diy

Upcycled treasures turned into functional storage in my sewing and craft studio

February 24, 2026 by tidybrownwren Leave a Comment

As promised in my last post, I am showing off some special items in my freshly organized sewing and craft studio. I can’t think of anything I have purchased new to use in this room except things I bought 20-30 years ago and have reused.

When we bought this house 20 years ago, this small bedroom had dark paneling, dusty rose plastic blinds and pink shag carpeting. It had a closet under the stairwell, which we have turned into Hub’s office/desk space.

I love repurposing items, especially vintage and antique items, and if they came from a loved one, even better!

I boght this vintage job case 40 years ago at a yard sale in Virginia Beach. It had been painted with an oil based gold paint. I took the whole thing apart and refinished it before putting it back together. I think it is the perfect spot for my stamps.

Below the job case, I have milk glass containers to hold items I grab for frequently. Of course, the sewing scissors are separate from the paper scissors and everyone in my family knows that. I found a glass jug at the thrift store that was big enough for my collection of vintage thread spools to fit into. I added a lamp kit to it to make an adorable lamp. The spools came from both of my grandmothers and my husband’s grandmother. The thread is too fragile (some is silk) and can’t be used, but in this lamp, the spools can still be enjoyed.

This whole countertop was custom made by my husband for my birthday one year. He used an unfinished kitchen cabinet from Lowe’s (cut off the bottome toe kick) and an old wood filing cabinet for the base. We found some vintage desk handles at a ReStore in Staunton, VA and they were a great addition.

Because I have a room with sunlight, I love having at least one plant in the room. I just have to remember to water it. A recent addition to the room is a pair of antique scissors I got from a client who became a good friend. They belonged to her grandmother and are too beautiful to stick in the vase with the other scissors. I found an oval frame at the thrift store and used some leftover black fabric. I punched small holes through the fabric and frame backing and wired the scissors in place.

The end of the countertop that sits on the old file cabinet has a special feature. We found an old drop leaf table on the side of the road and my husband used the hardware underneath it to make a pop up extension for times when I need more space to work.

This room is very small, so we keep it folded down when not in use.

Here is a view of the parts underneath the extension.

My grandmother was very prolific in handwork. She was a pastor’s wife and was always making something (food, paintings, stitching) for other people. I have fond memories of her using this large embroidery hoop for larger projects. I used batting and an old tablecloth to make a bulletin board for the studio. I criss-crossed hem binding and used an antique button to make places to clip or pin memories and ideas to.

Below that, I have a collection of favorite photos of people I love.

Next to my Grandmothers 1970s Kenmore machine, that I use everyday, I have a shelf of supplies. Can you see the artwork of my grandlittle’s feet made into birds? Those feet aren’t so little any more, so I’m glad I have this special piece. My daughters put this together one year for Mother’s Day.

Here she is, in all her glory. I’ve had Grandmother’s machine for over 30 years and it has been a wonderful work horse. During the quarantine, I learned how to clean and oil it to keep her going.

This unusual shelf is the inside of a roll top desk. We found it on the side of the road in rough shape. It had a lot of stains that we couldn’t get off, so I painted it white. It was missing some drawers so I just added some special journals in theiere place. My daughter painted the artwork for me when I was going through a lot of medical issues. The shaker boxes were from my Hub’s Nana. One even says “soda” on it because she stored her baking soda in it. I store vintage buttons – of course!

The jar is a tobacco jar that my Grandpa stored his pipe tobacco in.

This is a happy place and I spend a lot of time in here. The bird garland was a gift from our daughter from Hawaii. It is adorable.

How to add instant character by upcycling an old door for your pantry

July 31, 2021 by tidybrownwren

This is a project that has been 10 years in the making. For 10 years, I have been wanting to add some character to our kitchen by upcycling an old door to replace our hollow core door that leads into the pantry/laundry room. Here is a blog post from my old blog about the whole pantry remodel.

Remember what our kitchen looked like 8 years ago when it was being remodeled. The kitchen was taken down to the studs. The wiring, plumbing, floors, walls, lighting, and ceiling were all replaced. Here is a blog post from my old blog about the whole remodel.

See the little door to the right? Yup, that’s the door that is in the spotlight today.

The plan was to find and refinish an old door for our contractor to fit into the new space. He had to move the door framing over a little bit and put in some new trim, so replacing the door wouldn’t be a problem. . . Except that I couldn’t find a door the right size that I liked. I didn’t mean to be picky – but I had an idea in my mind and I couldn’t find a door that fit my criteria. So, we just told our contractor to put the old door in and Hubs would swap it out when I found the right one.

