“I am very close to closing on a new house that needs all new interior paint. Have you found any good sites for ideas on paint color. This house has all dark molding/trim and stairs and railings and I am stumped about what would compliment it. Help” – Keri

I can relate a bit to Keri’s dilemma since I am a lover of white trim, Colby is a lover of stained trim, and we’ve incorporated both in our house.  In fact, our entire second floor is trimmed out in dark walnut, stained pine.

At first I had a really hard time deciding what went with darker, wood trim (hello…sunshine yellow bathroom!).  But I’ve gotten the hang of it.  Generally speaking, I think lighter, more neutral shades are real show stoppers and complement-ers for dark stained trim.  It’s a great contrast and provides for light and airy rooms.  But one of my favorite rooms in our house, the craft room, is a stark contrast with stony blue walls with dark stained trim.

Generally speaking, if you find the right shade of a color, you can make it work with stained trim.  It’s all about testing out many color swatches and working with the undertones of your trim stain.  But as for the inspiration part of Keri’s question, I have found a few great resources to help us out with finding the right color palette for your home/rooms.

My Number One Go To Source For Painting Inspiration:  Pinterest

I could spend days on Pinterest…days.  So beware, Pinterest can get addicting!  It’s essentially an electronic version of all those magazine pages you’re always ripping out each month and saving for inspiration.  And because of the popularity of Pinterest, there are tons of great inspiration pics if you’re stuck in a painting rut and need a little inspiration to get you going.  So to help Keri kick her dilemma, I would start off by searching “dark trim” or “dark wood” on Pinterest and start pinning (collecting images to a virtual pin board) all the pics I loved with dark wood or pics of trim in similar shades to our trim.  Sometimes there’s just one color combo pic that stands out and becomes your inspiration, but other times you can notice trends in the pics on your pin boards that help you decide on the right color palette.  Here is one of my all time favorite pics sporting dark wood that I found on Pinterest (originally from Better Homes & Gardens):

I fell head over heals with this room when I first came across it on Pinterest.  I loved the color palette and how well the light shades worked so well with the dark stained doors (which is almost identical to the stain shade we used in our home).  Recognize the vanity color?  This was our painting inspiration pic for painting the vanity.  We loved the light gray with the dark wood stain, especially since we’re planning to replace the current white bathroom door with a stained one to match the rest of the second floor doors.  So if I wanted to take my inspiration pic a step further and actually play with color combos, I usually turn to my inspiration site numero dos…Chip It.

Color Combo Inspiration:  Sherwin Williams Chip It

The beauty of Chip-It is that it pulls the most dominant colors from any picture that you upload to it, and puts together a custom color palette.  And then you can play with colors, switching out hues here and there.  After you come up with a color palette you love, you can just take your custom paint chip to your local Sherwin Williams to pick up your paint, or simply have your local paint provider color match it to the Sherwin Williams colors.  This is the tool I used to help me pick out our vanity color, Gray Owl by Benjamin Moore.

I love Chip It mostly because it idiot proofs your color palette.  It takes a multi-level color combination that you already love and breaks it down into a simple combination.

Sometimes A Girl Needs To Dream:  Design Seeds

If I just want to dream about color combos, I’m all about Design Seeds.  It’s a blog that features fresh color combos based off inspirational pictures (kind of like Chip It).  But the neat thing about Design Seeds is that if you have a favorite color, you can click on it and see ALL of the color combos that include that shade.

The thing I love most about Design Seeds is that I start off by aimlessly cruising the site, ogling all the color combos.  But I always seem to gravitate and end up on the same ones.  For instance, I’ll be cruising through some of their new palettes and I just find one that I can’t stop thinking about.  Recently I came across a mint/yellow combo that had me swooning so hard that we re-painted our bathroom.  In that case, I just grabbed a bunch of minty paint chips from our local paint store, in an effort to recreate the Design Seeds combo, and found a few similar shades that went well with the dark stained trim.  It was a classic “if you love it you can make it work” situation.

So for Keri, I might look at some of the color combos with earthy, brown tones in a similar shade to our trim.  Like this autumn-esque combo:

And Finally…What Would A Painting Inspiration Roundup Be Without Houzz

I love me some Houzz.  It’s a database of millions upon millions of pictures from designers.  You can search, browse, narrow your search, save your favorites into an “idea book” and get general inspiration for your decorating dilemmas.  It’s a plethora of inspiration.

For Keri, she could go to the Houzz site, search dark trim, narrow it down by room (let’s start with the living room), and even by style (traditional perhaps).  And there are so many different ways to narrow down your inspiration pics including by region/city.  After searching for “dark trim” in “living rooms” and “traditional style”, one of my favorite pics was this guy:

I love the neutral wall tones combined with the bright white bead board on the ceiling, dark trim, and that pop of color in the orange couch.

