New Entry...Organized!!

Getting Organized & Pretty!

I'm a pretty organized person. I can usually find things when I'm looking for them. I like labels, but I don't own a label maker...yet. 

That being said, I should admit that despite being organized, we do have plenty of clutter. My purse & keys end up on the kitchen counter (along with lots of other stuff). Kevin has lots of hats, that really needed more space to hang on.

We had this mirror hanging on the wall in the entry from the garage. (Sorry forgot to take a before picture of it actually on the wall.)

It was not strong enough to hold my purse. It was really just another cluttered type area with hats & stuff.

There are plenty of ideas on Pinterest for entries, like this one found here.

This was an easy project even for non-handy people like us!

Here is what we did. First, I measured the wall to see how long our boards needed to be.

 (Always smart to measure first!)

Next, a trip to Lowes. We bought 2--8 foot boards that are really used for trim. A little decorative, but flat enough in spots so we could put hooks on it.  We also bought 10 robe hooks. There are lots of types of hooks. These were the least expensive at just under $1.50 each.

I measured again, marked the boards & cut the ends off with my jigsaw (yes, MY jigsaw).  Sanded it smooth with MY sander too :).

The stud finders we have don't really work. So to find the studs we tapped on the walls and nailed nails in the wall to find them. (Like I said we aren't handy...)  It really worked well, we just hammered where we knew the board would cover all our holes.

We used long sheet rock screws to screw through the boards into the studs.  Make sure you screw into the studs to really anchor the boards.  You want to be able to hang stuff on the hooks & not have everything fall!

NOTE: we did not countersink our screws. If I were to do this again, I would countersink.  We were able to get most of the screws far enough in to putty over & cover, but not all of them.  You can only tell if you look really close.

You can see in the picture above how I puttied over the screws to get a smooth surface to paint.  Putty, let dry, then sand smooth.

I bought this paint at Walmart for about $8. It stinks, so if you use enamel paint, make sure you ventilate your area well. I think I was a little high after the first coat...

It took 3 coats to cover the boards.

We put 5 hooks on each board. We started in the middle (it covered one of the screws we used to hang the boards too) then measured out evenly in both directions to add 2 hooks on each side of the middle one.

Doesn't it look great? If I do say so myself!  I did a pretty good job taping before painting, so there is very little touch up I need to do on the walls, thank goodness.

Here is the finished project!

Eventually, I may add some pictures or a vinyl saying on the wall above the top row of hooks.  But for now I'm happy with how great it looks and how useful it is!

Total project cost was about $40 with boards, hooks & paint.

Super easy!!