She's Crafty

So here's an old bookcase (Target Home Collection circa 2005) in a new location:

To it's left is the door that leads from the Study to my bedroom and you can see the daybed to the right.

My goals was to corral all of my knitting/sewing/craft books and information in this area and also cover the cable outlet that sticks out like a sore thumb on that wall.

Here it is all stocked up:

On top we have my sewing box and new little mannequin pin cushion I got for Christmas.  The first shelf holds all of my more substantial books as well as a pincushion that belonged to my great aunt and I always loved when I was little.

The middle shelf holds my sewing machine which can be pulled out and plugged in for easy use and the bottom shelf has my 2 binders where I organize knitting patterns/inspiration I've printed from online/torn out of magazines.  The three magazine holders on the bottom shelf corral all sorts of odds and ends: 1 contains my knitting magazines, 1 contains the less substantial knitting pattern books (usually sold in the magazine racks on the knitting aisle in Michael's) and the last one has all my inspiration tear sheets/magazines for other types of crafty projects.

I like how it looks full but there is still plenty of room to fit new purchases!

Linen Luxury

So this weekend I got a lovely early birthday present from los padres...it's this IKEA armoire I'd been wanting for the bathroom to serve as a linen closet! I was excited enough about the armoire itself since it would mean I could actually keep towels in the bathroom instead of carrying one in from my bedroom everyday.  As a bonus, the shelves can hold all the random bathroom stuff that has remained unpacked in my room for the past...ohhh, 4 months! But not only is it be incredibly functional, it's style compliments the bathroom and claw foot tub perfectly...

So on Friday evening the parents delivered it to me. I was too distracted by studying for a Calculus test to get too excited. Then Saturday I was busy with work, taking the test, napping, and then a few errands! While out and about I stopped in Hobby Lobby (more affectionately referred to as Hob Lob) and picked up this hot little number for 50% of $19.99.

Could this scream Ellen's bathroom any louder? It's black and white, says "Paris", depicts a claw foot tub, and was on sale! Well, truth be told...I was still unsure how I'd like it once I got it home. But as soon as I saw it against that Tiffany blue wall I was SOLD.  The combination makes me love the artwork AND the color of the walls even more. Now I'm starting to get excited about this whole bathroom makeover.

At some point on Sunday afternoon I checked in on Ben's assembly progress and it was right at the point where the backing gets nailed on. I looked at the subtly stripped background and it looked...blah. Too bad it couldn't have some sort of unexpected surprise that would really stand out when you opened the doors to get a towel. But wait! I have the perfect black and white gift wrap! I can already imagine just how amazing it will look with that as the backing. Thank goodness for the One Spot at Target and my proclivity to purchase things I love without quite knowing what to do with them yet. (Yes, I bought gift wrap with no intention of using it to wrap presents. )  Here's what the pattern looks like:

The 1st attempt to affix the wrapping paper to the backing was made with Mod Podge and foam brushes. This failed. You pretty much get one try to put down the paper and it is nearly impossibly to avoid wrinkling the paper/getting air bubbles trapped.  After two attempts with the Mod Podge I was left with this...

...and then quickly moved on to plan B: cut two pieces of wrapping paper the proper length, match the pattern down the middle by looking at the wrong-side of the paper (luckily the paper was very thin and the design showed through well enough to make wrong-side matching possible), tape the seam together with packing tape making one large piece of gift wrap. Next, we just wrapped the backing up like a present taping the paper around the perimeter of the back (wall-facing) side of the armoire back:

Then came the moment of truth. We flipped it over and voila!

(If I were doing this again I would probably verify the design was matched up down the middle before actually taping it to the backing...but thank goodness I got lucky!)

Then it was as easy as finishing assembling the armoire according to instructions.

Here it is in all it's glory:

The pattern does not capture well on camera (try not to look at it too hard or you'll get a headache!) but it looks really cool in person (just like the above close-up photo of the pattern).

Then came the fun part: filling it up!

I already had the black fabric bins purchased from Family Dollar near Grandma's house in August. They were $5 for a 3 pack of either size. I originally bought them for another use but they didn't work out and are perfect in this space instead.  I also used a hanging sweater rack I had leftover from my apartment closet to hold towels and eventually sheets (once I get around to putting them in there...).  I'd really like if it were black too but I can't argue with free! 
I have a few more small things planned for this space but I am loving how it's turning out so far.