DIY Necklace Hanger

We decided to block out our weekend and we've got nothing planned but house projects! I am so excited to share one big one in particular (photos coming!), but one small project I want to tackle is making a second one of these little necklace holders I did for my first Domino article project.

I'm running out of space and my necklaces are getting buried, which sort of defeats the purpose of the thing. The good news is it's really, really easy to make one of these hangers and only takes a few minutes, so I can turn a second one of these out in 20 minutes or so.

My inspiration came from this photo below I saw on a cool site that just shares images of closets belonging to really stylish women. I can't remember the name of the site though - do you know it?

In this woman's closet, she use a strip of wood and a series of nails tapped right in. This hanger would be like a five minute project!

I wanted my necklace strip to be painted the same color as my wardrobe units (which is Benjamin Moore's Knoxville Gray), and I wanted tiny brass hooks.

I had a scrap piece of wood laying around that was just the right size. I don't have a photo of this, but I bought some of those picture hangers that you just tap right into wood or a frame. They sort of look like jagged teeth? They're great and so easy to use. After installing those on the back, I painted a first coat on, then I marked out where the hooks would be on the front, spacing them about an inch apart and staggering the rows.

Then I drilled teeny tiny pilots holes with the smallest bit I have. This made screwing in the small hooks by hand about a million times easier!

I touched up the paint with a small brush and then hung the strip of hooks up on the wardrobe wall using the jagged teeth hangers.

The teeth hangers sort of make the strip tilt out a bit, but I kind of like the angle? Or at least it doesn't bother me enough to figure out another way to hang the strip!

What plans do you guys have for the weekend? Any big projects? Here's a sneak peek of what I've got going on... :)

Rug for Sale, the New Chairish App, and a HUGE Give Away

It's no secret that I have a seriously intense vintage furniture buying habit. It's the thrill of the hunt that really does it for me. So thank heavens I have a job that gives me a good excuse for all the buying! But sometimes enough is enough and even I hit my limit. Or rather, my storage space hits its limit. So my new rule is if one thing comes home, one thing must leave. And, basically, if I don't have a very specific place for something in the new house, it's on the "must leave" list.

The "must leave" list is ever growing as we continue to empty out the garage and try to get more settled into the house. I am considering doing a big sale sometime soon using Chairish, a site I love and have partnered with in the past. It's a lot like 1st Dibs, but much, much more affordable. It's like a really well-curated Craigslist (basically my dream site).

Chairish recently launched a brand new and really beautiful version of their app that makes selling items a breeze. You basically just take a few photos with your phone and add some descriptive info and press submit. The curators at Chairish will take care of the rest of the listing, including whiting out the background of the main photo.

I decided to list this vintage Persian rug as a test run, and I timed myself just for kicks. It took two minutes and 43 seconds to upload this listing from start to finish! I told you it was a breeze!!

Do you remember this rug from the brownstone? We had it in the garden level entry. I don't have the right space for it in the new house, so, instead of storing it somewhere where it could get damaged, I'd rather see it get sold and properly loved by someone else. Wouldn't you like to have this beauty, with its pops of mint, apricot and hot pink, in your own place? :) The listing is here.

And in even MORE exciting news, if you download the newest version of the Chairish app before February 28, you will be automatically entered to win all of the amazing pieces in the designer room below (worth thousands and thousands of dollars in total). You know I'm especially digging that green sofa!

So to enter the fab giveaway, download the app here (or here if you're reading this from your phone), and that's it! Browsing vintage finds and selling your old treasures has never been easier. I know I've got about five sofas that will be uploaded as soon as I can get them unburied enough to photograph! And I only wish that was an exaggeration. :)

Chairish is a valued sponsor of LGN. Thanks for supporting our partners!

My Cleaning Closet Overhaul!

While it is fun in some ways to live in a house where we can stretch out a little more and the kids and the dog can run around more freely, I'm learning a bigger house sort of just means there's more to clean! :) I use a cleaning schedule that really helps, but I was feeling like I needed a central command station.

So over the holidays, I joined forces with seven other bloggers also anxious to get their homes organized in 2014. I decided to have a little fun with the closet under the stairs, formerly known as the Harry Potter closet/closet of no return/most embarrassing place for guests to mistake as a coat closet.

Shield your eyes!!

Christmas decor. Amazon boxes. A wadded up air mattress? Random cleaning supplies. Lists. Receipts. Leftover flooring nails. Home Depot bags that may or may not actually have useful things inside. This is my life, people. Help!

The first step was a good clean-out. Then I headed right over to my fabric stash and pulled out what I had left of this pretty Quadrille fabric. I found it at a fabric warehouse a few years ago and had used it for a custom shower curtain (it's an acetate fabric).

The colors are so pretty! Orange and turquoise and olive with just a bit of plum.

I wanted a bright blue paint color for the walls and went with Sky Watch from The Home Decorators Collection line at Home Depot.

I also picked up just a few (!!!) extra things for the project while I was there.

I painted the walls in a flat enamel.

Then I added flat trim to the shelf fronts, to make them look thicker. I also added baseboards to the closet. It's amazing how much more finished the room looked after adding baseboards!

Then I painted the shelves the same color as the walls, but in a high gloss.

I left the back wall white though. No need to waste paint there.

Using the same technique I used to upholster a wall in our old loft here, I roughly cut the Quadrille fabric to size and then I stapled and stretched it, and stapled it again on the back wall.

After all the staples were in, I trimmed off the excess fabric.

I tried to be mindful of the pattern the whole time, so that everything would line up in the right way.

Then I covered the staples using cotton twill tape from Joanns and some copper upholstery nails.

To dress up the fronts of the now-thicker shelves, and to help keep things organized, I picked up a package of these metal label holders in the scrapbooking section of my local craft store. I spray painted them gold to get a brass look.

I used black carpet tacks to hang the label-holders on the shelves.

It's really easy to keep everything where it should be with the labels on the shelves.

There used to be some plastic hooks on the wall to the left here, but I took those down in favor of this mop-and-broom-clamp-holder-thing (that's the official name).

I keep our broom and dustpan here and my new Swiffer SteamBoost mop, which I love for our bathroom and kitchen floors especially. I seriously use it every day. We put in winter grass this year, and it's been nothing but mud all over my floors for months. I love Linus like a son, but man, that dog tracks mud in all day long. It's a good thing he's so cute and sweet. :)

I also bought one of these screw-in plastic-dipped hooks from Home Depot and I installed it right into my shelving to help keep my vacuum's hose up off the floor. Works like a charm!

It is so fun to have a pretty little space to keep all my cleaning and paper products now.

Now when people accidentally open this door to hang up their coats, I'm like, oh that? That's just my cleaning closet. NBD. #boombaby #organized4lyf

For more organizing and spring cleaning tips head on over to FinditatHomeDepot.com, where seven fab bloggers are sharing their great cleaning and organizing projects.

This post was brought to you by The Home Depot and P&G. Start Clean in '14!