So Keri (and fellow readers) I hope this helps with your color conundrums and determining where to start in helping figure out a color palette for your home.  And I’m sure there are TONS of other resources out there for helping you with making paint color decisions, these are just the four I turn to when I’m looking for a little help.

Pssst…Speaking of, what do you guys use to find color inspiration?  Any favorite websites?  Is Pinterest your go-to site also?  Feel free to use the comments section of the post to help share your inspiration sources.

I was sifting through photos on my mac this evening, trying to play blogger catch up after the craziness of opening an Etsy shop has subsided just a tad, when I realized I missed a complete step in our bathroom remodel, specifically with transforming the buffet into a vanity.  Egads!  Oh the insanity!  We missed the back splash!  How could we miss the back splash?!  We shared with you the part where we ripped it off:

But somehow missed the “how we put it back together again”.  So here’s that part.  Let’s start with a little backtracking and why we ripped off the back splash in the first place.  Two reasons…one…it was rickety and not well made, two…it wasn’t even centered!  Seriously…the un-centered-ness sent my obsessive compulsiveness into a tizzy!  The buffet back splash had a peak on it that peaked about four inches too far to the right.  I couldn’t handle it.  So off it came, we painted the vanity, and moved it into the bathroom before coming up with the new vanity design.

We probably should have designed, made, installed and painted the back splash prior to moving the vanity upstairs.  But I really wanted to see what it looked like in the space before committing to a style.  Once the vanity was moved into place, the design was perfectly clear.  It needed to be curvy.  There were too many harsh angles already going on in the bathroom and a curvy back splash, somewhat similar to the legs of the vanity would be perfect.  Speaking of vanity legs…we actually traced them onto cardboard to come up with a back splash design/template.

See the leg shape on the cardboard?

We just used the silhouette of the legs in a mirror fashion to make the back piece.  After cutting out the cardboard template, tracing it onto pine, and cutting it out with a jig saw (with a little sanding too to clean up the rough edges) we plopped the backsplash on top of the vanity to test it out.  Perfection!

A little painting it up to match the vanity (which is painted Gray Owl by Benjamin Moore) and it was ready for installation.

Installation was so simple, especially since the new backsplash piece was replacing an old one with the same width.  The painted pine piece fit seamlessly into the notched void that was left after removing the old backsplash.

We pulled the vanity away from the wall, enough to fit the Paslode finish nailer in the gap, and shot a couple of nails right through the backsplash and into the back of the vanity.  If you don’t have a nail gun, a simple hammer and nails works wonders too.  It just doesn’t make that magical nail gun noise.

We didn’t even bother to fill in the nail holes since no one would ever see the back of the vanity.  Some call it laziness…others (like us) call it genius efficiency.  Later we installed the sink and hitched up the plumbing, but that’s all old news to you.

Next up in the bathroom project, if we don’t get distracted back to the guest bedroom, are towel hooks, art, and shelves…oh my!  Stay tuned.

Pssst…Show of hands, anyone else lose folders of pictures to the depths of their computer only to discover it weeks/months/years later?  I need a weekend of organization! 

Recognize the logo?  It’s a spin off of the blog!

After just one week of sales, we were already selling strong with 22 sales, several of those sales for multiple items, and not a one to friends or family.  That’s just plain crazy!  Like Lindsay Lohan crazy!  Someone get me an ankle bracelet!  After reading so many articles about Etsy before opening the shop, we learned that it was common to go several weeks to months after opening a shop before you have your first sale.  Not us.  We buck normal at every chance we get.  I had an initial goal of selling four stands per month and growing it to four a week by mid summer.  Instead, I was selling up to 10 per day (I’ve been getting super friendly with our local USPS branch).  It helped that I launched just before mother’s day.

The craziest part of all of this, is that we only have one product…ONE!  And yet, we had ridiculous revenues with ONE product and in our FIRST week!  These iPad stands are selling like hot cakes and we can’t seem to keep them in stock.  Thankfully, today has been slow so I’ve been playing catch-up and stock piling inventory.

We made one little modification from our iPad stand tutorial.  Instead of using long screws that stick out the back of the wood flap, we found smaller screws and hardware.  Nothing puts a damper on a new business like a lawsuit after someone cut their hand on the sharp screws sticking out the back.  But we’re perfectly okay with the threat of damaging our own hands.  We live dangerously.

And instead of stapling the twine, we found tiny eye hooks that do the job just as well and look a little cuter.

