Pallet Coffee Mug Storage

I love coffee. I also love storage. These are two things I always seem to be running out of and they drive me equally crazy. That's why when I saw this little gem on Pinterest, I knew exactly what I needed to do. 

Image via Pinterest

The first thing I had to do was locate a pallet. This turned out to be as simple as posting to Facebook "Looking for a pallet, any condition." I had one the next day for free. Side note- pallets are so much heavier than I had ever imagined; and the one I was given took a lot of elbow grease, experience playing Tetris, and a donation of a vertebrae to get into my SUV. 

I had never worked with a pallet before, so I don't know a lot about them. I do know that mine was VERY large. Also, since I did not specify a specific condition, it had lots of cracks and mismatched beams which I ended up really loving about it.

A quick trip to The Home Depot landed me with a 50 pack of cup hooks and a heavy duty picture bracket for about $15. I love the look of the coat hooks from the photo on Pinterest, but at more than $3 a pop, I found a much cheaper option.

Original Pallet

Husband being manly

I should really start off by stating that I was solely the brains of the operation, the husband ended up being the brawn (under my supervision of course). The first thing I had him do was flip it so we were looking at the what would be the top side if it were laying in its working position, then saw off a large portion from the top. We then had the idea to use one of the beams that were removed and attach it to the bottom to form a shelf for all my other crap that I never have enough room for.

When it came to this particular project, I am the kind of lady that finds the imperfections to be more beautiful than annoying, so we did not even out or saw down any crooked beams, including the top one that the hanging bracket was mounted to. The use of a level in this case was very important, because our eyes would have certainly deceived us. (The bracket we chose included a small mini level, but the husband had his own.)

As it turned out, the stencils that I had once borrowed from my sister that I swore I stole had ended up back at her house, so we free handed "C'est la vie" onto the bottom using a third world paint brush and 4 year old interior paint. (I never said I'm frugal, I'm definitely cheap and on a budget.) If anyone asks, I'll just say our 2 year old did it with a white crayon.

My only physical contribution.

The cup hooks were easiest in the worn beams, the husband had to use a little more effort on one of the fresher looking beams. We chose to stagger them between rows to avoid any chance of my cups not fitting properly. The husband used a pair of pliers to pull the ends of the hooks upward for the handles to fit, essentially changing from a "C" shape to a "J" shape. From here, it was only a matter of finding somewhere to fit this gargantuous piece and hang it up. Yes, we actually removed a (useless) door in our kitchen to give it a home. I'm extremely pleased with how it turned out. I chose not to sand, stain or paint it, but there are so many different ways that a project like this could be personalized to fit any style.

Toolbox Dresser

This weekend I decided I wanted to take on a project for the Minion's bedroom, which will have a garage theme. Since I've had a lot of people ask how I did it, I shall now share my process.

The idea was to take a plain, old, run down dresser and turn it into a "toolbox". (Thank you Pinterest!) It is easy, fun, and efficient. Not factoring in the dresser itself, as well as paint brushes and rollers we already had on hand, all items totaled a bit south of $50 from The Home Depot.

Items needed:

• Dresser, any size
• Paint roller
• Medium paint brush
• Red paint (I purchased 1 quart of Glidden Red Geranium in High Gloss. Used about half.) $14
• Black paint (Behr Stealth Jet in flat, tester size.) $3
• Vinyl stick on diamond plate $18 (See the exact one I used here)
• Silver knobs (HD offers individuals for about $3 each, but being frugal, I opted for the 10 pack for $14)

Total time: 4-5 hours. I took a break to go eat with The Husband and Minion, and got back to work the next morning, giving the paint time to really dry, so this is approximate.

First thing I will tell you is SAND SAND SAND. I am impatient, skipped this step and lost count after SEVEN coats of paint. If you have the time, I would also recommend primer.

I removed the drawers and used the roller to slather on coat after coat of red paint onto the dresser itself, using the brush under the eaves and in corners. I waited until I was done with the red to start on the drawers, but you could probably do the drawers while the red is drying between coats.

The black paint only took 3 coats. I simply painted all the edges that I knew would be showing once the diamond plate was applied. (I did notice that on what little parts I painted where the vinyl lay, it did not stick to the paint but rather peeled off minute amounts when I re-positioned the vinyl.) It also dried rather quickly. By the time I was done with the last drawer, the first one was ready for vinyl.

I used 1 roll of the diamond plate vinyl, with drawers measuring approximately 27.5" x 7 3/4". Larger or more drawers will require the use of multiple rolls. When you take your measurements from the drawer to the vinyl, remember it is better to cut too much than not enough! You can always trim the excess, but adding more is a pain in the rear. It is simple: cut the amount of vinyl you'll need, unpeel the paper backing and stick that sucker right on. I found it much easier to use than the wallpaper-type vinyl because it's a firmer material so there's no wrinkles and bubbles smooth right out. I actually used the side of my phone to smooth it; you could also use a squeegee, book, or other flat object. (Just start at one end, apply pressure and push out to the opposite side.) **Note: the instructions on the diamond plate state that the adhesive will take a few hours to cure, so if you need to reapply, it's no problem. Also note that as the day went on, bubbles started forming around the edges, so just keep an eye on it and smooth them as you see fit.

Once all your paint is dry, put the drawers back in, although I put mine in prior to applying the black paint. (One drawer accidentally closed and I got a nice black square on my red!) I acquired the handyman I call The Husband to install the hardware. He simply pushed the screw from back to front through the vinyl, careful not to dislodge the adhesive, and screwed them on. 

That's it! Never mind the Hannah Montana sheet. I hope you enjoy, and good luck! If you like it, share it or leave a comment!