Finally, one day at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore, I found her. Isn’t she a beaut?

I loved the big window, the two bottom panels, the mail slot, and the thickness of the wood. She was really well made and she was the right size. The above photo shows her best side. The next photo shows her bad side. It was covered in white paint which was already flaking off. I figured it wouldn’t take much to sand off the paint and finish her up. Well, I was very wrong.

The door had evidently been an exterior door and the white-painted side had been facing outside. The sun had baked the paint (as well as any old finish under it) into the wood. I used a sander. I used a stripper. I used a heat gun. I used another sander. I used another stripper. I was ready to throw her in the trash and search for another door. I stuck her in a back corner of the garage and got on with my life.

When Hubs retired in March, we walked around our house (inside and out) and made a huge list of projects we wanted to work on now that he had more time on his hands. When we got to the kitchen, we realized our kitchen was not officially “finished” until the pantry/utility room door was replaced. A decision needed to be made. Would I try one more time to refinish the door we had or would we try to find a new door? I’m kind of stubborn and decided no wooden door was going to get the best of me.

I marched out into the garage and asked Hubs to put this monster of a door onto the sawhorses. I refinished the “good side” right away, using furniture refinisher and Minwax Special Walnut stain/finish. After that dried, I flipped the door over and got to work on the “Bad side”.

First, I sanded with 60 grit sandpaper, using the sander on the flat sides and hand sanding in the grooves. I followed up with 120 grit sandpaper and cleaned off all of the mess. It still had white paint in the groves and in the decorative trim around the window and panels. That’s when I had to get creative. I pulled out a Sharpie marker and traced over the white paint. It looked better but still needed work. I stained the whole side with the same stain/finish I had used on the other side and let that dry.

Everything looked pretty good, but I could still see bits of white paint on the trim. I pulled out a small artist’s brush and acrylic black paint. I painted the entire trim around the window and the two lower panels. I also lightly filled in a little bit of the grooves where the door sides and bottom butted up against each other. I wouldn’t have given it so much attention, except this “bad side” was the side facing the kitchen.

After some creative woodworking on Hub’s part, the door was hung. We reused the old hinges from the original door. Now the next step was to find hardware that would function and look good with the door.

My first choice was antique hardware, but our humble home did not warrant hundreds of dollars in antique hardware. It was time to get creative. Altogether, we needed a handle, a backplate, and a door latch.

I had one “dummy” Schlag handle that I had purchased in a large bag of handles years ago from Habitat ReStore. A dummy handle is one that does not move. They are usually used on closet doors. This pantry/utility room was basically a walk-in closet that we had remodeled, so we figured a dummy handle would be good enough.

The handle was a perfect size but we needed a backplate to cover up the old hardware holes. None of the backplates I could find online were the right size so, we had to get creative again. Hubs ventured out to the craft store and found two pieces of balsa wood that were the perfect size. I painted them black and he screwed them onto the door. He screwed the handle onto the front side, making sure the screws went through the backplate and into the door. He covered the screws with upholstery tack heads (he clipped off the heads and glued them over the screw heads).

Finally, the only extra hardware needed was a latch to keep the door shut. We found a ball catch on Build.com for under $6.00 and it worked perfectly. Hubs had to patch some areas along the frame with small pieces of wood (he used some thin slices of wood from an old louvered door panel). I touched up the door frame by blending in some antiquing wax.

I wanted to obscure the view into the pantry/utility room but still allow light in. I chose a frosted vinyl window film to cover the backside of the window. It went on quickly. Note: If you try this, be assured the tiny air bubbles under the film will go away in a week or two – it made me freak out a little bit.

It still needed a little something more, so I created a vinyl sticker on my Cricut and placed it on the outside of the window. You should have seen Hubs and me (both firstborn, type-A, recovering perfectionist) getting the lettering perfectly straight.

Making a simple and informal flower arrangement

August 17, 2020 by tidybrownwren

The rains have been beating down my flowers and vegetable plants this summer, but I was able to collect enough to make a simple, informal flower arrangement. These colors make me so happy!

I gathered some zinnias, cosmos, and one or two calendula blooms since all of their colors coordinated well. Since flower arranging is not one of my skills, I used a container that has a frog top – it is a grid top that helps hold flowers in place. Here is a frog lid that you can screw onto a canning jar. I’m telling you, it will change your life!