And what makes my heart melt just as much, if not more, than all the sales is all the LOVE!  We’ve had 562 people check out our product, 107 have liked it, 3 have shared it on Facebook, 2 have added it to one of their treasury lists, and it’s ALL over Pinterest.  And I’ve even received a few lovely emails from some lovely shop owners gushing about the iPad stand.  This is why I love Etsy so much.  Like the blogging community, Etsy is friendly and supportive.

Going forward, I have grand intentions of sharing our Etsy adventure on the blog since it’s all integrated (our Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram feeds are linked to both the blog and the Etsy shop).  As we create new products and add them to the shop, we’ll be sure to announce them here first (designs are underway for a Kindle Fire stand and a cook book stand in a similar style to the iPad stand).  And I even want to put my MBA and my career as a marketing director to good use and do a few posts about operating an Etsy business (like how to position your product, market research, pricing strategies, SEO, and general marketing practices).

Pssst…I have to know, do you guys shop on Etsy?  Do you have any favorite shops?  My current Etsy obsession is all about Peg And Awl and Soap Revolt Naturals.

Anyway…the project all started with some scrap wood.  We ended up recycling our “Angie & Colby” sign from our wedding since there were three boards for the three shelves, they were the perfect width and the (almost) perfect length.  For recreation’s sake, you could also use scrap wood or pick up some new wood from your local lumber yard or big box store.  And to make this story even more bizarre, we originally found these boards underneath our front porch when we first moved in three years ago.  We’re wood hoarders…care to join our club?

After a quick unassembly of the shelves, Colby cut them down to 20″ long (they were already 4″ wide).  Since the backs of the boards were painted and we wanted stained wood, we attempted to strip the boards using an orbital sander and 80 grit paper…no luck.

So out came the big dog…a Festool planer.

This was one of those tools that we “inherited” back in the day when we bought our home.  A friend of ours was moving and didn’t want to take his tools.  Since we only had a drill, circular saw, and a pink hammer (guess which tool was mine) we gladly took on any free tools that came our way, including the Festool planer, which comes out of hiding occasionally for projects like this.  The thing essentially eats wood like a woodchuck.  When I envision a woodchuck “chucking” and speed gnawing on all that wood (we’re talking one of those cartoon woodchucks) the sound he makes is the same as the Festool planer eating the wood.

Just a couple swipes across each board on each side and five minutes later for a raw wood surface.

Our next step was drilling holes in the shelves for the rope to pass through for hanging.  Before drilling the real shelves, we whipped out a piece of scrap wood and drilled a few test holes with the drill and spade bits before deciding on the appropriate size hole for the 3/4″ sisal rope.  Ding ding ding…we have a winner…come on down…the price hole is right.

With the correct spade bit size decided upon, Colby lined up all three boards, stacking them on top of each, placed a couple pieces of scrap pine underneath the stack, and clamped them down to the work bench.

When using spade bits to drill holes through boards, having a piece of scrap wood underneath the area where you’re drilling is important.  Not only does it protect your work surface from being drilled into, it also creates a cleaner cut on the bottom of your board.  If you were to just hang your boards over the edge of the workbench (so you’re not drilling into your work surface) the board would likely splinter on the bottom side as the spade bit broke through.

One more tip before we can move on.  The reason for stacking all three boards was to make sure that all the holes in the boards were exactly in the same spot. We didn’t want errant holes to make for an uneven hanging shelf.

With all the cuts and drilling done, I took the boards outside on one of our first nice days of the year for a little staining and poly action.  I went with leftover Minwax Classic American stain combined with a Minwax water based poly combo.

Here’s where things start to get tricky…not really…I just made it WAY harder than it needed to be…and took about three too many trips to Lowes for supplies.  I started with four pulleys, a pile of 3/4″ sisal rope, and a pair of eye hooks.  Then later returned two of the pulleys and purchased o-rings and pulls (which I thought we needed to make the pulley functional but didn’t need in the end), and also S-hooks which we did use.

My initial plan was to make the shelves raise-able and lower-able but ultimately decided that I would never use it AND it was too tricky.  So we went with a simpler hang the eye hooks from the ceiling and link a pulley to it with an S-hook (another trip to Lowes) and call it good plan.

We were lucky that when we gutted out our bathroom, Colby installed strapping to help him hang the new sheetrock, and a piece of that strapping was directly above where we wanted the shelf to go.  As Wayne (from Wayne’s World) would say “Schwing”!

