DIY: Washi Stripes, Crate Bookcase, and Jewelry Organizer


I find that I'm constantly updating and reworking the organization in my kids' rooms.  They grow so fast and their needs and stuff changes so quickly.

Maya has filled up her current bookcase with books, and we were looking for organization ideas for clutter.  I didn't want to spend a lot of cash on another bookcase, and so Pinterest to the rescue!



I got these crates from Joann.com and they were on sale and had free shipping.  I got all six for about $60.  I bought the ones that were pre-whitewashed and it saved me an extra coat of paint.


I used regular acrylic craft paint for the inside, but was happy with my choice to use Hi-Gloss house paint for the outside.  It really gave them a smooth slick surface that didn't feel chalky.  I let Maya choose what colors she wanted for the inside.  Little did we know that every Hobby Lobby in Houston is sold out of the color "dragon fruit."  So the project lasted about 2 weeks longer than anticipated as I searched and searched for more paint and had to resort to ordering it off of Amazon.  All of the other colors used only 1 bottle each, but the pink took about 3 or 4 coats for good coverage.

She helped me paint the insides.  I would not use a wall paint brush again.  It was too coarse and left lines.  I liked the smaller craft paint brush (above) much better.



Love the way they turned out!  So easy and cheap!



My next step was to organizer her jewelry.  I found these great segmented apothecary jars at Home Goods and love that they are compartmentalized for sorting.



The last part of the project was something that has been on my to-do list for over a year.  In a magazine I saw a picture of a wall that had washi tape stripes on it and fell in love!  I really wanted to try it in her room.  I scoured the internet for washi-tape that was wide (more than 2") and had a really hard time finding some.  China to the rescue!  How is it that that place has everything?!  I had to order it from China, but the site was reliable and quick.  Here is the link if you're interested.  Wide washi is becoming more and more popular so it is much easier to find than it was a year ago.

Anyway, I've had the tape for awhile and it's been sitting there.  I debated because:

1.  My walls are off white.  I didn't really want to paint her whole room, that is why I was putting up washi tape!

2.  My walls are all super textured (as you can see in the photo above).  I wasn't sure if it would stick well and if it would look dumb.

But after I got that cute bookcase in there, it was dying for some washi.  Just so happens that the colors matched well!



Putting it up was pretty difficult.  The texture on the wall didn't really give me a problem, so that was good.  It was the 45°angle that I wanted that gave me trouble.  It's a good thing that my engineer husband rocks at math!  A little trigonometry (done in his head of course!) and about 3 hours later I had a great wall of washi stripes!



Coming soon...

1.  A rework of Ethen's room to find solutions for the ever-growing Lego collection

and

2.  The playroom!  Some fun vinyl ideas.

No comments