poster Tape
  • Xacto Knife
HOW-TO:


1. Wipe down the cabinet and make sure it is free from dust.

2. Spray paint the cabinet using lots of thin coats spraying off the edge as you go back and forth. I used a paint and primer in one so it would get a great finish fast. Let the paint dry.

3. Pull the drawers out and lay them with the drawer front up.

4. Cut a piece of wrapping paper a few inches larger than the face of your cabinet drawer.

5. Tape around the edges of your handle. Tape around the edge of the front of the drawer and on all the lips around the edge to wrap the paper around.

6. Carefully, from the middle to the edges, lay your paper on flat on the face of the drawer and wrap it around each edge folding down corners to make them flat like you would a present.

7. Trim the excess paper from the edges.

8. With your fingers lightly feel for the edges of the handle. Score the edges with a fingernail so you know where to cut then follow with an Xacto. 

9. Put the drawers back in place.

10. Move the cabinet in and let your files ride in style!

I love that with this method using the poster tape the paper is totally removable. If I decide in 6 months that I am over this pattern I am not committed. I can rip it off and replace with whatever new style I love. I can totally change the look with 10 minutes and a $3 roll of wrapping paper! Oh the joy of options!
What do you think? 
Would you paper your file cabinet?

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Craft Room Reveal

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I can’t believe it’s finally time! I have been working on my craft room/office for an embarrassing amount of time and I’m thrilled that it is finally finished and ready to share! Today I’ll give you the grand overall tour and then break things down with how-to’s for many of the different pieces. Let’s get right to it!
My space is small (8.5′ x 8′) in a basement with crazy low ceilings (just short of 7 ft) and next to no natural light because a bay window blocks all but about an 8 inch gap above the window well. Exciting right?! But really, I am lucky to be able to have this space all for myself.
When you walk in and turn around this is your view. Imagine a door next to that file cabinet that leads to the playroom. I love that my craft room is right next to my kiddos.
I updated an existing file cabinet which makes the perfect place for our printer. Being that I have a small space I really needed to maximize storage. I measured and shopped and shopped and mapped out the room and finally got all the puzzle pieces to work with some great Ikea items. Those are the 5×5 Expedit cubbies. Lucky for me, the Target dollar spot used the exact colors I wanted in my office so I got all those pink/turquoise/gray fabric bins for $2.50 each! I die. They are usually at least $7. The other stuff was upcycled, thrifted, or on hand for the most part. I will go in to more detail in a later post.
Above is the view from the door. You can see I literally have storage to the ceiling. I am not a space waster. These shelves hold most of my craft supplies as well as office items in the bottom right. The bins on top of the shelves are also from Target for $2.50. I’m telling you, their dorm organization supplies were my best friend. People thought I was nuts walking out with stacks of them.
Continuing around, you can see my little wrapping paper peeking out in the corner. Then, comes my L-shaped desk made with Ikea items (mixture of Galant tops with Vika Alex drawer and storage units). I love that there is storage everywhere!
You also get a peek at my light here as well. I would have loved to have one of those pretty chandeliers you see everywhere, but with 81 inch ceilings even at 5’6″ I would bonk my head on it. I opted for fluorescent lighting to mimic natural light. It has a huge round diffuser (like 2 ft) and makes me feel like I am in a casino because I can never tell what time it is. It always seems like the middle of the day. I usually have the blinds open to let what little natural light there is in, but opted to shut them for pics because really who needs a view of the window well?


I love having my cutting machine out and accessible at all times. I have literally used it more in the time I set it there than in the whole time I owned it previous. I just plug and go. I did all the labels with it. I just noticed that in some of the pics some of the labels are missing and then they magically appear in another. Ha, go figure.

You can see in this desk pic that I even snuck some storage and a laser printer (thus the random cord) under the desk. There was so much room under that corner how could I not? My boys love hiding in the very back corner. 
On the wall I have cork boards for inspiration pics, a whiteboard to keep track of accounting. I also included some quotes that I love and a clipboard for my son’s latest artwork.

In this last pic, you get a glimpse of my little closet nook. It is fairly deep and I decided it was the perfect place to store non-seasonal home decor not currently in use. It was hidden away in about five different places and I had forgotten about most of it. I upcycled two existing bookcases to have it out in the open where I could easily see what I have to swap out on occasion.

And that takes us to the door where we end our tour. I almost feel like this is just a sneak peek at what is to come. It really doesn’t do it justice because I saved the close ups, tips and how-to’s for posts to come. But, don’t worry they are on their way down the pipeline.

Craft room tutorials:
DIY Bookshelf
Clipboard Art Frame
File Cabinet Makeover
Creative Picture Frames
Updating Office Accessories with Paint
Giving Your Office a Little Personality

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DIY Jewelry Organizer

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I never had a great solution for jewelry. I had things in jewelry boxes, drawers and scattered around. I wanted something to not only keep it organized, but where I could see it all: rings, necklaces, bracelets and earrings together to coordinate quickly and easily. On a trip to Ikea I found some things that I thought would be perfect for a DIY jewelry organizer, in the kitchen and garden areas of all places.
{I apologize for the pictures. It’s impossible to get a good picture of the back of the door in a room with no windows.}
I thought hard about where to store my collection. Once I started gathering it all I realized what a collection it really was. We don’t have a lot of counter or wall space in our master bath nor did I really want a big mass of jewelry out on display which is why I chose the back of the bathroom door. It gave me a big area to work with which could be in plain site or could be completely hidden away. It was perfect!
SUPPLIES:
(most found at Ikea)
  • Bygel rails
  • Bygel wire basket
  • Bygel plastic s-hooks
  • Socker Plant pots
  • Ring holder
  • Thin ribbon scraps
  • 3/4 inch flathead screws
  • Drill
Just purchase as many as you need to fit your jewelry.

I used three bars: two for necklaces and one for the basket. I used about six packs of s-hooks, one wire basket, and two buckets. I got everything for under $20.

DIRECTIONS:

Figure out the configuration on your door. I did short necklaces on top, long necklaces in the middle and buckets for bracelets down lower so I could see easily into the buckets. That just worked out with the panels on my door. 

Install your bars on the door using the flathead screws and drill.
Now start assembling. Attach the wire basket to the bar and remove the metal sheet with the holes from the bottom. Attach it to the bottom of the basket by tying it on with tiny ribbons. Place the buckets in the basket. They won’t go all the way to the bottom now that you removed the metal piece, but that didn’t bother me. Fill your buckets with your bracelets. I have nicer bracelets in little jewelry boxes so they don’t get tangled with the others.

Attach your earrings to the metal piece. Just push the backs all the way to the front if they are hook earrings and will stay on the organizer by themselves.

Place a small ring holder (found mine at the thrift store and painted it) between the buckets and fill with rings. 
 

Attach the s-hooks (buy the plastic ones, NOT the metal ones so they don’t swing everywhere) to the bars and fill with necklaces. I have two colors of hooks because I ran out and had to buy more and they didn’t have the same colors.

I made this a few weeks ago and have loved it! Having my jewelry hidden away I had forgotten about a lot of it. This way I can see exactly what I have quickly and easily. I have been wearing it a lot more and got rid of some I was ready to part with.

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