Thursday, February 19, 2009

10 Minute Makeover

The Nester recently did a 4 week series called "10 Minutes to a Room You'll Love." She gave simple and practical advice for making a room prettier and more functional. Now that the series is over, she is having a linking party so that we can all share the 10 minute makeovers we did in our homes. Below are the changes I made in our house this week.

This is our dining area before. We live in a small apartment, and have virtually no office space. My husband is a seminary student, and living in a small apartment makes studying difficult and messy! Will doesn't have an office or spare corner of the apartment for studying and doing homework, so our kitchen table doubles as his study space. We are only a family of three, and we really don't need all of the table space for meals. We did want the dining area to look nice, but we didn't have a good place to keep books, notebooks, pens, Bibles, Hebrew cards, etc. They always stayed piled up on the table. And what is that in the corner???


Yep, it's a box of food. We ran out of food storage room in our kitchen. This box stayed in the corner. It was practical for us, but unsightly! The solution: I removed the box of food, and replaced it with a small bookshelf.


This bookshelf now holds all of Will's notebooks, pens, current textbooks, Bibles, and Hebrew cards. I even had room on the top for some of our favorite pictures and a fake candle (real candles are banned in our apartment complex).




That cleared off the table very nicely. But what did I do with the box of food? Look closely!




There it is! I just pushed it under the table. We don't use that side of the table, so it won't be in anyone's way, and it won't be in plain sight.




This is the after shot. It's not a perfect dining area, but it doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful, right?

Do you want to see what others have done? Go check out the Nester's linking party!

42 comments:

  1. Isn't it amazing what a difference small changes can make? Good job.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Awesome job. Don't you just love Nester's inspiration!

    Karol :0)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great job...what a difference that makes!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. HIding the box of food!!! We are birds of a feather! I believe that's what my friend Melissa calls "creative concealment" Can I just come there and kiss you for showing us that!

    Love that!

    ReplyDelete
  5. You've done a wonderful job of making that space work for your family and look great too!

    ReplyDelete
  6. simple changes are always great- I like how yours turned out-
    Thanks for sharing.
    p.s love your banner

    ReplyDelete
  7. What is perfect anyway?! I think it looks welcoming and that's what matters. My take on this whole project is to simply pay a bit more attention, something we can quickly do, to make ourselves, our families and our home more welcoming for us. Great job!

    ReplyDelete
  8. You did a great job! Love the fake candle!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Much better! Don't you just love bookshelves? Storage and display. Great job. I can't believe candles are banned!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Fabulous redo! We're about to move to a smaller space (after being in seminary!) Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  11. YEa for just pushing the box of food out of the way. Love that and so easy - so practical. The shelf looks reat. :)

    ReplyDelete
  12. Wow, that was a big difference in 10 minutes! I say we all need a link party about the things we hide or just plain shouldn't do. I have a million of them! Great job!
    ~Misti

    ReplyDelete
  13. Small changes really can make a difference. Great job.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Great solutions to small-space problems. I like the shelves you added in the corner! :-)

    ReplyDelete
  15. oh i love small changes that make such a big difference! looks great! bet it feels great to see the area "fixed"!
    -kristen

    ReplyDelete
  16. Oh, girl, this looks great!
    Isn't it wonderful that in just minutes time, we can have our spots look so much better...and wonderful that we have NESTER to pinch our butts and make us move faster!
    hugs, bj

    ReplyDelete
  17. What a fantastic job in just 10 minutes! :o) I really like your bookshelf.
    Sincerely ~ Tricia Anne

    ReplyDelete
  18. I really love the idea of the bookshelf! That is smart thinking and utilizes the small space you have, adding extra 'room' for your hubby's stuff. Great work!

    ReplyDelete
  19. Goodness you are popular! Holy cow! I don't think I've ever had 22 comments on a blog post! LOL. So, this post just makes me smile so much. I LOVE it. My problem would be that I would never put the books back on the shelf after I took them off to use them to study. I'm so bad at picking up!!! I'm just good a MAKING messes!
    I love what you did. It makes a big difference. Very clever!
    Love,
    em

    ReplyDelete
  20. What a great result for 10 minutes of time! I bet you feel so much better about the space now!

    ReplyDelete
  21. The table looks great and it was like a game looking for the box of food. That seems like something I would do for sure.

    Oh, I read your profile and keep my toes polished all the time for the same reason.

    -Kim

    ReplyDelete
  22. Awesome, it looks great! Funny what a few simple changes will do.
    Thanks for stopping by my blog.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Clever girl! I found out after many years the amazing wisdom that...shelves are good :)

    ReplyDelete
  24. It's such a small change but makes a huge difference!Nice!

    ReplyDelete
  25. Thanks for stopping by-I remember Bible college days in a tiny apartment-awesome job, I love how you worked with what you had!

    ReplyDelete
  26. Great job! That shelf unit was a good idea - and will be handy to keep things on!

    Jen

    ReplyDelete
  27. Great idea to hide the box-o-stuff! You should see all the crap I hide behind my furniture. That's why I put it at a slight angle from the wall. :)

    ReplyDelete
  28. I love the difference the little table makes, you are very organized!

    ReplyDelete
  29. Yipeee! Hide the Uglies!!! Way to go, shoving that box under the table.
    Excellent 10 minute work!

    Darlene

    ReplyDelete
  30. Rachel-
    Thanks for the lovely comments on my blog! I am going to try really hard to post, by tomorrow, a tutorial of sorts on my slip cover, including better photos of the finished product. I'll let you know when it's finished. I'm so glad you were inspired! It's really easier than it looks. :)

    ReplyDelete
  31. Great job! I'm glad I'm not the only one with piles to tame!

    ReplyDelete
  32. It's definitely the little things that make the biggest difference!

    ReplyDelete
  33. Rachel, Thanks for the inspiration. I just posted a slip cover tutorial...just for you! :)

    ReplyDelete
  34. I, too, love that you showed that the box was still there-just out of sight. It is so great when little changes make such a big impact!

    Thanks for stopping by!

    ReplyDelete
  35. I've been enjoying visiting the participants' projects. Perhaps next party I'll participate too.
    This party has also given me the opportunity to visit new blogs, like yours.

    ReplyDelete
  36. Great solutions!! Amazing what a little inspiration can do, huh?? :)

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...