My basil is living its best life in my vegetable garden right now, so I have plenty to cut for flower arrangements. I’ve been making lots of pesto and freezing it. We’ve eaten so much pesto that we should be turning green any day now. I also dried trays of basil leaves for cooking this winter. For information on how I store my spices, check out this post.

If all goes well, my basil cuttings just might sprout some roots and I’ll have more plants for the garden. I’m happy to have some cheerful colors in the kitchen since we’ve had many, many rainy days lately. What’s growing in your garden right now?

Before and after of our playhouse remodel

May 27, 2020 by tidybrownwren

This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

I’m having a great time looking back at old photos while I’m doing my “big project”. I’m excited to show you the before and after photos of our playhouse that we remodeled several years back.

In 2005, when we first purchased our home, we were excited about all of the outbuildings on our property. One of the outbuildings was actually a little playhouse attached to the back deck. When we had the house painted, we had the deck and playhouse painted too. Everything looked cute on the outside. . .

But everything changed when you peeked inside. . . Just a storage area for our kid’s old toys I snuck into the moving van when Hubs wasn’t watching.

Several more years passed and I finally got around to fixing up this little gem.

Here’s how we tackled the project:

Pulled all of the toys and other items out of the playhouse. We made it a mandatory requirement that all of our children come over for dinner and go through the toys to see what they wanted to keep and get rid of.

2. Pulled out all weird ceiling tile and gave the place a good vacuuming and scrubbing.

3. Pulled out the old paint sprayer, filled it with white paint and painted everything.

Everything that was not covered up by tape and newspaper (like windows).

4. Decided everything needed a second coat.

And then a third.

5. Decided that the place was still too dark and asked Hubs to install a window on the only wall that didn’t have one.

Hubs obliged and hauled an old window out of the barn and installed it.

6. I decided that there wasn’t enough shelf space for all of the toys we decided to keep.

Asked Hubs to build us some shelves. Hubs dragged some wood out of the barn and built some custom shelving for bins and extra stuff. I painted the shelves and then we were ready to bring everything back in.

Our daughter had an old play rug that she wasn’t using anymore, so she brought it over and we trimmed it down and stapled it into place.

I used two old placemats for the kitchen area. One for the curtain underneath the sink and one as a cloth on the table. I spray painted the table and chairs with some extra spray paint. The sink had broken years ago, so we bought a metal bowl from the dollar store and cut a piece of plywood to hold it. Then we attached it to the play kitchen.

Small pieces of wood were cut and installed between the studs to use for shelves. I installed cup hooks to hold some of the dishes. We hung a crank camping lantern (this one is similar) on a plant hanger for lighting. The wall on one side of the door (which I don’t have pics of) has a narrow bookshelf holding bins of blocks, k’nex, matchbox cars, dinosaurs, and lincoln logs. The other side has a cupboard that holds all of our kids Fisher Price school, barn, house etc.

Every child who comes over to visit has a great time playing in this sweet little playhouse. I’m feeling vindicated for all of the old toys I stored for years when our kids outgrew them!

Helpful clothing organization tips for the color blind

February 6, 2020 by tidybrownwren

I never understood color blindness until I met my husband. Sometimes it makes me sad that he can’t fully appreciate the nuances of colors and the way they change in a sunrise or sunset.

Hubs is considered red/green color blind but it also affects other colors for him. Adding to that problem is the fact that he gets dressed at O-dark-hundred and the lighting isn’t great in our bedroom. He couldn’t tell black from navy or green from gray.

Last year, before my surgery, I decided to set up a system for him to be able to tell his pants apart since I would be incapacitated for a while. Every pair of pants looked either black or gray to him.

I grabbed some tags from my craft studio and put them over his pants hangers, labeling each color of pants for him with a marker. We had previously tried marking the inside waistband or tag of his pants with the color, but it meant that he had to hang the pants back up if they ended up not being the ones he wanted.

Rule #3 of household organizing is to make it easy to get things and put them away without any extra steps.

This system has worked well for him. He can match almost any of his shirts to the pants because he knows the colors of his shirts according to their patterns. If he couldn’t, I would have hung his shirts with tags stating which pants they could go with. Time-consuming? Yes, but it would have helped him a lot and made mornings go smoother.

The only other area that caused problems was his sock drawer. Black looked brown. Brown looked green. Green looked. . . , well you get the picture.

