Sep 9

Sep 9 Unlikely Storage Solutions

In my home, there are numerous Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware catalogs with dogeared pages. I'm always looking for that next great idea for our home. About a year ago I came across a display of gorgeous wooden lockers that served as the family mudroom. I loved that it had doors to hide any clutter, plus it streamlined the whole look. The only problem was it had a price tag to match! From that moment, I was on the hunt for some of my own lockers, vintage if possible. With four active little boys I knew I couldn't worry about them getting knicked or beaten up over the years.

I love the plates; not too far from here!

Randomly, I would see one or two photos come across my Pinterest feed. It just made me want them more! I felt like every nook and cranny in our home was already spoken for. Even if I found such a treasure, where would we put it? It's not like adding a new plant or a vase; this is a giant monstrosity were talking about! As it happened, my husband WAS able to score us a bank of four, nearly perfect lockers through a series of fortunate coincidences! I quickly narrowed down our options to the garage, the small front foyer and the downstairs living area. He vetoed the first two so that made it pretty easy to decide. All we needed now was the paint!

We had wonderful dry, hot weather but it was really windy. We thought we were super clever laying a dropcloth down on our driveway. As it turns out, we weren't! We should have moved this project to the lawn. Sadly, our newly sealed driveway now has a perfect sheet outline. What can you do but laugh at yourselves!?

that's not a shadow on our newly sealed driveway!

It took five cans of semi-gloss white spray paint with a minimum one hour dry time in between (due to the high temperatures outside). Now we were ready to bring them in the house. They were quite heavy, so getting them into our space was a bit of a challenge. I had wanted to set them in front of a sliding barn door but they were so heavy and unstable, we knew we needed to properly secure them to the wall. That turned into another major problem. We used a couple toggle bolts to make sure drilling through the drywall would do the job. We just never thought to check for wiring on the other side. Sure enough, we went right through a major electrical wire! We lost power to our entire downstairs, on a holiday weekend no less! (Sigh...) It helps to have electricians as friends. We were back up and running within 24 hours.

small spaces can be transformed into very useful ones with the right additions

Now we have a great set of lockers in our home where a door would normally swing open. All we had on that wall was a giant clock and it can go anywhere, right? I'm much happier with our more useful space to store book bags, jackets and school shoes!

Moral of the story:

If you have a vision for your room, be patient. It will be worth the wait!
Preparing for the project at hand can save you a lot of money and stress. Take the time to set up a proper work space and remember "safety first"...look for plumbing & electrical lines before you get started!
As with anything you bring into your home, make sure you love it. A house can quickly become cluttered with knickknacks. It should reflect your style but bring you peace to live among it.