Then I learned the hard lesson that you can’t thread all the rope through the shelves and then tie all the knots underneath it.  Just doesn’t work that way.  And then I learned that I needed just two pieces of rope not four because it’s just ONE piece of rope that feeds through the pulley…doh!  I had a blonde moment…except I’m a brunette.  And then I figured it out.

One shelf at a time, starting at the top, 12″ apart (actually using the tape measure and not just eye balling it), and tie the knots as you go.

I repeated this process, adding shelves and tying knots until I reached the end and had a little bit of rope left to trim.

And we were left with a completed rope shelf just waiting for some monkey lovin’ swinging’.

Except that I put found bottles and flowers on it.  Sorry monkeys.

So there you have it, a quick and dirty tutorial on how we put together the rope/pulley shelf in our bathroom.  And I think now would be the appropriate time to whip out the good ol’ bathroom to-do list:

• Find a dresser/buffet to convert into a bathroom vanity (we found a buffet on Craigslist for $75)
• Hack up said dresser and paint it (vanity hacking post here and here during installation; the vanity is painted Gray Owl by Benjamin Moore which you can read about here)
• Demo out the old “temporary” vanity that had been in our bathroom for nearly three years and patch the sheetrock (vanity demo go boom…note…Colby challenge me to spoof the KFC “Game Day Bucket Go Boom commercial in every post…challenge accepted)
• Prime and paint the bathroom wall a cool, minty color (we painted the bathroom Mantis Green by Benjamin Moore)
• Add bead board above the built-in shelves and paint the bead board and the shelves glossy white (for shame that we haven’t yet painted the bathroom built-ins…it’s been three years!)
• Build a first aid cabinet for the space above the toilet paper holder (we didn’t build it though…we found it…for six bucks…here’s the post)
• Organize, organize, organize!
• Build shelves for the blank wall space beside the vanity 
• Build another shelf, maybe one out of driftwood, to hang over the back of the toilet
• Find or DIY some interesting towel hooks (picked these up during our recent Brewer School House Antiques shopping excursion, just need to paint and install them)
• Finish off the space by hanging a little art and accessorizing here and there (I’m sensing some Etsy art I’ve been drooling over in our future!)
• Patch the cracked ceiling (kind of broke it while working in the attic) and paint it
• Replace the light fixture with something fun and less boob-light-like

Do you like how we crossed off one thing (the rope shelves) and added two more things (fixing the ceiling & installing a new light fixture)?  Isn’t that the way it goes?

Pssst…Word to your momma!  Happy Mother’s Day to all the mom’s out there!  Goose was nice enough to bestow upon me a Mother’s Day gift of acting not quite as obnoxiously crazy as normal…and he licked my face…twice…such a good boy!

Most Likely To Get Busted By Their Husband For Taking Self-ies In A Pink Mirror:  Me, after hanging the new, pink mirror from Home Goods in our entryway.  I’m still mad in love with this mirror!

Best Conversion:  The buffet that we converted into a bathroom vanity.  This post could also get the award for best hackers as we hacked the snot out of that buffet.

The Biggest Hoot:  When we gave three “hoots” for Gray Owl by Benjamin Moore and used the shade to paint the bathroom vanity.  I’m still so very much in love with this color.  Watch out Colby…you have competition.

Best Blog Post Title Spoofed From Anchorman:  The “I Love Lamp” post about our new Target Threshold lamps.  Brick would be proud that I love lamp.

Most Overdue Project:  Demo-ing the “temporary” bathroom vanity.  Seriously…it was just plywood nailed to the wall and had been there for three years.  And we also primed the bathroom in preparation for the great bathroom painting project of 2013.

Okay…I Lied…My New Most Favorite-est Color:  Mantis green by Benjamin Moore.  We painted the bathroom mint and couldn’t be happier.  It’s bright, light, airy and makes our bathroom feel even larger.  AND it’s SOOOOOO much easier to accessorize the bathroom with bright, cheerful accessories with a slightly more neutral wall color.

Most In Denial Moment:  The announcement from Google that Google Reader is going away.  RIP Google Reader…RIP.  After going through the five stages of grief, I finally accepted this (not really) and have moved on (not really) to BlogLovin’.  Follow me by clicking the link in the sidebar!

Most Stalker-Ish:  Us after scoping out the updated view of our house via Google Maps.  AND (get this) they shot pics of our house during our yard sale!  What are the odds?!  Is it sad that I’m slightly ecstatic…scratch that…super ecstatic that we have a strange Google Maps shot?!

Most Likely To Be Committed Due To Their Obsession With Die Hard:  Yup…me again on that one.  I’ve been watching way to0 much Die Hard these days, I’m quite obsessed with John McClane, and naturally decided to do a little series about our gardening escapades called “Garden Hard” with the first installment all about starting seeds inside.

