Dresser Re-Do

So, we got our guest room back! *happy dance* Lovely fellow we had staying with us, but I was planning what I'd do with the room when we got it back.  As I've said, it needs to be functional as a guest room, but without being a bedroom all the time.  Since we won't use it as a bedroom.  So, we decided to make it a guest/craft/xbox 360/etc.... room! Sounds like a lot, but, I've come up with a way to get it all in there, without looking too cluttered and still have it be useable! (yeah, I know, I'm a genius, right?)

So...first things first.  We have this old, boring, brown, water-marked dresser.  It's like, really, really old.  But, it's a smaller dresser, that's perfect for a not-all-the-time guest room, with perfect storage for my sewing supplies and various other second bedroom fare.  Plus, it serves as the TV stand for the xbox 360.  (My husband gets mad when I play xbox and hog the living room, since it's all motion activated)

I started the dresser re-do part of the guest room re-do today, and I thought I'd post a few before pictures to show you what I'm working with here. 

Just loverly, right?? Ugh! And it doesn't just need cosmetic work, it needs a full on re-do! I'll be re-attaching the drawers, as the bottoms give way a bit, and I'll be getting rid of that nice little country-esk ridge on the top drawers as well.  The 2nd room is going to have a much more modern, chic yet retro vibe to it when it's all said and done.  I'm hoping to have this project done by Sunday, (have to work it around my homework schedule...ugh) so I should be posting more pics by then.

P.S.-No, my shadow is not posing in that middle picture, I am just taking a picture....maybe I vogue naturally??

Easy Fabric Storage Box

So I'm redoing my craft/workout/extra bedroom.  We had a friend that had been staying with us, so once we got the bed out, I've been manically clearing/cleaning/re-doing pretty much the whole thing.  Both of my husband's kids are coming this summer (yay! that itself is big progress), but we don't want to have a full extra room set up for the whole year when they would only be here a few weeks out of the year.  We would get much more use out of making it a craft/workout/extra bedroom.  So we ordered this perfect orange futon.  More to come on the 2nd room later....but in the meantime, my motif is going to be orange, black and silver with a modern and retro vibe to it.  Hard to explain, but it looks so pretty in my head! Well, I've been searching high and low for inspiration on how to get everything I want out of the room without making it feel to cluttered.....and it needs to be able to be useful (a/k/a not have everything shoved into the closet).  So, I found this photo a-la pinterest (side-note, if you're not on pinterest, why the hell not??!). 

I LOVE the shelves.  The room actually, but there's no way I could fit that into my room with everything else that needs to be accomplished.  So, I decided on some floating shelves for our 2nd room.  The only problem is, my craft stuff is kind of a mess.  I have various things stuffed in old mis-matched shoe boxes and I definitely don't want to spend a small fortune on new storage ware.  But there's no way I'm putting my craft stuff on display the way it is now.  Then I had a brilliant thought! I decided to cover my old shoe boxes that I use for storage with some fabric! This is a few pics of the first one, I did it with some spare zebra striped fabric I had for another craft a while back.  Not my favorite fabric, but I didn't want to waste the good stuff should this not work. 

Supplies:
old shoebox
spray adhesive (any will do actually, I used spray adhesive because that's what I had on hand)
fabric
scissors

This is a really easy project, only took me about 20 minutes start to finish which included gathering up all my supplies. 

First, you start with the old shoebox:

Then you grab your fabric:

Then I started with the lid, spraying the part of the box I wanted fabric to stick to, and slowly worked my way around. 

I worked my way around, and folded everything in, being sure to not leave too much fabric at the top, so the top of the box would still fit on.  Once I got everything glued just the way I wanted it, I trimmed the excess fabric off, let it dry completely (so I wouldn't have a glued-shut box) and wha-la! I'm very pleased with the way it turned out! I'm going to do this with all of my storage shoe-boxes in all black and white fabric so they can cutely coordinate with the rest of the room all while being in reach for me to grab whenever I feel the need.

Now I just need to figure out a labeling system.......