Porch light redo!

So you probably have, or have had at some point, a porch light that looks like this...

But that doesn't mean you have to ditch it and spend $30-$50 for one you like!

First of all, this just has a lot of age on it, but I'm also not a fan of gold fixtures. The piece has really good bones, though. A while back, I had picked up a small can of Rustoleum outdoor paint for $5 at my local Ace Hardware (on sale, but still worth it at full price!). I thought these three fixtures (all on the back side of my house) could do with a cleaning and a new coat of the black paint.

It took some time, and patience. This style of light, you have to unscrew the balls from the top and bottoms, and that basically dismantles the frame and allows you to remove the glass. After that, it's just a matter of cleaning the piece, and then patiently putting this thick paint on it, but the result is well worth it!

The other thing I wanted to do was to frost the glass. I did this on both sides to try and make sure it wouldn't wash off in the rain. (this can also be bought as a spray paint at Ace or any hardware store for about $5-$7)

I don't know about you, but I think it looks way more sophisticated! ;)

Way more romantic!

Go vertical with boot storage

Yep, you guess it! It's another "hooks" idea!


In my 50's ranch house, the closets are, of course, small. Walk-in closets--my dreams! :)

So in mine and my husband's closet, I decided to take advantage of a wall where nothing would have been, and hang my boots.

The inexpensive white hooks came from Dollar General (also in some of my other posts, like the ring hook). The clips were a fun purchase from the Container Store. They are metal and some kind of combination of neat old metal clips and sleek/modern. They were only 50 cents a piece!

Reading material from the wall

More from my very yellow bathroom! I utilized the little space under the window, and we installed one of those inexpensive Bygel rails from Ikea (like $1.99). Then you get the Grundtal hooks that go with it or the other rails (something like $1.99 for 5 hooks). From that, you use binder clips to hang from the hooks, and to hold your magazines and books in place.

The hooked shelf came from Target, and I found it on the clearance rack. I like to put the crazy comic books here.

I will also probably use this system in a little office nook that I haven't quite set up yet.

Towel hooks, galore!

You're probably gonna' get tired of seeing me post about hooks and how awesome they are! But they really are awesome, and incredibly useful, too. Especially when your house is on the smaller side, with a serious lack in storage, and tight corners/etc.

So the above is me taking advatange of the short wall in the small, original-to-the-house bathroom. This cool little wooden rack came from Ikea. (Molger $1.99). I don't need to have a lot of towels in this bathroom, and the linen closet is not deep enough to stack towels, anyway. So I fold the towels length-wise and drape them over the hooks above.

These two little hooks I refer to as my "drying hooks"–where I hang the towels so they can dry :). These cute little things came from Hobby Lobby from the clearance aisle. You never know what you will find from the clearance aisle at Hobby Lobby–always check there first! I think I paid less than $4 total for both of these.

So you're probably gonna' hear me say it again a few more times: but the wall is your friend! Why? Cuz' you can put up hooks, and hang all kinds of useful things on them. :)

Mirror makeover

An unwanted mirror + mirror trim corner pieces + some glue + a monogram decal

I'm always changing something in my house. I knew almost right away that I wanted to change both the mirrors in the bathrooms, but it took me a while to get around to it and find what I wanted. Well, I finally did, and was left with one of those plain-Jane mirrors that's held up with the clips and has no cool framing or anything special about it–aside from a slight bevel edge.

So, I found some cool trim pieces that are supposed to go on mirrors, but only the corners, and they were kind of this  ugly brown. So, I went ahead and painted them white, and secured them to the corners with glue. Later, I discovered a really cool site–through Groupon–that makes decals that you can put on your walls and just about everywhere in between! The site is: https://dalidecals.com/

They are totally cool! And they have decals for just about anything you'd want, and the colors to customize are endless! The one you see here is a light grey in matte finish.

This super cool mirror hangs in my living room and helps to bring a little more light in