Most Overrated Necessity:  Running water…wait…never mind.  After a couple of weeks of brushing our teeth in the tub, which started to feel normal, we installed the bathroom vanity and hitched the water back up.  Oh the little joys in life!

Most Likely To Jump Into My Cart At Home Goods:  A trio of mermaid canisters.  How could I resist?!  And they make such a nice little, organized Goose cookie storage system.  Goose appreciates good cookie storage.

The Website I’m Most Impatiently Waiting To Launch:  The FleaQuest website to help me find all the great flea markets during our travels.  The site is taking flea market listings that anyone can submit, and putting together a flea market directory.

Best Use Of Leftover Crafting Materials:  Turning them into a little rope/twine wrapped toothbrush holder for the bathroom.  The twine was leftover from wedding projects along with the rope.

Best Way To Entertain The Goose:  Hiding a cookie under a frisbee.  We caught it on film.  Classic Goose.  And it doesn’t take much to entertain us apparently.

Best Way To Entertain The Angie:  Send her to the Brewer School House Antiques shop.  There, she will likely make purchases of old wooden boxes, hooks, and port holes…yes…I said port holes.

Easiest Way To Make A Medicine Cabinet:  Turn an old box into a medicine cabinet.  We found an old, beat up, wooden box at the antiques store, added a shelf, painted it, and hung it on the wall.  Voila.  Instant medicine cabinet.

Most Insta-Addicted:  Us and the Instagram monthly roundup for April, which included this gem of cuddly Goose and Colby.

Ahhhh…nothing like a little rehash of all the projects of yore to keep the motivation up!  Bring it, May!

Pssst…So what about you guys?  Have you been checking things off the good ol’ to-do list?  Or sitting back and reflecting on your accomplishments?

If you want a little more info about the challenge or my inspiration for the spring edition of the Pinterest Challenge, you can check out this post from last week.  It has oodles of info for you along with all the deets.  This time around, I went with a little rope shelf inspiration, and wanted to tackle something like these guys in our bathroom:

1. Industrial Pipe And Rope Shelf from Restoration Hardware (which costs a whopping $299…that’s almost a mortgage payment!!!)
2. Double Roped Shelf (which I couldn’t find the original source for…but found it via the Seaside Style blog…anybody know where it comes from?  Bueller?  Bueller?)
3. Single Roped Shelf from the A Walk Through blog, which they also DIYed for their bathroom

And here is what I made (for a whole lot less than $299):

And a zoomed in shot for the cheap seats in the back:

The total out of pocket cost for us with this project was a whopping $9 ($3 each for the pulleys and $3 for a package of s-hooks).  All the rest of the materials (wood, stain, poly, eye hooks, rope) we already had on hand leftover from other projects.  And can we just take a moment to talk about the pulleys.

I loved the idea of upgrading the shelf from a basic, run of the mill, rope shelf to a pulley rope shelf.  And I dreamed of one that actually works.  So you could have a rope anchored to the wall that you could use to adjust the shelves up and down via a pulley system.  But that turned out WAY too complicated for Colby and I to tackle.  Tears may have been involved…thankfully no blood…for once.  In the end we just decided to find middle ground between the pulley system shelves we envisioned and the basic rope shelf.  So our shelves are attached to a ceiling joist with eye hooks linked to pulleys.  They even magically help the shelf level out.

My second most favorite part of the shelves, with the pulleys pulling in top rank, is that we recycled a sign we DIYed for our wedding to make the shelves.

We tend to be wood hoarders…especially old wood hoarders.  You just never know when you’re going to need good wood…wait…that sounded dirty…statement retracted.  The length of the sign planks was perfect for shelf building.  So we un-assembled the sign and converted it.  I’ll give you a full tutorial for how we made our shelves tomorrow.  So for tonight, let’s just ogle our bathroom a little bit.  Here’s some of the progression from before to installed shelf:

When it came to styling the shelves, I started with a mish mash of bathroom-ie things, hated it, switched to a mish mash of random accessories, also hated it, and then turned to the things-look-good-as-a-collection mindset.  We had a collection of found bottles from our yard, another leftover accessory from our wedding reception, which were perfectly sized for the shelves.  The shelf looked pretty good with just the bottles on it, but I also happened to have a starting-to-die-off-bouquet-of-flowers from Colby.  Snippety snip…we have a winner.

I love how cottage-ie the bathroom feels these days with the addition of the rope shelf, found bottles and the flowers.  I’m sure I won’t keep flowers in the bottles all the time since that could get pricey.  But maybe in the summer I can cut green things from the yard to fill them up.  Here’s a shot of the shelf from the side to give you an idea of its depth.

