"My Home Show" - December Episode

On today's episode - a glimpse of some of my recent furniture rehab, home organization tips, and decking the halls for Christmas!

First, the furniture rehab:

I wanted to buy the girls a white dresser. Cheap. Which means garage sale, but I hardly have the time and desire to shop garage sales. So imagine my delight when our across-the-street neighbors had a white dresser, desk, and two hutches for sale on their driveway a couple weeks back. I knew with some cute, girly handles on the drawers, they could be all I wanted them to be.

Here is the before photo of the dresser. I had already removed one of the handles in my excitement to replace them all.

And here is the after photo.

If I was a better photographer, you could see that these are cute silver handles with pink crystal embellishments on the front. I purchased them in two-packs at Target.

Next --- the before photo of the desk, with its red handles.

 

Red handles were replaced in favor of simple silver ones, purchased at Lowe's. Here is the after photo.

Next up - some home organization tips:

It was wise of me to marry Kevin. He builds good shelves. Just admire these floor-to-ceiling beauties in the guest room closet.

I highly recommend making the most of your closet space. Here we incorporate our vacuum supplies; gift wrap department; musical equipment; and assorted holiday accoutrements while still allowing space for our guests to hang their clothing. Since this photo was taken, I have added our home paint department as well. (I have roughly twelve gallons of assorted colors of paint on that fifth shelf.) True, the paint fumes are probably not safe or desirable for our houseguests, but no one stays with us for long periods of time anyway, so exposure will be minimal. And the chances of paint can explosion are slim unless there is a house fire - and in that event the exploding paint cans are the least of our worries, right? Not sure how my organizational tips digressed into this conversation about paint can explosion and the effects on my houseguests, but your safety is my number one concern. I don't want to ignore the difficult issues.

Next up? I'm very proud of my potty-room cabinet. Take a look!

Isn't it darling? And clean and innocent and oh-so discreet. For all you know, I keep grilled cheese sandwiches in there. That's the beauty of a toilet-room cabinet. It keeps things discreet. No longer do you have to keep grilled cheese sandwiches strewn about the floor or stacked on the back of the toilet. Or, God forbid, you store the sandwich supplies TOO FAR AWAY from the toilet for easy access when you need them most. (No one likes to hobble across the bathroom, pants down, to the far-away closet to retrieve grilled cheese... no one!!!) So do yourself a favor and purchase or construct your own little potty-room cabinet.

I really wish I could see everyone's potty room. Is that too much to ask? I bet we'd learn all sorts of clever organizational tips. Recently I found out a friend of mine installed a little shelf in his potty room. (Incidentally, I don't think he called it a "potty room". "Potty room" isn't very masculine-sounding. It's downright annoying, really - but what else can I call it?) He explained that he needed a place to set his coffee cup, and I can respect that.

Last but not least - decking the halls for Christmas! That's what I've been consumed with this week. I want to share with you my newest acquisition. I have a feeling this will be especially popular with my fellow desert-dwellers and you will all want to run out and procure one.

Now if that doesn't say "Merry Christmas to all, and happy birthday Jesus Christ!" I don't know what does.*




*What in tarnation was I thinking? I bought this post-season 2009 at Hancock Fabrics. I remember, at the time, thinking it was the embodiment of a desert Christmas and my home would be incomplete without it. This week, when I unwrapped it, I was almost overwhelmed by kitsch. No matter how much I might crave an elegant, sophisticated home, I am doomed by my own cheesiness and the fact that I have four children and WAY too much of a sense of humor to NOT buy snowmen on broncos.