Dresser and Pantry Makeover + printable pantry labels

I have a tiny, tiny kitchen.

My dad put in these great new shelves so I'd have a bit more room. I decided that it was finally time to add handles and some decoration to the very plain dresser that holds linens and tupperware. For two years we've just been using it like this, with twine for handles! Shows how lazy I am.

But now, see how beautiful it is!!

I didn't take photos of the process (bad blogger, Ricki, tsk tsk) but I'll tell you how it's done! I found a graphic of a rose online (searching for "rose tattoo" worked best to find the shape I wanted) and had my engineer dad print it out at his work really big (30 inches squared or so). Then I taped a couple big sheets of cheap contact paper over the print-out. Using a light table and a craft exacto knife, I sliced out the design while re-watching X-men. (Good movie series.) Then I taped the newly cut-out stencil on the dresser and verrrry carefully pulled the clear adhesive part from the paper backing, doing small sections at a time.

Once I got it on there, it was very wrinkled and imperfect, so I used tape to fix spots. I would NOT recommend this method with a symmetrical design where you would notice imperfections. But with an organic shape like a rose, no one's going to know that the final design is different than what I started with.

Next I used some too-cheap paint from Dollarama and a paint-roller. The paint was really gross and clumpy and took several coats. I've bought paint from Dollarama before and didn't have this problem, so I don't know what went wrong this time! Once dry, the paint on the dresser felt rough to the touch, so I brushed on a couple coats of clear polyurethane to protect it.

That's that!

For once, my pantry looks respectable! (Let's pretend that counter-top is empty all the time!) Yup, looks all nice and organized... especially with my new chalkboard labels.

Now, previous to this, I had created some labels in photoshop and printed them out by hand. I liked them, but I kept changing the contents of the pantry!! That's why I needed chalkboard labels.

Here are my old ones, in the event someone wants to print 'em! Click for printable PDF.



So I bought some chalkboard paper off ebay for $7 for a big roll. But how was I going to cut out labels? I thought about buying a punch, but then I could only cut out one size. Then I had my revelation: duh! My mom bought a Slice shape-cutting machine off Kijiji awhile back. The Slice cut out my labels perfectly.

I cut out some extra labels in case I find more things to label later.

I also hung up and labeled my dry measuring cups. SO much more convenient and easy to get to now!

Whew! that pantry NEEDED a makeover, and now that it's done I'm so relieved!!

Tune in next time to see what I've done with these!

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DIY fabric-covered basket tutorial

Hi there, I'm Ricki, and this is my first blog post :) It's a tutorial! Woo hoo!

 I gave a bunch of these fabric-covered baskets for Christmas. I thought they looked pretty cute, and they were cheap for me to make! My cost of materials:

• Basket from Dollarama: $2
• nameplate label holder things from Walmart: $1 apiece (came in packs of 4)
• Ribbon from Michaels: about $0.50 per basket
• Spray adhesive: about $0.50 per basket
• Spray varnish, Aleene's glue, dropcloth fabric, stamps, ink, old dictionary: on hand

All in all, about $4 total cost to me per basket, and 2 hours each to make.

Using your box as a guide, cut your fabric out, then iron it. It's a lot like wrapping a present, so if you're good at that, this is easy. Double-check to make sure it will fit correctly.

Now on a WELL-COVERED surface or within a large cardboard box you don't care about, flip the box over and spray its bottom and sides with a good coating of spray adhesive. (No matter how much newspaper I put down, somehow I always get spray glue on the floor, which is gross. Learn from my mistakes!!) Now set the box on the center of the fabric, like so. In the rest of the photos, keep in mind that the outer side of the box is very sticky with spray adhesive.

Flip the box and fabric over, and on the bottom of the box, press the fabric very snugly into the adhesive. Then flip again to be right-side up.

Cut pieces from the corners like so. Watch carefully how the edges and corners are done in the following photos.

Now we break out the Aleene's Tacky Glue for this part, because we're sticking fabric to fabric here (the spray glue is only on the box).

Now look at that beautiful seam!

Trim your corners like so:

Now use Aleene's Tacky Glue to stick the fabric down to the inside of the box:

Now you have nice finished corners:

Next, cut the handle like this:

Use Aleene's Tacky Glue to stick the fabric down to the inside of the box:

The fabric outside is complete! Now I used old dictionary paper to line it, like so:

You have to take special care to make a piece to fit around the handle:

Perfect:

I'm of the opinion that spray adhesive is the best choice for gluing paper, almost every time. Lots of people would use Mod Podge for this step, but I almost NEVER use Mod Podge because it always wrinkles paper. Spray adhesive won't give you wrinkles, but it's unforgiving: you have to lay the paper just right on the first try. Here I am about to spray all the book page bits:

Here's how I've laid them out:

Now I rip off the excess paper and the inside is complete!

Now to seal the inside to try to stop the papers from lifting at all from the spray adhesive.

Even after the spray varnish, you can see this section is lifting. It had to be glued down with Aleene's.

As you can see, I tried to include as many illustrations as possible. Also in this photo, you can see that I experimented with whether the fabric should come over the paper on the inside or not. I decided it's better with the paper coming all the way to the top on the inside, so that's what this tutorial shows.

Then I decorated with ribbon, label holders, and stamps! The bottom box isn't stamps but images I printed from The Graphics Fairy and used a heat tool to transfer to the box. It didn't work super well so I had to go over them with a ballpoint pen.

There you have it! A cheap but beautiful fabric-covered box, made with love!

I've been working on making over the pantry area of my kitchen... click the image to see restyle of these shelves and a makeover of this dresser, as well as a new labeling system and printable labels!

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World's Ugliest Trunk Transformation!

I absolutely love how the chest turned out. The Asian-inspired interior liner was perfect for the look I was going for! I'm really happy I was able to get rid of the old paint job and do this beautiful old chest justice.

 

I fell in love with this super easy design found at PrettyQuirkyPants. I'm going to do a lot of things differently. I really don't like the fabric she used, and I hope to do a different type of fastener, either buttons or a belt. Definitely gonna do like an Asian steampunk thing. 'Cause the day I have too much steampunk is the day you pry the gears from my cold dead fingers!

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Dresser Re-Do!

First post on the new blog, I thought I'd start off with my chest of drawers. I got it from my grandmother and removed the drawers and replaced them with shelves. I lined the back with a large print wallpaper. Never one to be wasteful, I turned the drawers into a bookshelf. I lined the back of the drawers with book pages.

Okay, so I bought this chest off a woman who posted an ad on Kijiji. It broke my heart to see such a beautiful chest treated so poorly. This is possibly the worst paint job I have ever seen. The woman told me her grandmother had painted it; I wanted to ask if her grandmother was blind.

So now I set to work restoring this poor chest to its former glory. I'm working on getting it to look like an old leather chest, slightly steampunk and antique, then it shall serve as my coffee table. I'll keep you updated!

Update: Completed trunk!

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