And the full monty shot of the bathroom, looking into it from the hallway.

Totally loving the direction the bathroom is taking these days, especially with the recent additions of the first aid cabinet and now the rope shelf.  And don’t worry, for those of you who want to see how we made the rope shelf, I’ll be back tomorrow-ish for a full-blown tutorial.  It’s a little convoluted so I’m still sorting it out.

And now for the best part of the Pinterest Challenge…link up time.  Wednesday morning, each of our four gracious hosts will have a link party available to link up your Pinterest Challenge project.  So link up, cruise everyone’s epic projects, pin a few you like, and let the vicious cycle continue.  So let’s meet the hosts…come on down!

That’s Emily from Sparkle Meets Pop, Katie from Bower Power, Sherry from Young House Love, and Renee fromRed Bird Blue.  So go link up, pin your favorites, leave some loving if you so choose in the form of comments, and enjoy.

Pssst…What have you conquered that was Pin-spired?  Or did you play along this Pinterest Challenge?  Dish!

Psssssst…Want to check out all of our Pinterest Challenge inspiration/projects of yore?  Check them out here.

Don’t mind the Christmas presents…I’m perfectly aware what month it is.  We just hadn’t been over to Vermont to visit Colby’s family in a LONG time…aka…pre-Christmas.  So a couple weekends ago when we made the trek, we HAD to take Christmas presents over to the niece and nephew.  AND my type A personality would not let me deliver the presents unwrapped.  So I wrapped them…on a Friday night…just before midnight…when we were departing the following morning at 5 a.m.  Doh!

I love how the Instagram pics are starting to get a little more colorful and springy!  It’s so nice that things are starting to warm up around here!

Anywho…as per our usual Instagram tradition, Colby and I each picked our favorite Instagram pic of the month.  Mine was an easy choice:

They’re so adorable all snuggled up with each other on the couch watching the Red Sox!  It’s a rarity for Goose to snuggle with us so I love how he is just completely zonked out curled into Colby!  And on his tuffet…I mean…pillow.  He’s so spoiled!  And Colby’s pic:

Weird dog.

Pssst…You can check out all our Instagram roundups here.  Or just get the pics (and the #hashtags) in real time and follow us on Instagram!  We can be found @angiesroost.  Crazy handle…I know!

Psssssst…Okay, I can’t hold it in anymore…I CANNOT WAIT to share with you our Spring Pinterest Challenge project tomorrow night!  It’s epicly amazing…no joke!  That’s all you get for tonight.  Stay tuned for tomorrow’s big reveal!

Shortly after installing the first aid cabinet in our bathroom, which was also going to house Colby’s vitamin collection, I scrounged up all the cabinet items and set it up to get a good judge of how everything would fit.  I probably should have tested this out before altering the old wooden box with a shelf AND before painting it AND before attaching it to the wall.  Thankfully things fit…just not so well.

Many of the the vitamin bottles were bulky and didn’t quite fit within the cabinet.  Technically they fit, but they were just a little too pudgy to close the door.  Poor pudgy vitamin bottles.  They need a diet.  Thankfully there are vitamins for that!  Even our bottle of peroxide was a bit too hefty for the cabinet.  And then the vitamin bottles that did fit inside the cabinet, wasted alot of vertical space since they were midget bottles.

And what precisely are you stashing in that baggie, Colby?!  Hmmm?  Suspicious…non?!  We need to chat about this!  Haha!  Is this a “the snozberries taste like snozberries” situation?!

Needless to say the vitamin situation and first aid cabinet contents needed a little organization.  I was on a mission and thankfully not mission impossible since I already had a mess of glass bottles at my disposal to use to organize the vitamins.

I had originally purchased these bottles (from AC Moore on sale for $0.84 each) to use to display sand from some of the local Maine beaches I’ve visited along with beach sand from our Puerto Rican honeymoon.  But apparently vitamins trump sand and the bottles quickly became vitamin storage instead.  Have I said vitamin enough?  Should we turn this into a drinking game where every time I say vitamin, we drink?  Vitamin, vitamin, vitamin, vitamin, vitamin!  Why yes…I am THAT person!  No wonder I never got invited to drinking game parties!

Anyway…the project was as simple as (1) dump the vitamins into each bottle (post glass bottle cleaning of course), (2) label each bottle with the vitamin’s name/dosage using a strip of masking tape and a black pen, and (3) recycling all those hefty and half empty vitamin bottles.

And miracle upon miracles…everything fit!  I even picked up a new, smaller bottle of peroxide so all of our BandAids and ointments fit nicely inside the cabinet.

