What a “delight” to be back on the blog today, as Amanda would say. It’s been too long. (I’m kidding.) When we moved into this house (and the last one come to think of it), Amanda pretty much gave me free will to decorate however I wanted. As long as it was contained to the garage and the basement storage areas. After weeding my way through this mess every time the garbage needed to go out or a bike tire needed to be pumped, I drew up some plans to put everything in its place.
I measured the long wall of the garage and then made a list of everything I thought we’d have to store for the long term. I counted things like baseball bags and tennis racquets and excluded things like the ridiculous inflatable dolphin pool that’s had a leak since the weekend after we got it five years ago. (I think I was supposed to patch that.) I decided to use the same Home Depot unfinished prefabricated cabinets that I used in the basement reno. They are affordable and could be painted in whatever color Amanda’s heart desired since that was where her creative license on this project began and ended. After figuring out how to align the necessary lockers to the space, I purchased the cabinets and built the base. From the base, I then built the side walls, as you can start to see in the picture below. Finally, I put a top on the walls and then mounted the cabinets to the wall in the space above. I bought a paint sprayer to do the cabinets but after I inadvertently painted the ceiling and walls with it I then had to hire a painter to re-do the entire garage – trim, ceilings, walls and doors.
Since I’m not a blogger, I didn’t take a whole lot of pictures. Here is the finished garage locker space – nice and neat.
Here you can see the space a little better. Obviously my wife got a hold of more than the paint color, as I’m sure you guessed from the Welcome sign and rug.
Amanda got this welcome sign in an antique store on her and her sister’s annual visit to Ron’s place in New Orleans. (She asked me twenty five times to make sure I noted that. Says y’all like to know where everything comes from. “Sources, Honey. Don’t forget the sources. People NEED that information.”)
The wall next to the guest locker has hooks for towels and swim suits and a dirty laundry basket. This is where our (meaning us boys) dirty wet rolled up socks that are usually deposited all over the garage are now supposed to land. The crab was an unfinished wood piece cut by Tamera at Scrappin Plus on etsy (Amanda insists it is important that I let you know it’s from the same lady who did our wood monograms here and here.) Amanda and her Mother painted it the same color as the door.
The laundry baskets are from Target. Amanda added a label out of chalk board paper. (How am I doing with the sources?)
We got a new door put on the garage with the other exterior work we’ve been doing, and we relocated our kitchen fridge to the garage in order to feed our bottomless pits. Bikes, scooters and helmets go in this space.
I recently fitted the two large closets with plastic shelving to store Amanda’s strangely LARGE collection of pillows, tubs and vessels (for parties she says), cleaning supplies, and things like paper towels, toilet paper and trash bags.
From left to right we have lockers for: golf, camping, fishing, balls, pool/beach and then one for Whit and one for John. The boy’s lockers hold their baseball bags, tennis rackets, bike helmets, shoes and other gear.
Amanda attached vintage locker numbers that she found at Paris Market in Savannah on all the baskets. I actually think they are pretty cool. The baskets were ordered from Amazon with the gift card we won last year from One Project Closer.
(Update 7/2015) Since Amanda tricked me into adding “garage shelving” to my 40×41 list, I figured I might as well tackle it while I was between jobs for a few days. We pawned the bounce house off on the cousins and I relocated the red wagon Amanda cannot bear to part with to the attic. The custom shelves now store our corn hole boards and cooler, the tailgate tent and large camping tent, beach chairs, yard games, more of those party tubs, some of the masses of Lilly stuff she bought at Target, toys and grilling gear.
There is just enough room on either side for my two grills, yard tools and the garbage can. I can’t believe Amanda hasn’t got her hands on that yet.
The last thing I did was replace the old “atrocious” (to quote Amanda) light fixtures with new drum lights from Ikea.
The paint colors are the same from the outside of the house. They are all by Benjamin Moore. Doors – Grenada Villa, below chair rail + cabinets – Revere Pewter, above chair rail – Pale Oak, trim – White Dove.
I’m thinking about hanging crown molding in John’s bedroom this week because Amanda and the boys are getting out of my hair down in Savannah. That’s probably smart since the last time I did it there were a few four letter words flying around.
Have a good day,
“Honey”
Flattered for the features at Centsational Girl, I Heart Organizing, J@Monkey, Elly Beth, Favorite Paint Colors, By Stephanie Lynn, Evolution of Style, From My Front Porch to Yours, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia and I Heart Nap Time!
