Custom Toy Storage- Part 2

{Before I get to my kick... butt closet storage, something else is in need of mentioning. Have you heard that there will be a new spin-off of Boy Meets World, called Girl Meets World?! The original Cory and Topanga actors will revive their roles, and the "girl" from the title will be their own daughter, Riley Matthews. I first heard this on Facebook so I didn't believe it. But then I used my trusty best friend Google and discovered that the rumor is true! How incredibly awesome is this?! I am off my rockers excited. Please air soon tomorrow!}

I showed you part one of my 2 year old's toy storage last week- putting the shelf up. But today I will show you what I put on the shelf.

First, I bought some crates from Michael's (I think they were $5.99 each). I forgot to take a picture of them before I painted them, sorry, I'm new at this blogging thing and don't always remember to photograph every step. Anyways, I bought five small ones and one big one; I painted all six crates orange. I also picked up some little pre-cut/designed wood pieces (I'd say they are about 2" thick) with plans of painting them with chalkboard paint. Here they are before I painted them (shown are three for C's room and three I picked up for A's room, though I haven't actually done anything with A's yet).

I did a quick hand sanding to make sure that there were not any pieces of wood sticking out ready to give me a splinter. Then I just took my chalk board paint and sprayed them about a foot away, continuously moving my hand while spraying. I went over them twice while spraying horizontally, then once they dried I went over them twice while spraying vertically. 

 

At this point, all of my orange bins were dry and all of my chalkboard pieces were dry. I took all of the chalkboard pieces into C's room to get them ready.

Before writing on them for the first time you want to rub them with the side of the chalk, this prevents them from getting "stained" with the first thing that you write on them.

I wiped that off with a damp cloth and waited a few hours minutes for the dampness to dry. Then I went chalk crazy and started writing cool labels on each one! Annnd after my creativity subsided {or lack thereof} I glued those suckers on!

At this point I also glued on the black "C" I found at Michael's. It's not a chalkboard, though it looks like one. I've been thinking about painting that bad boy 'C' brown, to match the rest of his room, though it would no longer match the black/orange that's going on in his closet.

As you can see, I already had it loaded up with MegaBloks, clearly I have no patience! After everything was glued on and toys were loaded up into the correct crates, it was done-zo! Well, other than the fact that I am still waiting to come across two more of the little rectangles for the last two crates.

"sigh", I just love it.

Happy Monday!

Custom Toy Storage- Part 1

I had mentioned in one of my previous posts that I was thinking about extending this blog beyond just crochet, so I'm going to go ahead and try that out! Who knows if I'll change the blog name or not, I do have hundreds of business cards that have the "Cassidy's Crochet Creations" .blogspot.com jazz on there, so I'll probably leave it for now.

Our kids' toys have always been in the living room. Originally we had a big toy corner for them, complete with a toddler sized real wood/microsuede couch, bookshelves with bins of toys, an ottoman, etc. Then we got rid of the bookshelves and the ottoman and just kept the couch and added a toy cabinet, which I love. But the boy toy has always wanted the kids' toys to be in their rooms- not the living room. We recently (and by recently I mean Friday) made a deal that if I could buy wood to diy my own shelves, then the kids' toys would go in their rooms.

I knew that C's closet was the perfect place to put his toys, there was SO much unused space in there it was killing me!

If you know me, then you know that a trip to Lowe's is a pretty exciting trip for me. I decided to just buy some crates that I have been eyeing (from Michael's) and add a shelf for them to sit on. The actual shelving unit was incredibly easy to build. I just measured the width of the inside of the closet (50") and the length of the crates (12"). Then I drove flew to Lowe's to pick up my lumber. I bought two 1" x 2" x 4' pieces to act as the support for the shelf. I had one of the pieces cut into two 12" pieces, which left me with a bit of extra, I ended up tossing that. I also bought one 2" x 4" x 6' and had them cut it down to about 49.5", I wanted to make sure that I would be able to get it into the closet.

First I stuck C's laundry basket in there (knowing I wanted the shelf to be high enough for there to be room for the laundry basket underneath). Then I nailed one side of the un-cut 1" x 2" x 4', measured both sides of the closet, and nailed the other side in. I did the same with both of my 12" pieces to create a spot to lay the shelf down on. (Notice I'm saying nail, I think I need to add a drill to my Christmas list.)

Beautiful, right?!

If we weren't renting (which is why we have ugly brown baseboards with white splatter on them) then I would have painted the shelf white, but since we will probably only be here for a few more months, and I probably won't even bring the shelf with me, I decided to just leave it white. Not painting it means that I don't have to sand it. I HATE sanding. Want to know what is on my Christmas list this year?

Yup, an electric sander.

I'll be back tomorrow with photos of the crates I painted- ORANGE! -and a photo of the final product. I'll give you a hint, it involves chalkboard paint. Yup, I went there.

Happy Tuesday!