THAT drawer

Not to be confused with THAT boy ;)

Everyone has one.  THAT drawer that you are scared to open.  Scared to put your hand into for fear it might get cut or find something that REALLY doesn't belong.  Am I being a little dramatic?  Maybe.  But it was thanks to my "THAT drawer" that I decided to make a little purchase at Home Goods during my recent visit to St. Louis.

Here's the situation that necessitated an intervention:

A too small utensil holder on the counter which held about five utensils comfortably.

The utensil holder was an IKEA purchase (~$7) for my FIRST apartment, which if you read between the lines means this bad boy has been gracing my counters for about 8 years, so about 75 cents/year. He had put his time in and I believe I had gotten my money's worth out of him.

Enter my new shiny utensil holder from Home Goods!  I purchased it for $11.99 and once I was back in town, it found its new home on my counter.

You know you are getting old when you seriously get excited about making purchases like this one.

I also liked the scale of the new one much more than the old one, but thought it looked a little cramped with the knives on the counter too, so those got moved to another area of the kitchen.  #unclutteredhappiness

So now that the new holder was ready to be filled, I decided to tackle THAT drawer.  Embarrassed to put this online, but hey, I'm sharing this one like it is.

This drawer houses our can openers, measuring cups, baking items, and other "overflow" utensils. Yes that is a knife also just hanging out in the drawer - SCARY. 

On a positive note, this is probably the most prominent area for primary colors in our home.  I don't fall far from the tree when it comes to beiges and related neutrals. 

I emptied out the entire drawer, putting utensils in their new home and everything else across the counter.  I wiped out the drawer and washed anything that looked like it needed it.

I was a little shocked by some of the items in the drawer.  Do we really need FOUR of one utensil?  I agree that there are some things that are nice to have multiples of, but we really don't need four pastry brushes, scratch that, five.  So I downsized unnecessary items and started reorganizing.  Can/bottle/wine openers grouped on the left, random items in the middle and I filled in that last section with the remaining pastry brushes and wooden spoons.

Lovely organization.

I think my helpers were just as excited as I was!  Or not.  Because it was 9:30pm and they wanted to go to bed.  #happeningFridaynight

In the end, I had a small pile of about 10 things that we no longer needed from ONE drawer.  #stillwaitingforLuke'sapprovaltogetridof #Idon'tactuallydomuchcooking #nobodyisshockedbythat

I'm also happy to report that we no longer have stray knives hanging out in the drawer. Nobody was cut in the making of this post either.  Small celebration!

Time for the side-by-side comparisons!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

I LOVE the new utensil holder and how much more it can hold while still looking stylish. However, I don't LOVE where the knives found a new home, so it looks like they are leasing the space for now until they can find a new place.

Another thing I didn't LOVE?  The hardwater spots on my utensils.  My mom suggested a vinegar water soak to get rid of the white grossness.  I'm trying it now and will let you know how it goes!

Another "clutter" area tackled.  

Anybody else tackled THAT drawer lately? Or does anybody get just as giddy as I do with new purchases for the home?!  #TJMaxxandHomeGoodsAddictionAnonymous  

Linking up to New Years Organizing Revolution! 

Blonde to Brunette: Ikea Laminate Dresser Hack

Hey y'all!  I'm Heather: the older, much wiser sister that Lindsey often hints at as having an organization obsession.  I snuck into Lindsey's blog to bring you one of my latest DIY success stories.  Here's the low-down on how I took my decade old Ikea dresser (from the sale section no less!) and transformed it from eek to chic.  Enjoy!

I've had this little piece of furniture since my undergrad days and surprisingly (after moving it approximately 7 times) it's still in decent shape.  When I began tackling my spare bedroom, I contemplated donating/selling it, but decided to give it a makeover and keep it in the space.  The picture below gives you a better idea of the scale of the dresser.  Don't worry.  I keep my clubs in my storage space now :)  You'll also notice below that the dark charcoal paint sample didn't make the cut.  Yep- I've painted yet another room in my home "greige."  Grey + beige = the color of most of my house. #Iamafraidofcolor.

I considered painting the dresser white and changing out the hardware, but the more I looked at it, the more apparent it became that changing the drawer pulls would make it look awkward.  (The screw holes are way too far apart.)  Then I started thinking more critically about the color....  I'd been a blonde myself my entire life....up until about a year and a half ago when I took the plunge and asked my stylist to turn my hair from uber blonde to "darkest brown."  I felt instantly more sophisticated :)  I thought the same logic would naturally then apply to this dresser. #notanormaltrainofthought.

Linds and I got to work removing the handles, being mindful to place the screws together in a small bag so that I wouldn't lose them.  The metal legs I simply covered in frog tape to protect from any rogue roller strokes.

Next, we primed the dresser to make the paint more adherent to the laminate.  We applied two thin coats of Zinsser primer 24 hours apart.  I found that a small sponge roller worked best; just remember that oil-based paints are difficult to clean unless you enlist the help of mineral spirits.  

The primer does an AMAZING job.  But it smells.  Bad.  #openthewindows or #useafacemask.

Next came paint selection.  We used Rustoleum Painter's Touch Metallic. 

This is how she looked after two coats.  If ORB qualifies as a color, I'd call it my current favorite. Fancy, huh?

And here she is after a total of 3 coats....

Brunette = instant glamour.  Love the makeover.  What are you guys hacking from Ikea? Anybody else jumping on the brunette train?