Space-Saving Coat Storage

My husband thinks I'm crazy sometimes, but I think I'm genius!  Ok, let me explain.  See, we had our home built about 6 years ago.  We basically went with a house at the top of our budget, at least the budget we wanted, not the bank.  That was when the housing market was booming, so they approved us for much more than we actually felt comfortable with.  Good thing we had some common sense (thanks, parents!), 'cause it probably wouldn't have been good.

Anyway, back to the genius part.  Our builder wasn't a custom builder.  As in, we had a few choices but not many.  We picked our flooring, countertops, cabinet style, and siding color from a limited selection.  Most things were upgrades that we would have had to pay extra for, so for the most part we stuck with the basics.  We didn't even have a choice in paint....everything was painted flat white.  My mom and I painted almost the entire house in the 2 days before we moved in.  Fun times!

One of the great things about our house is that it is a perfect DIY house!  Everything works and there is nothing we had to do, but there are lots of things we (or at least I) want to do.  One such project was to add storage near the main entrance.  Our front entrance and garage entrance are close to each other, and there is just a small 2x2 coat closet in between.  Not enough coat storage for a family of 5!  So, I started googling (this was before I knew about Pinterest.com!) and found a couple inspiration photos that I thought would be good for our situation.

Here's the project:

Basically, when you open the door from the garage, there is a blank wall that is just not doing anything.  Here it is in the photo below.  The door you see in the background on the right is our 1/2 bath, behind me is our front door, and to the left is the coat closet.

Anyway, I decided the best solution would be to add a coat rack behind the door.  My parents have a 103 year old farm house, and it has coat storage flat along the wall, so I kind of use that as my inspiration as well.  I would have loved to add a "locker" or a bench or something, but obviously there is no room for something like that.  So, off to the hardware store I went.  I basically just purchased some 1x6 boards.  I picked the pre-primed composite ones, because I'm pretty new with woodworking and didn't feel competent to work with raw wood.  If I had to do it over again, I would choose the raw pine wood because it's a little nicer material than the composite ones I chose.  The only extra step is to sand and prime the wood before you paint it, but that doesn't take very long to do.

So, basically once I purchased my wood, I came home and cut it to the length of my wall, painted it, put construction adhesive on it and then screwed it into the wall.  I wanted 5 hooks on each board, so I measured them out equally and put the screws in so they would line up behind the hooks.  No patching... genius!

Here's how it looked with the screws, before adding the hooks.

And here is the finished product:

It's the perfect place to hang the backpacks as well as some of the jackets that we use the most.  It also turned out to be a good place to stash a couple of baseball caps.

Here's a close-up of the hooks I used.  I found them at Lowes.  But unfortunately there was a supplier issue and I had to go to 3 different Lowes to get all 10 of my hooks :(.  But I really wanted hooks with two places to hang things on.  Plus I didn't want something that was tiny or huge since the door would hit them if they stuck out too far.  These were the perfect size.

So, those 10 hooks added a lot more storage room in a previously unused wall space.  For a little extra shoe storage, I hung a closet organizer on the back of our closet door...it's the perfect size for all of those toddler and little boy shoes. Plus our adult sandals fit in there as well.

Hope this post gives you a little inspiration for a totally easy DIY project!

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No, really...I am back :)

So, I wrote a blog post with the reasons why I haven't posted much over the past 9 months. And then I promised that I would write more.  And it's been an entire month since that post and I haven't written anything.  Ugh.  I'm such a good blogger :)

I do have several posts to write on projects that I've been working on...but for now, I'll share a recipe that I tried for breakfast this morning.  It was really good, but totally not healthy by any stretch of the imagination.  But it's great for a special occasion.  And today's special occasion was that it's Monday and my youngest had her 15-month check-up (3 shots!) today. Which, in my book, requires something special for breakfast.

If you are looking for a quick, no rise cinnamon roll that tastes good, try this recipe:

No Yeast Cinnamon Rolls (click for the original recipe & wonderful photos!)

source: http://www.pipandebby.com  

Preheat your oven to 425. Pour 1 tablespoon of melted butter into a 9-inch round cake pan. Brush to coat the entire perimeter of the pan.

Filling:

In a small bowl, combine:

• 3/4 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/4 granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/8 teaspoon salt

Add 1 tablespoon of melted butter and stir until crumbly. Set aside.

Dough:

In a medium bowl, combine:

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

In a separate bowl, combine:

• 1 1/4 cups buttermilk
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted

Add the buttermilk mixture to the flour mixture and stir until the liquid is just incorporated, about 30 seconds. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface and knead until just smooth, 3 to 4 minutes. Roll the dough into a 9x12-inch rectangle. Brush the surface of the dough with 1 tablespoon of melted butter.

Sprinkle the filling evenly over the dough. Gently press the filling into the dough. Starting at a long edge, roll the dough to form a log.

Cut the log into eight equal pieces. Place one roll in the center of the prepared pan, and the seven remaining rolls around it in a circle. 

Brush with 2 tablespoons of melted butter. 

Bake in the preheated oven for 25 to 28 minutes, or until golden brown. Allow rolls to cool for 5 minutes.

Glaze:

In a small bowl, combine:

• 3 oz. cream cheese, softened
• 2 tablespoons buttermilk, at room temperature
• 4 tablespoons confectioners' sugar

Whisk first 2 ingredients until smooth. Add 4 tablespoons of confectioners' sugar 1 tablespoon at a time. Whisk until a smooth glaze forms, about 30 seconds.

Enjoy!

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