Project 7: Lacquered storage boxes

I found this box at Ikea ($39 - above) and thought it would be the perfect storage for the hair related paraphernalia that overwhelms your bathroom when you have two daughters - clips, hairbands, headbands, school hairbands, ribbons, combs, brushes, nitcombs.....you get the picture. And after our previous success using Mod Podge on the trays, I thought it would probably work on these boxes too. And it did. Really well.

We bought a few beautiful sheets of wrapping paper and also had lots of odd bits of paper already in our craft ammunition. We simply traced the shape of each drawer onto the paper and cut it out. A coat of Mod Podge first, then we stuck the paper on carefully and smoothed out the bumps, and gave another coat of Mod Podge on top. It dries really quickly and you can build up the strength of the surface by applying several coats. You can also add an acrylic waterproof sealer if you plan on storing the object in a damp bathroom or other water exposed area.

Amanda made a four and six drawer one for each of her kids to store their treasures, and they are just beautiful.

I am just rapt at how easy this was, how effective, and how beautiful the finished product is. I have mine in my bathroom next to my new curtains and they look gorgeous together.

And despite this being my genius plan to tame the hair related carnage at home, I keep finding my one year old standing on a stool and pulling out each drawer to systematically empty their contents over the floor. Bah!!!

Kate

Solo craftiness: pretty curtains

For four years I have been looking with hatred at the brown mouldy shutters that were already in our bathroom when we bought the house. They clattered every time a breeze blew and looked awful, but the bathroom was so daggy that I guess I just got used to them, and never quite knew what to replace them with.

Then recently we stayed at beautiful Basils Brush (basilsbrush.com.au), a house in the Byron Bay hinterland and I was completely inspired by the gorgeous retro furnishings done by the owner, Kitty. She had made some cute cottagey curtains in some of the rooms and I thought they'd be the perfect way to cheaply and easily replace the terrible bathroom shutters.

I found this cute floral gingham fabric during a harrowing trip to Spotlight with all the kids, and it really only took me an hour or so that night to sew the curtains. I added some little pintucks along the top half just to add some interesting detail. I also left a good size edge along the top hem to create a ruffle when the curtains are drawn back.

I got some clothesline-type cord and little hooks at the hardware shop and it was a really easy job to hang them up. Now I'm in the mood to do a few more windows - how many vintagey cottage curtains is too many in one house? Mmmm....

Kate