It's time to get ready for a new year. Being organized always seems to clear my mind and makes me feel more light-hearted. Making a "To Do" list and writing down my goals puts me in action and gets me off my duff so I can check off those "to do" items on my lists. I've been needing a workspace for my quilting business; some place for my computer, printer, forms, quilting samples, etc. So, my Christmas present to myself was to build a computer armoire that I could close to hide the messes I tend to make when I do paperwork.
Ana White is my new hero, who I secretly aspire to be like. She makes
building furniture, etc. look so easy, and it is when you follow her
plans! She says the basic premise with most furniture is that you first
need to build a box. I found plans for a Toy/TV armoire here.
I used the plans for the basic box surround and then added stuff to
make it an armoire for my computer (my office in a box). Here is what
the box looks like closed. I used bead board for the doors and added dentil and decorative molding around the top.
This is before I attached the doors. I used pegboard for the backing
for 2 reasons; first, I wanted the electronics to have ventilation and
secondly, I might want to hang stuff on some pegs. You can see my green
bag down in the lower right - that is where I keep my quilting samples
for customers to look at. The blue storage clip board holds my forms,
flyers, and mileage chart. The keyboard slides out, and I have a narrow
"cubby" below it to put extra papers, etc. that I tend to collect.
There are drawers on either side of the keyboard slide. I still need to
cut some holes in them for pulls. I had decorative pulls on them, but
the doors wouldn't shut as the drawer pulls stuck out too far.
This was my first major furniture project, so I am very happy with the results. I am sure I've got ADD, because I ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS have ideas swimming around in my head. Take my closet, for example. When I get busy, my "areas" tend to get messy because I don't have time to deal with them and keep them clean. I wish I had taken a "before" picture of my closet, because yesterday I decided that enough was enough. This has been bugging me since we moved into this house back in 2009. I've had this built-in shelving in my cabinet with about 4 narrow shelves on it. There's plenty of room to stack stuff in there, but I've got a lot of shoes, and I needed a place to put them. Up until yesterday, I was basically just throwing my shoes into my closet. They lay where ever they landed. And, I would trip over them every time I went into my closet to get stuff. <sigh> :\
Well, I don't know what took me so long to think of this. I got a Kreg shelf pin jig about a month ago. I've been planning on making bookshelves for my husband and also a linen closet for our bathroom. Oh, one thing I need to clarify here... my husband is not a handyman. At. ALL. In fact, I think he's afraid of tools and any kind of handy work. He's a great cook, though, and I've been encouraging him to cook (more and more!). But, I cannot ask him for any help what so ever, because the answer will be, "No." So, that armoire up above? Yep, I made that all by myself. It is one heavy piece of furniture, too! But, it's solid!
But, back to my closet (ADD invasion)... I had some MDF board that would fit the depth of the closet shelving. And, I had a bunch of shelf pins. So, yesterday, I took my handy shelf pin jig and drilled holes in the sides of the shelves and added shelving I had cut from the MDF board. I am still in awe at how my shoes fit in my closet now compared to before. I feel like I now own one of those closets that I only see on TV shows. Happy me!
Now that I've cleared the clutter in my physical life, I feel like I am
ready to clear the clutter in my mental life... next step is to set some
goals for 2014. How about you?