I grabbed my labeler and made some quick labels. I added them to the drawer fronts, just inside the top of the drawer. Then I took some old shoe boxes and lined them up. I usually label alphabetically from left to right but this time, because the black and dark blue socks are so close in color, I put brown/green in the middle to separate them in case there was some spillover. This also helps me to put his socks away because, as a short person, I can’t actually see down into his top drawer! I can, however, easily place socks in the proper boxes because I know the order of the colors.

Then, in order to help my husband keep his good clothing separated from his grubby clothing, I labeled his drawers to keep things straight.

What is the grubby clothing system in our home? Well, good jeans, pants, shorts, shirts, sweatshirts, etc. can be worn to church, work, and out with the wife. Grubby clothing can be worn to Home Depot or the Automotive shop if unattended by wife, while working in the yard, working on the car, climbing under the house, etc. There are a few grubby items that cannot be worn even to Home Depot and must be inspected before leaving the premises – you never know when you will run into someone from church or one of my clients.

The organizing equation you should know about

October 27, 2019 by tidybrownwren

As an Organizing Coach, my job is to help my clients create the home they want. They rely on me to help them clear through the clutter of their home and make it work for them instead of them being a slave to it. The hardest part, I’ve found for any client, is knowing where to start. They need to know about the organizing equation.

It might be unique to my experience, but it seems that most of my clients are already organized. It’s not really organizing they need help with. The problem is they have acquired more things than their houses can hold efficiently.

More times than not, I will open their closets or cabinets and almost hear angels sing because they are so organized. The problem is in the abundance of items that don’t fit in those cabinets and closets and are piled everywhere.

In order to help clients, I like to start with the thought process. I like to guide them to look at the priorities they have for their homes.

No pressure, but if you’re still reading this, you probably want to get started on the process of uncluttering your home. Am I right? Let’s do this together!

Let’s start with a few questions to ask yourself:

What are my goals? To be able to get out of the house in the morning without losing my mind? To have people over for dinner and not be embarrassed by the condition of our home? To pay my bills on time? To finally get a grip on our laundry? Be sure to put this list on your phone or write it on a piece of paper. You’ll be referring back to it later. These goals will show what your priorities are.
How much time do I have each week to work on these goals? This dedicated time will show how serious you are about accomplishing your goals.
Am I willing to make some difficult choices to help me get to my goals? This acknowledgment will show how dedicated you are to accomplishing your goals.

So, if you made your goal list, are you willing to do what it takes to reach those goals? How much time will you set aside each week to work on your goals? Are you ready to make the tough decisions you need to see progress made?

Goals + Time + Commitment = Uncluttered Home

So what now?

Put your list where you can see it. I keep mine in my planner.
Look at the week ahead and plan how much time you will dedicate to decluttering. Write down what you will do and when you will do it.
Set yourself up for success. Have all of your supplies ready and plan for some easy meals on the days you will dedicate to work on your goals.

For instance, if I planned to work on my kitchen this week, this is what my schedule might look like without taking off of work or neglecting the rest of my home. Also, I would plan to cook crockpot meals and eat leftovers.

Don’t worry if you can’t work on your goals every day. You are in charge of your schedule, so plan what works best for you. If you can only work on it for 1 hour this next week, then that is better than nothing. Progress is taking one step at a time even if the steps are small. Progress is getting rid of things you don’t use any more to make room for what you do use.

Disclaimer: I am a morning person and I can get a lot of things done before 8:00. Also, Hubs and I are empty nesters so I don’t have any little ones to take care of. When my children were little, I would just do one drawer a day or one shelf of a cabinet. Don’t allow guilt to weigh you down. Make a plan and be disciplined about following through.

Next time, we’ll talk about what to do with those items you don’t use anymore but aren’t sure if you can let them go.

Our Upcycled Greenhouse: The doors, siding, and details

October 11, 2019 by tidybrownwren

Welcome to the last post about how we built our upcycled greenhouse.

If you want to catch up on the other greenhouse posts, click on the titles to read them.

How it began.

The walls.

The roof and an addition

Doors and walls:

After the roof went on, it was time to add the doors and walls. Some smaller windows were also added to the top gable ends and siding was put around them. We used T1-11 siding to match our home.

Hubs (Papa to our grandlittles) frequently had a little shadow following him and muck boots are a necessity on our property.

