Breezeway Stage 2 - Some Storage

When we last saw our breezeway remodel project, it was looking like this. 

Pretty but kinda sparse on the practical stuff like hooks and storage as well as some finishing work like trim. But Craig worked very hard last weekend despite the heat and we made a lot of progress. 

This room is really hard to photograph because in order to get enough in the shot, I have to stand outside one of the doors so excuse the lighting issues. But I'm attempting to show that we:

• Added door trim and caulked it
• Switched out the black and transparent gold light switch and outlet for white ones. 
• Replaced pineapple light fixture with a simple one from Ikea (can't find it on the website but I think it was about $10 so nothing fancy but less fruity)

Then we tackled storage. I wanted a place to hang coats as well as some bins. For the coat hooks, we painted 1x4s white and added coat hooks. The spot by the door only got a high rack for grown up coats since we'll be putting a bench under it while the left side got a lower level as well for the kids to hang their coats.  I'm sure in a couple months these will be loaded down with jackets and baby wearing devices but for now its just a couple rain coats, our pool bag and our nature tote.

For the bins, I knew what I wanted but it took a bit of finagling to work it out. We started with this 6 pack of galvanized bins which was just what I wanted and at a pretty good price. They are fairly deep so as we were thinking of what wood to try and piece together to make a deep enough shelf, I remembered the melamine shelving I used in our game closet. And yes, it comes in 15" deep! Of course, being that deep ruled out a lot of the fun brackets I had thought about using but I bought the cheap basic white ones and had Craig spray paint them hammered black to match the coat hooks (which technically were oil rubbed bronze but look pretty much black). I originally wanted to paint them the same teal/aqua that the door will be but since we don't know what color that is yet and I didn't want to wait, black it is. And I like the results. I'm not sure if you can tell but I still have to go back and touch up the screw tops to be black but I'll get to it eventually.

The spacing of the brackets is a bit odd because we had to work with the studs. It bothers me in the picture, but thankfully I don't even notice it in the actual room. And the storage! Two bins hold winter gear like mittens and hats, one had rain gear and another has our pool towels but I've still got two empty so when summer is over I can put up our pool gear and sandbox toys. I love the idea of not having quite as many seasonal switch-over tasks on my plate. I always seem to be about a month behind in those.

Up next on the to-do (which is quickly become more of to-buy list):

• shoe bench (under the right side coat hooks) 
• shoe cabinet across from that on the other wall. I've picked out the ones I want but have to wait for Ikea to open here next month. Not that my rubbermaid tote of shoes is not stylish, but it isn't very efficient when the kids empty the whole thing in search of one shoe.
• recycling containers. None of the ones I see are big enough. We have a lot of recycling, especially paper. I guess we could take it out more often since the paper recycling bin is in our church parking lot but its enough to get us all dressed and to church without worrying about that every week too. I'll keep searching. 
• the doors. With four in this room, it isn't surprising they take up a substantial portion of the work. I want to paint the new door aqua/teal, replace the screen door (which actually doesn't have a screen, or a handle or the ability to stay open anymore. It's a mess) and get a new door into the house (with a number keypad - my dream!)
• a drop down drying rack - to hang our swimsuits and wet mittens on during their respective seasons. 
• some more color in the form of art on the walls.

Of course, those are my full plans and it will probably take us a good year or two - or three if I'm waiting for that keypad :-) but baby steps! We've already checked off pretty much everything I hope to get done before the baby arrives with the exception of the shoe bench. For that, I'm just going to have to drag a chair out there because right now I'm sitting on the floor to put my shoes on and one of these days I'm not going to be able to get up again. At least I'd be stuck in a pretty spot.