The 1st of Many 'Mini Pick-Me-Ups'

Welcome to my home! This starts the segment Mini Pick-Me ups. Little day projects to help our home function and look better. As a bonus, we feel better as well!


My first project is the sink area in my laundry room. What a disaster this has been for the last three years. Once upon a time I did have a curtain that was velcroed (spell-check is telling me that is not a word) to the apron under the counter. Alas, with overflows from the sink due to my inability to multi-task in a timely matter as far as the sink filling is concerned as well as painting project clean-ups, etc... etc.. the curtain finally gave way and now it looks like this...

Can you say 'Yuck!' Not a place I want to do any hand-washing of unmentionables! So, Sunday I went to work. I started about 10 am and finished at about 6:30 pm. First things first.... I tackled the spackle. (I know.. somewhat dorky.. but it came into my head.. so I had to type it..) I had a little sanding and filling in of holes from some shelves we had there previously.

 

  Anyhow..with that done I moved to the window that has a layer of over spray from when we sprayed the ceiling white. I scrubbed that ever so softly with a steel wool pad and soap. Amazingly, no scratches and a super clean window! I will paint the frame white and clean the outside this summer, when I can take the window out for a bit.. no snow would help as well for accessing this outside..

Next, I measured the shelves and the area beneath the sink and went shopping for baskets. (The fabric I had bought a week earlier, but wanted to double check my measurements.) 

Off to the Container Store I went.... I had numerous options of which I would show you if I had my creative suite active and could do some nice photoshop montages... but alas you will have to wait for those...

My 2 final choices were the following: 

The ivory version for the top shelf. Mine are lidded without the loop. I have all of my outdoor paper goods from past parties, etc in there. I like the lids because it will keep the dust out.

For the bottom shelf I got the smaller of the 2 feathergrain wood boxes. This will hold, lightbulbs, cleaners, and other miscellaneous items.


Well, back to work I go. When I arrived home from my shopping spree, I ran down and sanded the spackled areas, vacuumed with my trusty little shop vac and washed the walls for the final paint prep. After that I did all the touch up...

For the painting I choose a small foam roller. It works great for touch-ups.. and feathering out brush marks. After I got the first coat on I put a plastic bag around the tray to keep it moist for coat number two. Then, I ran upstairs and started to work on the curtain for below the counter. The fabric I choose is a laminated fabric.. It is shiny and will help in repelling any water mishaps.

Fun fabric to go with my orange walls... but not the most fun sewing experience. I got the fabric from Sewtropolis and I am sooo glad I asked Nikol for some pointers on this fabric. Her pointers were to use clothes pins rather than needles, because as once you make a hole it is there and also double/triple check to make sure you have the stitch you want ready to go.... again.. once there are holes... there is no going back. I used binder clips instead because I actually do not have any clothes pins. These worked just great and once I got the rhythm down life was good. I did have a little slippage because the fabric is smooth, but I solved that with some masking tape on my machine. All in all a stressful, but good learning experience.

Once the curtain was done, it was time to go down and paint the second coat... move our "junk" into the baskets and set it all back up... for the final reveal.....

Overall, I love the new look... upon reflection of the finished project... a few things I am going to add.

1.  Some lighting under the shelving.
2.  A basket in the corner for some random items I still need in this area.
3.  And I think I am going to find a hot pink slice of fabric to add to the bottom of the curtain to give    it a little more style. So check back, as this little 'Mini Pick-Me-Up' may will be looking better in the coming days.

 Ps.. I will get a photo in the day as soon as it is sunny again... the lighting will be much better for the photo then..


Ciao for now!

Alyssa