The front door was an amazing roadside find. It was in perfect condition (just old and dirty), had the knobs still intact, and the crank mechanism was in perfect working order.

We placed it on the front of the greenhouse because the fan would be going on the back wall and we wanted to create a cross draft.

The siding took a while to put on but slow and steady is sort of our speed.

Before the painting could begin, I had to reglaze about 20 of the window panes. It was tedious work, but not hard.

Painting:

I began to paint the lower half of the whole greenhouse, saving the upper part for later when I would need to use the ladder. Secretly, I was hoping a painting fairy would come by and finish it in the middle of the night.

We found some old siding in our barn and it was enough to use as a skirt around the whole greenhouse. I finished it with an exterior varnish. You can see how beautiful the right side of the wood plank was with the varnish on it.

I chose to not tape the windows before painting them. To me, it’s easier to scrape the excess off with a blade.

Well, the painting fairy never came but the snow showed up so it was time to put the painting on hold.

Fan:

We took advantage of having an extra set of hands and some warmer weather when our son was home for a visit and the fan was installed. We had a licensed electrician run electricity to everything because greenhouses are wet areas and need special conduits and switches. It’s always good to be careful when water and electricity mix.

When the weather warmed up, we were able to get the rest of the siding up and the painting finished. It took me F-O-R-E-V-E-R to paint and scrape all of the windows (inside and out) but it was worth it.

Side story: I decided, before finishing the painting, that I didn’t like the color. I wanted a sage green, but the first coat looked more like that green fluffy pistachio pudding dessert that our grandmas used to make for church pot luck suppers. So. . . I found a better color and repainted everything. Ugh! Are you smiling because I have a green greenhouse?

I couldn’t wait to put plants in the greenhouse, so I set up a folding table and started some seedlings in my long-awaited green greenhouse!

Accessories:

We dragged the potting bench over to the covered area and put it in place. Hubs and our son built it for me for my birthday one year. It is made from a vintage cast iron double sink with built-in drainboards and odds and ends of wood from our barn. It is one hard-working piece of carpentry!

Inside the greenhouse, the areas on either side of the walkway are lined with shelves.

We made them out of cinderblocks, closet shelving, and 2x4s. We must have looked pretty strange putting together a proto-type in the middle of Home Depot.

These custom-built beauties are sturdy, work great and are very efficient. I couldn’t be happier with them.

We varied the shelf heights to accommodate bins and seedling trays.

The closet shelves allow for water and dirt to drop through to the ground.

The bins are simple Sterlite storage bins. I made chalkboard plaques and they are attached with rivets to the fronts of the bins.

The finishing touches to our greenhouse were the wreath on the door (hung with a galvanized wreath hanger), the lighting (matches the exterior lighting on our home), and the twinkle lights hanging from the rafters.

This has become one of my happy places and I try to spend time in it every day.

Our Upcycled Greenhouse – The Roof and an Addition

October 5, 2019 by tidybrownwren

Thanks for joining us for the next edition of “We built a greenhouse out of old stuff”. Well, maybe not all of it was old. Some of it had to be purchased with hard-earned cash.

The roof of our upcycled greenhouse was the most expensive part of the build. We used greenhouse polycarbonate roofing from Home Depot and had to order some special pieces that they didn’t carry in the store.

Rafters

Hubs pre-built the rafters in our garage. He test-fit the first one to make sure the measurements were correct. We took advantage of some strong muscled family members after a Father’s day dinner. Supervisors were needed too – both young and old.

Once we knew the measurements were correct, I painted all of the rafter sections with two coats of paint. We knew it was much easier to paint before they were installed than after.

The front and back sections were held in place with supports while a crossbar was put into place

Once the crossbar was in place, we hoisted the other sections up and rested them on the walls.

They were screwed in, one by one, and then narrow strips of wood were added for additional strength for the roof panels. On top of those strips, Hubs added specially molded pieces called plastic closure strips.

An Addition

Before the panels went on, Hubs decided that we needed a covered area for my potting bench so we added an addition to the greenhouse! Tying in the roof lines took a bit of extra brain power (not mine, of course).

Roof panels

The panels on that side of the greenhouse were extended.

You can see the plastic closure strips in these photos.

The final panels went in and it was beginning to look like a bonafide greenhouse!

Did you miss the first two posts about Starting the Greenhouse and Building the Walls? Just click on the words to go to those posts.

The next post will be all about enclosing the greenhouse, adding the trim, and putting in the doors.

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