Big home dec project revealed, part II

This is where we left off in the previous post - everything loaded up into my van. We arrived in Fort Smith around noon and immediately began the process of unloaded all of this. Keep in mind that the "crew" is just me and Denise. And both of us are weaklings with bad backs.

Lucky for us, my kind, sweet hubby nailed together a makeshift dolly. Just 4 2x4s nailed together with casters on the bottom. but it did make the process of moving much easier. That, coupled with the fact that Scarlett's apartments were originally designed as a retirement community, which means that all apartments are wheelchair (and furniture dolly) accessible.

After much pushing and pulling and grunting and panting, we got everything inside. With the exception of the big pink metal desk, we were able to manage it all just the two of us. (Luckily with the big desk, a strapping young 20-something showed up at the apartment house catty-corner at exactly the right time. Little meek Anne had to get big and bold and knock on a complete stranger's door, but he helped us.)

Four hours later, the apartment looked like this:

The couch, coffee table, and chair function as a sitting area because all the fabric is now on shelves and all the paperwork is now in a file box.

The black card table is replaced with the pink metal desk. We used this as Liv's changing table when she was a baby, hence the pink color. The bottom drawer was big enough to hold Scarlett's DVD collection, which freed shelves up on the entertainment center for books and pretties. (Also made the entertainment center feel far less cluttered.)

And do you see that turqouise bucket on the bottom shelf in the picture above? That's one of the half-bushel baskets spray-painted a pale turqouise and lined with white broadcloth. We ended up with 5 half-bushel sized baskets, and 3 bushel sized baskets. All were spraypainted. I fell head-over-heels-giddy in love with the trigger attachment for spray paint cans. It's SOOO much easier to pull the trigger than to push down on that tiny little button on top of the can.

Here's the sewing nook:

The sewing machine sits on the table donated by my sister. How perfect is that table?!? The blue shelving to the left are the old metal shelves from my basement - with a fresh coat of spraypaint of course. Bushel baskets sit on the blue shelves.

On the back wall of the sewing nook is another new set of shelves. They hold bins of fabric, and the top is exactly the right height for a tabletop ironing board. She'll still need to pull out the large ironing board when pressing large fabric cuts, but for pressing seams open on small quilt blocks this is just the right size.

By the way, check out her design wall above the ironing board. It was already there before the re-do, but I wanted to call attention to her quilt in progress.

Finally, just to the right of the sewing nook is the cutting table. Now that this table is devoted solely to cutting, she's got full use of the cutting mat. Two bushel baskets sit underneath to catch the scraps. (Later, we ended up transferring her entire collection of fabric scraps into those bins.) I had wanted to make a piece of artwork to hang over the table, but I didn't have time.

So there you have it - the surprise apartment makeover. If you add up every bit of money spent on spray paint, shelves, fabric, organizers, table top ironing boards - the total adds up to LESS THAN $75.

Toodles,