I absolutely adore the impact of a consistent set of glass bottles for vitamin storage.  The vitamins look SOOO much cuter all lined up in their matching bottles and labels than they did before in their random groupings of original bottles.  Added bonus…now that the vitamins are all in one space, clearly labeled, and easy to get to (they were jammed into baskets on the bathroom shelves before) Colby has admitted that he’s already taking the vitamins more often than before.  Apparently ease of access is key in vitamin taking.  And now everything is one place, in the easily accessible old box turned first aid cabinet.

So I’m officially checking off “first aid cabinet” from the bathroom to-do list, which I don’t think I’ve shared with you yet (hanging…head…in shame):

• Find a dresser/buffet to convert into a bathroom vanity (we found a buffet on Craigslist for $75)
• Hack up said dresser and paint it (vanity hacking post here and here during installation; the vanity is painted Gray Owl by Benjamin Moore which you can read about here)
• Demo out the old “temporary” vanity that had been in our bathroom for nearly three years and patch the sheetrock (vanity demo go boom…note…Colby challenge me to spoof the KFC “Game Day Bucket Go Boom commercial in every post…challenge accepted)
• Prime and paint the bathroom wall a cool, minty color (we painted the bathroom Mantis Green by Benjamin Moore)
• Add bead board above the built-in shelves and paint the bead board and the shelves glossy white (for shame that we haven’t yet painted the bathroom built-ins…it’s been three years!)
• Build a first aid cabinet for the space above the toilet paper holder (we didn’t build it though…we found it…for six bucks…here’s the post)
• Organize, organize, organize!
• Build shelves for the blank wall space beside the vanity (coming soon…I’m tackling this for the Spring Pinterest Challenge)
• Build another shelf, maybe one out of driftwood, to hang over the back of the toilet
• Find or DIY some interesting towel hooks (picked these up during our recent Brewer School House Antiques shopping excursion, just need to paint and install them)
• Finish off the space by hanging a little art and accessorizing here and there (I’m sensing some Etsy art I’ve been drooling over in our future!)

Progress is being made!  Woot woot!  And I am SOOOO thankful we’re no longer knocking down walls, plumbing, electrical-izing, sheet rocking and all that other heavy lifting type stuff and now it’s all about the details and decorating!  My favorite!

Pssst…Our Etsy shop is officially open and aptly named “Roostic“.  We only have one product up so far, the iPad stands that we built back here, but we’re hoping to add a few more products in the near future.  Baby steps, folks, baby steps!  Have a great weekend everyone!

So our little vitamin storage project has been put on temporary hold (I’ll be back tomorrow to recap it for you) for an announcement from the Pinterest Challenge front.  Basically…it’s back….let the project-ing begin.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Pinterest Challenge, here’s how it works.  You find something that you LOVE that you pinned on Pinterest, tackle the project putting your own spin on it, and then check in on Wednesday, May 8th for a little link party (where you can link up your project if you’re a blogger or just check out everyone’s project goodness that they linked up) on one of our four hosts blogs.  Speaking of hosts, let’s meet the lovely (and crafty) ladies:

That’s Emily from Sparkle Meets Pop, Katie from Bower Power, Sherry from Young House Love, and Renee from Red Bird Blue.  Katie Bower is the brain child behind this little challenge, who’s intention is to get us off our crafty butts, stop just pinning pretty things that we want to “someday” tackle, and actually DO them.  And it works.  Some of my favorite projects are Pinterest Challenge projects including Marilyn Monroe plank art, ombre staircase balusters, Warhol style lobster art, a hidden closet door china cabinet, and hula girl postcard ledges for the living room.

So what’s on tap this time around?  For once, I’ve actually already pinned down (har har har…see what I did there?!) my project idea/inspiration.  Look for the blue moon folks, that never happens!  I’m thinking a little rope shelf for the bathroom to hang beside the vanity.  Here’s my inspiration:

1. Industrial Pipe And Rope Shelf from Restoration Hardware (which costs a whopping $299…that’s almost a mortgage payment!!!)
2. Double Roped Shelf (which I couldn’t find the original source for…but found it via the Seaside Style blog…anybody know where it comes from?  Bueller?  Bueller?)
3. Single Roped Shelf from the A Walk Through blog, which they also DIYed for their bathroom

I’ve already started working on my project.  And by working on my project I mean I’ve spent a solid 45 minutes aimlessly wandering through the aisles of Lowes ogling the hardware options for the shelves.  I’m so confused with my project “game plan” now.  So many options!  I cannot confirm nor deny that I drooled over some shiny pulleys and anchor shackles.  Oh the things that get me excited!

