Friday 2 March 2012

Pretty Crafty Home - Kitchen drawer


PCH

Hello ladies.  I've just finished the second week-from-hell at work and I'm looking forward to some weekend crafting and home prettifying.  Oh yes, I have plans to paint the bathroom.  Probably.  Anyway, you may have forgotten (as it's been a while) but I joined up with Pretty Crafty Home at Cherry Heart and last weekend I did some PCHing.  Not much, just a smidgen, but every smidgen counts.

We bought this house almost 5 years ago.  Whilst huge and a great bargain, it had been a student house for 20 odd years and so basically everything had been spray painted white, repeatedly.  The kitchen and bathroom are both from the 1970's.  At the moment, we can't afford to remodel them, though it is on the list, so I'm going to have a go at smartening up what I've got.  I started small.  With the kitchen drawer.
 

This was our cutlery drawer.  We could never find what we wanted in there.  So I decided to do something about it.  I think I was avoiding doing something else I was supposed to be doing, but I can't remember what... painting the bathroom?


Yuck!  How gross is that?  I gave it a bloody good clean, peeled up that horrible drawer liner and sprayed the whole thing with bleach.  Whilst it was marinating, I went upstairs to make some storage for the drawer.



Look what I made!  Well actually, that's just the scraps... loads of 2.5 inch squares... they might be turned into something at some point.  No, what I made was these:


The photos are appalling, I just couldn't get a good colour to them.  I measured the drawer and then drafted up my own pattern.  Due to a slight cutting error, it went from 3 fabric baskets to 4. 


Each is slightly different, but all are made with co-ordinating fabrics.


Wow, look how messy my craft room is in the background!  I have taken some "before" photos of that too, but it'll be a long time before I've done much "after" to it!  I did tidy up though.


Anyway, enough about the fabric baskets, back to that drawer.  I mod podges some scrapbook paper (leftovers from my wedding stationery) in place, then covered it with clear self-adhesive vinyl.


Much better already!  I then loaded all the stuff back in, throwing some bits away at the same time.

Ta dah!  I have another drawer which houses the foil and the dreaded cling film and stuff which I'll have a go at soon, and then two large drawers with saucepans and the like in them, they're also in my sights!

I do also have plans to paint the kitchen, wait until I show you shots of how it looks now and you'll see my reluctance to get started!  I also bought some Michael Miller, Put a Lid on It today, I'm going to have a gorgeous cafe curtain!  I did a little browsing for suitable material for the bathroom curtain, but to no avail so I'm going to try and use what I've got.

In other news, I washed and dried the baby quilt last night, I was so scared!  It's come out intact and I'm madly in love with it!  Photos tomorrow, light permitting.

8 comments:

Sandra (Cherry Heart) said...

Wow! That's a real turnaround. I love the fabric baskets to keep the things together - that's brilliant! It may be a small space but it's a big transformation that's for sure!

Well done you!

S x

Cuckoo said...

What a bloomin' good idea! I have a crazy utensil drawer. I often post pics on facebook about it as it has a fan base of it's own!!

Clever you. Did you follow a tute from anywhere?

xxx

Bits of Stitching! said...

Very neat, tidy, pretty and a very practical way to use your fabric!

Allie said...

Oh you smart girl you - this is wonderful!!!

Nancy Lee said...

Thank you for showing us your drawers -- wait that looks wrong when you type it out like that --
That was an amazing transformation! Well done!

DebbieCPhillips said...

Guess I have to find a fabric basket pattern for my silverware drawer. The utensils keep jumping out of the spaces in the silverware holder. I just never thought of using baskets for them.

Sandra :) said...

Thanks for showing us your drawers! Oh wait - I see Nancy got here before me *giggle* :D We actually talked about that in the car this morning, HAHAHA - it was good for a laugh :D

Your drawer looks very organized and pretty now - I need to get some organizing done myself --- one of these days!

Pickle Lily said...

What a brilliant dea - much nicer than those plastic things! How do you make the fabric baskets?
Jo x