Kitchen Spices

Anyone else hate the plastic containers that the spices come in? Sure, you can buy yourself a nice spice rack that comes with the cute glass jars, but what about that special steak seasoning you bought that doesn't have a home on that rack? That ends up sitting in its original container and it just ain't pretty!

A few years ago I went to a bridal shower. The hostess was an interior designer and had a beautiful home. I especially loved the hutch she had in her kitchen. All of her spices and baking supplies were in glass jars and displayed. It's amazing how much you can appreciate your spices when you can actually see how colorful and different each one is! I knew that one day I wanted to recreate that storage system as best I could and I finally took on that project a few months ago.

I work on a budget, so my jars were not high end like her jars were. I purchased the small spice jars from Tuesday Morning for .99 cents each. I had to go to 3 or 4 stores to collect how many I needed, as well as a few extra for any new spices I add later. I bought the larger jars from Ikea for about 5 or 6 dollars apiece. It was more than I normally spend overall on a project, but well worth it.

                                    


                         


I bought labels from Office Depot and hand wrote the name of each spice. I liked the DIY look of the labels over printing them out.

I also bought a few small ceramic spoons from Crate and Barrel. They work perfectly to scoop out the spices. I do want to buy one or two metal scoops from there too for the flour, sugar, and other baking ingredients.

My husband and I just love how it turned out and we find ourselves using spices we had overlooked before. We have also received so many compliments from guests.

                          

What is your current storage system for your cooking and baking needs? If you have anything creative I would love to see!

Filing Cabinet Makeover

I love, love, love the cute filing cabinet makeovers found all over the Pinterest craft boards! This is the one I especially fell for...


http://www.littlehouseinthebigd.com/2012/03/spring-time-storage.html

Super cute, super easy, and inexpensive too. What's not to love?

I scoured Craigslist for about a week until I found a metal filing cabinet close enough to my house to make the trip for. I paid $15 dollars for it. I went to Hobby Lobby to find the spray paint, which was on sale for 40% off. Score! I bought 1 can of primer and 2 cans in the color I wanted. I already had fabric to use from there that was originally destined for another project that I decided not to do.  The original Pinterest inspiration used scrapbook paper, so if you choose to do this project just know that either is fine to use. I have a Cricut cover in the same pattern and had decorated a waste basket for my office using it as well. I really need to use a coordinating pattern for some curtains I think but that's a whole other project though!

So my materials for this project are...
1 can primer
2 cans spray paint
1 jar of Modge Podge
Fabric
Metal filing cabinet that is in need of a makeover



I wiped down the filing cabinet with my homemade lemon vinegar cleaner first. If the filing cabinet had been scratched at all, it would have required a good sanding first. Luckily, it was in good condition and I could skip that step. I removed the drawers and pulled the rest of the cabinet outside to prime. Since I was covering the drawers with fabric, there wasn't a need to paint them. It was 92 degrees outside today and the paint was drying almost instantly. The spray paint clearly states that the best conditions to paint is between 50-90 degrees. I like to live on the wild side though and decided to ignore the paint can warnings.

It took two coats of the primer to really cover the black enough to move on to the colored spray paint. Here is the cabinet after one coat of the primer. It had better paint coverage after the second coat, but I forgot to snap a picture after the second coat so you will have to use your imagination here for how it looked after that last coat.

The color spray paint I used was called Bauhaus Gold by Krylon. My office is colorful and this should work nicely with everything in there. Here is the cabinet after it's first coat. Fun and sunny right?

It took 4 coats to finish, which was exactly what my two cans of paint had in them.

Next step in the filing cabinet makeover was to Modge Podge my fabric to the drawers. The Hubby removed the hardware from the drawer fronts. I did two coats over top of the fabric, allowing a few hours between each coat so I was sure it was dry.



 We reattached the hardware and my filing cabinet was looking better than it ever had before!  I will admit, I had been worried that the drawers would stick because of the Modge Podge, but they work just as well as before.

Ahhh! It is so cute right?