Category: DIY

AR Workshop: 2 Projects at 1 Session

Okay, I know I’ve blogged about AR workshops a bunch before… but I think this is my last visit for a while. They totally sucked me in with their stamp card and once I got to 5 visits, I qualified for a free project. Well, of COURSE I’m going to go back for my free project!

But when they sent me my code (the promo is for the average price of all your completed projects), it was for more than the one project I wanted to do and it wouldn’t let me use it unless I spent a higher amount. And that is how I ended up signing up to do two projects at one session!

{Pssst, this isn’t a sponsored post, but if you want to find an AR Workshop you can find them here: https://www.arworkshop.com/}

Project #1: My Office Project

I saw this project on the website and I thought it would be the perfect addition to my office. My coffee addiction is a running joke between me and my co-worker. This project was relatively easy – I stained the frame boards chestnut, painted the plywood backboard black, applied the stencil, painted all the text antique white, and then went over the word “coffee” with gold.

The problem was that the stencil wasn’t totally stuck to the plywood when I used it, so there was some color seepage. Luckily, Lindsey finished her project early because she did some touch-up painting for me while I focused on my other piece. The last bit of this one was to use the nail gun to secure the frame boards. I love the way this one turned out and I took it to work the next day and hung it in my office:

Project #3: My Home Project

I have a spot in my living room that needed some color, so this one with all the flowers was right up my alley. I started this the same as my office project, by painting the plywood black and staining the frame boards chestnut. This one had a TON of colors in it though, which made it very challenging when working with the stencil. I did the best I could with the stencil in place, but then did quite a bit of touch-up painting where some colors bled into other flowers by mistake.

I really love the way this one turned out and hung it in the perfect spot in a boring corner:

And now, I’m done with the AR workshops for a while! I mean, unless I need to make a gift for someone…

An Organized Closet

Before we get to my latest closet update, I feel like it would make sense to go way back to 2014 where I started to try and get my bedroom closet organized.

Spring 2014 Updates:

Before: Spring 2014
After: Spring 2014

Blog post from April 2014: My Underwhelming Dream Closet

At the time I was using an old metal mesh cube organizer that I had bought when I was in college. These shoe racks over there on the left side, those were the latest and greatest I could find at the time. And it was a mess.

So, I went to The Container Store and bought two of their 12-Pair Shoe Organizers (find them here for $39.99 each) and one of their handbag organizers (they no longer carry the one I have, but this 8-pair shoe and purse organizer for $39.99 is quite similar).

I put everything together in my closet and it was an improvement. Not a huge improvement, but an improvement.

Fall 2014 Updates:

Before: Fall 2014
After: Fall 2014

Blog post from October 2014: A Closet Purge & a New Plan

Within 6 months my closet had exploded into a mess again. I had way too much stuff shoved in there and the shoe racks weren’t working super well for me. I decided to do a massive purge and stack the shoe racks (I bought these safety wall straps from Amazon so that they weren’t a hazard for me or Jack). Then, I put clothing on either side of the shoe tower. It’s hard to tell, but there’s a little bit of space to the left of the shoes.

I made another small change in November 2016 (My Laundry Situation) where I added a second small laundry basket for items that needed special care. But other than that change, my closet basically looked the same until last month.

January 2020 Updates:

Before: January 2020

So, here’s what I was working with. My shoes were still happily living in the shoe racks and I still had the two laundry baskets on the right and one extra one on the left for clothes that need to be donated. My pants lived up top in that white rectangle organizer. My dresses are all the way to the right side, then skirts, then a random mix of stuff that I plan on wearing some time soon.

To the left of the shoe tower is all of my cardigans, sweaters, and blouses. You can barely see any of them, because they are all SHOVED in less than 2 feet of space. At some point, I also installed these mini LED tap lights — one inside the closet on the left and one on the right.

This setup still was not working for me. I thought and thought and finally I decided to see if adding some drawers would help. I went out and bought the ASKVOLL 5-drawer chest from Ikea for $79

I took everything out of my closet and moved the shoe tower over a few inches to the left. Then, I built the case of the ASKVOLL and stuck it in to see how it would fit:

It left less room for my laundry basket situation, but I had just enough space for one to the right and one to the left of the shoe rack. Then, instead of hanging all my blouses and sweaters back up, I rolled them Marie Kondo style and put them in the drawers. By taking the majority of my tops off hangers, I saved a TON of rack space. So now the clothes that are left hanging have plenty of room.

So, what is left: skirts live on the far-right side of the closet, then tops that tend to wrinkle. On the left-hand side are my dresses. Pants and casual sweaters are in that upper rectangle organizer. The drawers contain: short sleeve blouses, long sleeve blouses, cardigans, sweaters, and sweatshirts. Everything is Kondo rolled, so I can easily see exactly what I have. On the floor, I have my regular laundry basket to the right and hidden to the left is my special care laundry basket. Unfortunately, I had to lose my ongoing donation basket. So that is living in our spare room for now.

Here is the new after:

After: January 2020

While it certainly is not the walk-in closet of my dreams, it is so organized that it makes my little Type A heart happy. Everything has its place and I can easily see all my options when I’m getting out my work outfits for the week.

Here’s everything I’ve used at this point to organize:

I’m currently really happy with how everything is working for me, but only time will tell if I hit on a better design in the future!

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AR Workshops: Feeling Crafty… Again and Again

I’ve blogged about the AR workshops before, where I’ve made a plank sign, a chunky knit blanket, and then an advent calendar. Each time I go to a workshop I have the BEST time, which means when a friend and/or family member mentions that they’d like to try it out… I end up signing up for another workshop!

{Pssst, this isn’t a sponsored post, but if you want to find an AR Workshop you can find them here: https://www.arworkshop.com/}

Well, I did TWO more workshops in December that I wanted to share with you all!

Welcome Sign

I saw that they had some holiday themed front porch signs and almost chose one of them… but then I thought I’d rather have something I could use year-round. I stained the wood a darker brown and then used off white, gray and moss green for the stenciled accents. Even though my intentions were to lean this against the brick wall on my front porch, I still went ahead and attached the hanging screws and wire to the back of it to give me some options. I also attached a cute little gingham ribbon, which you can see in the last picture.

In progress:

Here I am with Lindsey and her adorable holiday themed sign:

And here are the signs made by my sister (in law), Jaclyn, and her mother:

I initially leaned this in our front entrance area to let it fully cure before I paint it with a coat of polyurethane. But then I decided that I liked it there! So now I’m not sure if this will eventually work its way outside or not.

Jewelry Display

My sister Kelsey came into town for the holidays and she also wanted to visit the AR Workshop (she also realized there is one just 10 minutes from her house in Richmond!). I wasn’t sure what other projects I really *needed* to make, but then this jewelry display caught my eye. I have a collection of bracelets that were just living in a box on my dresser… which leads to me forgetting what I actually own. I thought this display could be perfect for displaying them!

I went with the phrase “Leave a little sparkle wherever you go” and stained the wood dark. Then I chose off white and gold for the stenciled text, as well as the tray accents and around the sides of the display.

In progress:

When everything was dry, I added the jewelry hooks  to both sides and then used the nail gun to put all the pieces together, including the lazy susan contraption on the bottom which allows the display to spin around.

Here’s the three of us with our projects (me, Jaclyn, and Kelsey):

And here is the jewelry display at home all loaded up:

Once again, I had a wonderful time hanging out with everyone at the workshop. And now that I’ve attended FIVE workshops I have enough stamps to do a free project. I have my eye on one for February, so I’ll keep you posted!