Industrial Shelving Displays

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Almost a year ago, we found a set of 3 metal, industrial-looking shelves at a thrift store in Holland. It was one of those love-at-first-sight kind of relationships from the get go. I was immediately smitten. And proceeded to impulsively purchase. I know, you want proof. Here I am, four-score-and... well, just one year ago, standing in the middle of the thrift store with my new found love. How excited do I look?

For $12, we swiped the set and put them up in the kitchen of the Wicker Park apartment. It was a wonderful kitchen addition, because the kitchen in that apartment was horrifically small, boring, colorless, and lacking in shelving. The shelves were a kitchen-saver.

But then, we... you know... moved. And our new kitchen is not so boring. In fact, it's much larger... has more than enough cabinets for us (seriously, I think there are still one or two EMPTY cabinets, it's just got that much storage)... and is very fun and colorful. See, here's a picture of it, bare naked:

Now, that kitchen doesn't need a set of silver shelves. For a while, we considered putting them up in the entryway, but ultimately we decided we'd prefer for them to be placed somewhere that is visible from as many points in the apartment as possible. If we hung them in the entryway, they'd only be fun as you came or went.

So they ended up next to the window in the Living Room. We centered them and then hung them at equal intervals.

But really, this is not about shelves. It's about the things you can put on shelves. It's like a miniature museum of your home's most beautiful objects.

What'd we try to include? We focused on incorporating a variety of subtle and bold colors, all of which pull from the Unwithered painting (over the brown couch).

• First, a brown vase that's left over from last year's "Alternative Christmas Tree" project (which you should check out if you're looking for a more modern way to decorate this year... shameless Christmas plug).
• Also included is the wonderful vintage camera I purchased during that same Holland Thrift Trip.
• A pair of cute blue and white wooden Dutch shoes (bf is Dutch and bought them for me in Holland when we first started dating).
• A ceramic owl that has the same blue and white painting style as the wooden shoes. It's a tribute to my sorority, Chi Omega (hoot hoot).
• An orange-dipped water glass from Crate and Barrel outlet (for only #6? Hello, momma!).
• A small cactus from Home Depot, topped with two tiny pink flowers.
• A bright green watering can (though I shouldn't call it a "can" because it's plastic!).

Anyone else have a good story about displaying your tiny trinkets? Share it with me! 

Making Over The Tiniest Kitchen In The World

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Perhaps you recall when we gave Justin's Wicker Park apartment an overhaul... At the time, we did nothing to the kitchen. We were stumped, to say the least. There was no storage. Hardly any shelving. No place for spices or pots and pans. 

Before:

The cabinets you DO see are filled with cups and plates... and the cabinets underneath the sink have no shelving or layering. Just one big space under there. So that means your food would be next to your under-the-sink garbage bin and cleaning supplies. Yuck? I think so!

Progress:

To deal with the shelving and storage problem, we decided to add some storage of our own. We added a bright red spice rack, which helped alleviate some of the kitchen stress... and, for a bit of fun, we smacked up a piece of art that mimics the bright red.  

  

We also added a few shelves above the sink, which we picked up at an antique store in Holland, Michigan. The industrial-looking silver shelves can hold a few odds and ends, like coffee grounds, paper towels, and an awesome non-aerosol olive oil spritzer.

Adding a super cheap (thanks, online shopping!) under-the-counter mug rack also freed up some space in the cabinets (while also helping play off of that mustard yellow color). I grabbed it online for 11 bucks and it arrived within two days. Semi-instant gratification? Thanks, internet (I mean Al Gore).

So, using a thrifted spice rack, antique silver shelves, and a cheapo under-cabinet organizer, we had freed up lots of space and organized as much as we thought we could. Yet, there was still a big problem. The new most obnoxious thing (because as soon as you eliminate one nuisance, another one pops up to take its place) was the clambering noise of pots and pans.

Every single time I wanted to cook, I had to wrestle (yes, wrestle) the appropriate pot or pan from an under-the-sink cabinet. Not only did I have to "get low" (sure, I'm only 23, but getting down on your hands and knees to cook is just obnoxious), but, inevitably, that the pan I wanted would always be stuck in between all of the others. Right in the middle. The most inaccessible place. It's Murphy's law... or perhaps his first cousin. Anyway, piles were spilled. Pots knocked other things over. Nothing was organized. And my brain was screaming.

And then I had a dream. Wouldn't it be splendid if, instead of being stacked 10 pots high, the pots and pans were hanging? It came just like a dream to me. To have pots and pans hanging from above, easily plucked like grabbing an apple from a tree?! It must be the kitchen version of the Garden of Eden! Can it exist?

Oh, that's right. Such a thing does exist! It's called a pot rack! For $39.42!

Come back tomorrow to see how it looks :)

Put It On A Shelf

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What's the best way to get organized in a small apartment? Get as many spaces and surfaces as you can! Remember our mission to thrift? Our main goal when left that day was to find a bedside table, but we came up short there, and wound up long in the shelving department, and we decided to put those awesome shelves in Justin's apartment. And the kicker? (Cue the heavenly music, please)... they were a piece of cake to install!

Here I am, on the beautiful, fateful day I first eyed my silver shelves... Now, cue the background music, "Silllver shelves.... Silllllvvverrr shhellllvesssss... It's thrifting timmeee in the cityyyyy..." Come on. You totally enjoyed that.

We purchased these shelves without an actual plan for where to put them (but at $12 for all 3 shelves, can you blame us?!).  I considered putting them in the bedroom, which is shaping up to look quite beautiful manly...  but, ultimately, I think I finally realized two things:

Thing Number One:
We all have a part of our apartment or home that is just plain crappy. 

Thing Number Two:
When you love a new piece of furniture, you want to put it in the room you love... but you should put it in your --- you guessed it --- crap room.

What does this mean? It means we decided to put the shelves in the kitchen. The crooked cabinets, old school (and not in a good way) counter top, and please-throw-me-out appliances needed some beautiful company.

We decided to put them above the kitchen sink. There was a large space on the wall, right above the sink, that wasn't being used. The ratio of kitchen items to drawer and cabinet space was depressing (note: that means many kitchen items and very little drawer/cabinet space), so it seemed to make sense to add some beautiful silver (err, I mean manly and industrial) shelves.

In the end, the space looks much better and we've finally got some functional space... not to mention something for our eyes to ponder as we do the dishes.

What we used:

• Shelves
• Level
• Drywall Anchors
• Screws and washers

We Came. We Saw. We Conquered.
 Or... We eyeballed. We measured. We Hung.

We eyeballed a location for the shelves
We weren't very methodical, we just thought about what we could put on them, and how much height  we would need on top and in between

We measured
Center the shelves between the cabinets
With the level on the shelf, mark the location for the anchors

We hung
Screw the anchor into the wall (Tip: line up the shelf after the first anchor to make sure your mark for the second one still lines up)
Put the washers on the screws
Bolt the screws into the anchor

See how they look as though they're not centered? Let's take this as a teaching moment for a typical old Chicago apartment... the cabinets are not centered above the sink. Thus, neither can the shelves.