Pssst…Okay folks, who’s participating?  And more importantly, what are you doing for a project?  Shout out to Keri…you better be tackling that chalk board frame!

Psssssst…You can follow me and Pinterest Shenanigans here.

Ever since we posted these little pics of the bathroom, after we first painted it a minty green, I knew that I wanted to fill that empty space above the toilet paper holder with a first aid cabinet.

So the other day, when I went down to the Brewer School House Antique Mall, I super scored on the purchase of a $6, old blue, wooden box.  This guy:

Just hours before I went down to the store, Colby and I were discussing building a first aid cabinet that afternoon.  Our conversation went a little something like this.  Colby: “I’m going over to Jeff’s to try some of his beer.”  Angie:  ”Cool, you want me to drop you off for your play date on my way to the antiques store?”  Colby:  ”Yeah.”  Angie:  ”Hey, do you think this afternoon we could build the first aid cabinet out of some scrap wood?”  Colby:  ”Sure, show me a picture.”  We have deep conversations.  And yes, my 30+ year old husband has “play dates”.  The only difference between childhood play dates and husband play dates is that the later typically involves home brew.

So when I returned home from the antiques store with this little treasure for a whopping six bucks and showed it to Colby, he immediately spitted out, “SWEET!  Is that my first aid cabinet?  You mean I don’t have to build it?!”.  Nope!  It already had all the character I was looking for in a first aid cabinet, including rusty hinges.

The only thing it was missing was a shelf inside the box turned cabinet.

But that was easily fixed with piece of scrap pine nailed into the interior.

Since blue + mint does not = Angie’s ideal bathroom color scheme, the box got a fresh coat of paint.  I went with Benjamin Moore’s Gray Owl, leftover from painting the bathroom vanity.  As for the painting process, I simply slapped on a coat of paint, carefully cutting in around the hinges.  I didn’t sand it…or prime it…and pretty much broke every rule in the painting handbook.  I only slathered on one coat since I wanted the box’s rustic charm of peeling wood and grain-ie-ness to come through the paint.

The box quickly dried since I painted it outside in the hot sun (not always a good thing if you want a smooth, perfect finish but not a big deal for our rustic cabinet…and I might as well break one more painting rule).  My next step in the box turned first aid cabinet was to first-aid-it-up with a red cross.  Since I didn’t want to screw up the box with red cross painting trial and error (sizing and spacing wise), I printed out a red cross I found via Google images and traced it onto the box first.

And then just filled in the lines with red paint leftover from painting our front door Front Door Red from Valspar.  It’s also the same paint we used to paint up our lobster art that hangs above the tv.

Then it was just a matter of installation, where Colby screwed the box directly into a pair of studs in the bathroom wall, whipping out the laser level to be certain it was level.

Note…when hanging a cabinet mind the gap the door swing.  It’s like the refrigerator door in the kitchen scenario, make sure the door opens up to the center of the room so you’re not always walking around the door to retrieve its contents.

The mint/red combo is one that I’ve always loved.  Ever since my Laguna Beach watching days when LC rocked a mint bikini top with red bikini bottoms. I can’t believe I’m admitting getting decorating ideas from Laguna Beach circa 2004.

Anyway…I’m really digging the old box turned first aid cabinet, especially all of the rustic-ness going on.  I love how the wood grain shows through and the hardware is all old and rusty.  It’s a great contrast to the smooth finish of the bathroom vanity and the glossy tiles and crisp white trim.

I took a first stab at “organizing” the cabinet, which basically included retrieving all our first aid “stuff” including Colby’s vitamin collection.  Prior to the cabinet, these items were all over the house…band aids were in my nightstand, vitamins were…well…everywhere, and the cut cleaning stuff was wedged in a basket along with Goose’s shampoo and a rubber duck.

Can we just acknowledge the fact that Colby has more vitamins than most girls have shoes?!  Not a single one of those vitamin bottles is mine.  What can I say…the man loves his vitamins.  And they’re not even the Flinstones kind!  Now that’s MY kind of vitamin.  Are you allowed to take those as an adult?!

I can’t say that the first pass at the cabinet organization project was a success.  But I’ve got ideas…lots of ideas…mind blowing ideas…and supplies from the craft store.  It’s a perfect organization storm going on in our bathroom.  Stay tuned for vitamin organization 101 coming at you tomorrow!

Pssst…What have you all been refurbing lately?  Any boxes turned cabinets?  Or other antique store finds repurposed?  Or do you also get decorating inspiration from bad reality tv?  C’mon you Real Housewives fans…fess up!