Labeling Baskets with Bookplates

I am in the midst of making our linen closet and bathroom storage a little more organized and eye-pleasing.  I love when things are labeled, especially with pretty tags or bookplates.  I needed a couple of baskets for the cubbies in the linen closet and I wanted them to be labeled with bookplates.

Finding the right size basket that was strong and neutral-colored as well as had the right look was not easy.  I thought about going with plastic.  I even went to the Dollar Store to look, but they were just too flimsy.  I did not want to pay $20 for one basket though at another store.

Eventually I found these baskets at Jo Ann's.  They were the right size, were sturdy, neutral, and I could attach bookplates to them!  They were $14.99 each with 50% off.  AND I get my teacher discount which takes 15% off of my total.  So for under $6.50 each, I was a happy camper.

 I also bought a little package of bookplates and brads at JoAnn's for about $4.00 for each package.  There are about a dozen bookplates in the package, so I will have some left to do future labeling!

I had to figure out how to put the bookplates on the basket since the weave of the basket was very tight and you could not just slide the brad in.    To attach them, I first placed them where I wanted them to go and used a black sharpie to put a dot where each hole was on the bookplate.    Then I took a box cutter and used the very sharp point of it to make a slit in the basket where I had made the black dot.  I needed a slit rather than a hole because of the way the brads are shaped.

The brads went in perfectly and I attached the bookplates to the front of my new baskets!

I love how they turned out.  I have my labels typed and ready to put in the bookplates and will be putting the whole linen closet back together this week...and will of course post about the whole process then too!

Remember, my linen closet and the contents of our master bathroom cupboards before.....

MESS 911...Don't worry, help is on the way.  :)  Can't wait to show you how I have made these areas so much more organized!

Sharing this idea with:

Jam's Corner-Marvelous Mondays
Homemaker on a Dime
Nifty Thrifty Things
Brassy Apple

Currently {In Love With My New Floors}

If you didn't read my last post, you really must check it out so you can appreciate this one.  My hubby worked tirelessly for three days (and my step-daughter, Kaitlyn did lots too--bless her heart!)  putting our new floors down in our entire first floor.  They look beautiful and I am super-psyched about them!  The whole appearance now looks clean and consistent and I am loving the darker floor color!

(Apparently our dog, Cole, likes to be in pictures.  Every time I tried to move to get him out of the picture, he'd move too, thus getting his little self in there.  He is quite lost without his beloved carpet to lay on in the dining room.)

What do you think???  Aren't they pretty?  Here is a close-up of how they have that worn, rustic look to them:

We love that.  Of course, there is still tons to do...If you noticed, there are still no baseboards and transitional pieces need to be put in where the rooms meet...



   

The garage (although MUCH, MUCH better!)  still has junk in it.....

 There are blank walls and serious furniture misplacement.  We still have a lot of thinking to do on how   we want our rooms (great room and dining room) to function.  There is also a TON of stuff sitting around my house to be put away.

And if that wasn't enough, while hubby was working on the floors on parts that there wasn't any task I could do to help, I was upstairs in our master bathroom making another mess  organizing.

 I thought I could use more things to put away and do.  HA.  Please excuse my mess. 

Too much personal stuff?  Sorry.  I have some ideas for this collection...stay tuned for how I am going to organize our bathroom storage and linen closet into functional heaven.  I am so over how it is right now!

How about you?  Anyone have a huge home project going on right now that is making them excited but also making them want to organize other parts of their house?  This floor thing has thrown me into organizational/nesting mode.  Right before I go back to school.  Why didn't I do this in June again?

Weekend Chaos {New Floors Going In!}

We've been wanting to get rid of the carpet in our dining room.   The previous owners put it down and it was a beige color.  Not the best choice when having kids and a black furry friend that sheds like crazy.    I loathed that carpet and didn't hesitate to tell the hubby so.  Sorry, hubby.  It just drove me crazy how easily stained it would get and how the black dog hair showed.  On Thursday night, we started ripping up the carpet...and we kept going.  We took up the laminate that was in the kitchen/dining area, as well as the laminate in the great room.  The laminates in the kitchen and great room were not the same.  They were very close in color but not the same flooring because we could not match the original that was in the kitchen that the previous owners had installed.  So, we had nasty carpet in the dining room, laminate in the kitchen, and a different laminate in the great room.  There were also 3 different kinds of baseboard on the first floor.  Time for some consistency!

Here are some pics of what these rooms looked like before:

Dining Room Carpet

Great Room--Floors and Bookcases

Here is the current state of our garage.  Holy cow.  Never have a seen such a pile of junk.  We may be buying a BAGSTER to have this stuff hauled out of here.

Since Thursday night, we have:

-Ripped up carpet in the dining room
-Taken down the bookcases in the great room (remember my dilemma?  If you didn't get to read about that check out that post HERE)
-Taken up laminate flooring in the kitchen, dining area, and the great room (over 500 square foot total!)
-Taken off all baseboards on the first floor in these rooms
-Ripped up the original linoleum that was UNDER the laminate in the kitchen and dining area
-Painstakingly took up the backing of the linoleum that stuck to the floor (think like the paper backing  of wallpaper, trying the get that off---a real pain in the @#$^&^%$!)
-Primed and painted over the red wall in the great room that was behind the bookcases
-Put down the new floor in the dining room
-Started on the great room

Here is the demolition (and disaster!):

Now it is Saturday morning.  Here is the progress thus far:

New floor in the dining room.  It is called ULTRA made by Allure.  We bought it at Home Depot.  It is actually vinyl but looks incredibly like real wood.  It is more expensive than most laminates but we loved the look and the fact that it is 100% waterproof.  We had a dishwasher leak last year that ruined the laminate around it in our kitchen, so that was important to us.  I love this new color--you can't tell, but it has "ding" marks in it to make it look like worn, rustic wood.  It does claim to be the "Easiest Floor Ever!" on the box.  Hubby doesn't quite agree with that.  :)

Of course, baseboards still need added, but we're a ways away from that step!

Here is the new wall in the great room, no bookcases or red paint AND partial new floor down!

 We decided to take the bookcases down for a couple reasons.  The most important being that there was old carpet under them from before we put laminate in the great room.  Another reason is that we did not want the red paint anymore, and there was no way to easily paint behind the bookcases.  I am happy with our decision.  We have a lot more decisions to make now--we need to decide what to do with this huge, blank 18' wall.  We have some ideas and will be posting in the future about all of that progress!

I will be posting again this weekend to show continuous updates and progress!  Our backs, hands, and arms are so sore we want to cry.  Cross your fingers we finish before too many weeks  days go by.  Little me has to start to get in my classroom a lot this week to  get ready for school to start.  WAAAAAH!!!  Too many things going on.  Why did we wait until 2 weeks before school starts to do this?

Hope you'll pop back soon for frequent updates on the many projects and decorating that will be going on in my house!  Have a great Saturday!