Up-cycled Kitchen Island

Hey everyone, hope your weekend was off to a great start! I wanted to stop in and share (I mean BRAG) about my hubby! He truly is an amazing guy, always working hard and trying to do good for his family! If you are new to my blog (Welcome) you may not know much about us, or our home! My husband has lived in our home for 12+ years...he was young (in college) when he purchased it! I've lived here for about 6 1/2 years....and its been a work in progress! My husband has done almost all of the updates and renovations on the house, and he has done an AMAZING job...if you ask me! You can click through some of my older posts to see some of the updates we have done!

This last summer I ran across this kitchen Island on a local Facebook Sales group, as you can tell it was in pretty rough shape! I was able to pick it up for $30!!! That's a huge score...something similar can easily be priced at $200+! I wasn't willing to pay more then $50, so I was beyond happy paying $30! I told my husband what I envisioned the end result looking like! I told him I wanted the bottom to be white, and a dark stain on the butcher block (top) and I knew I wanted to find farmhouse style knobs and baskets!

I had wiped it down and really tried to scrub off these stains, but they were pretty set in. My husband ended up sanding down the entire thing.
















He than painted the bottom white, using extra paint we had lying around! He stained the top a dark, black color, and I absolutely love how it turned out! Once he finished the painting and staining the rest was really up to me to complete it!











I was able to find the baskets on walmart.com and the knobs at hobby lobby (for 50% off). If you have been looking for items like this here is a similar set of BASKETS and COW KNOBS on amazon! Isn't it beautiful?? It adds a ton of storage to our kitchen too! Since taking this photo we have updated our floors, I will have to do a kitchen reveal soon! If you enjoyed this post and liked what my husband did to this kitchen island, please leave him a comment letting him know! (I'm sure he'd enjoy knowing he did a great job from someone other than me) Thanks for stopping by today, come back soon to see what else we are up to :)
xoxo -Kaila

Purge and Organize Bathroom Closet

Hey everyone, hope you have all been doing great! I've been on a Purge and Organizing Kick! I knew I needed to get back into the Bathroom closet, even though you might think it looks pretty organized when you see my before photo! You're right, it was pretty organized and I probably could have got away with just tidying it up! But it had been a while since I went through everything and some areas just weren't staying tidy like I had hoped they would. In my before photo you can see I started with four of these Grey Storage Containers that I found on clearance at Target a few years back. They fit the shelf perfectly, and any time I find them on a good sale I try to snag them! I also had these 16 Qt Storage Bins that you see at the bottom of the closet. Now I'm sure you are wondering if this is a bathroom closet...why don't I have any towels in here! Am I right? Well, we have drawers under our washer and dryer, so we keep all our extra towels there! It keeps them out of the way, and clean...I usually wash the ones we are using, clean the bathrooms (while they are washing/drying) and when they finish in the Dryer I hang them back up! So we really don't use our extra towels unless we have guests, spills, or its summer and we are playing in the water!

I had recently stopped at our local Dollar Tree and was so happy when I found these Storage Bins that I can never seem to find! I picked up some in the teal color and also in the pink color (to use in my girls room). I got to work cleaning out each shelf, and giving it a good wipe down! We had a lot of random things...that we have had for 5-6 years and NEVER used! I threw out anything that was old, and started organizing like items together that I knew we would keep and use! The top shelf holds a grey bin with our nebulizer and supplies needed to use it. The teal bin holds our hair cutting supplies (I cut every ones hair myself) which makes it really easy when it comes time for haircuts. I just pull the bin out and everything is right there together, saves a ton of time having it all together! Next shelf has a teal bin that holds bandaids and first aid items! The grey bin next to it has extra bathing supplies and lotions for the kids! The middle shelf has a grey bin that holds towels for cleaning and drying our hands. The teal bin next to it holds extra toothbrushes, toothpaste and floss. The shelf (second from bottom) has a teal bin that holds of my bath and body works lotions, sprays and soaps. I have quite a few and have been working through them. Once they are all out I will switch over to natural products! The grey bin has extra toilet paper, and all the girls hair supplies. In this basket I took a cleaned out candle jar and used it to hold all the brushes and combs, its so much easier finding what we need when its upright, vs laying at the bottom of the bin! Now for the last shelf...its an odds and ends shelf....in the shoe container we have flash lights and batteries. We used to have a flash light here and there and when the power would go out we could never find one when we needed it. Having them all in one place makes it really easy for the entire family to find one when its needed. I also have a box of candles between the two bins, once we burn through them I will reuse the container somewhere else in the house. The last teal container holds all our nail polish and "spa" type items! We typically keep this locked, if I don't Harper (currently two years old) will be into everything! I am hoping this summer I will get the chance to paint the shelves and doors white and update the hardware! It will really freshen up this space and make those bins stand out!

I hope that this post has inspired you to do some purging, cleaning and organizing! This was a very inexpensive project and something you can do with little to no money! Use bins you already own, shop clearance and dollar spot areas, and if all else fails you can wrap a pretty paper around some regular boxes! Let me know in the comments what else you would like to see me organize and share! Thanks for stopping by, and can't wait to share more with you soon! xoxo -Kaila