The day we bought our house, our tool arsenal, or lack thereof, was very slim. We owned one hammer, a set of screwdrivers, a wrench or two, and a picture hanging kit. That’s pretty much all you need when you live in an apartment complex that provided 24-hour maintenance service. Since starting the renovations the day we got the keys, we’ve borrowed a lot from my Dad’s extensive tool collection, but we’ve also begun to collect a small conglomeration of tools of our own. We keep the “big guys” (like the circular saw, pry bar, etc.) in the attached shed, and until a few weeks ago, it seemed like all of the smaller “everyday tools” (screwdrivers, pliers, nails, screws, etc.) were scattered all over the house. So we set out to start keeping them in one of the drawers in the laundry room….

Hey, I didn’t say it was organized. It’s probably the messiest tool drawer in all the land. Even though we like things to be neat and organized (a place for everything and everything in it’s place!), it clearly wasn’t quite happening here. Last night, I decided to do something about it! With a little help from my label maker, four plastic bins and five minutes of organization, here’s what the tool drawer looks like now…

Now that’s more like it! First off, I moved all of the tools down one drawer because the bottom drawers are a bit deeper than the top drawer. After taking out everything that didn’t belong (like the gum and flashlights) I divided everything in the drawer in four categories: hardware (nails, screws, anchors, hooks, etc), adhesives (caulk, wood glue, liquid nails, etc), tools (pliers, screwdrivers, hammers, a box cutter, etc), and future DIY projects (things we’re saving for a particular project, like casters and that deer hook I’m anxious to use somewhere).

I love how the baskets keep everything in place so things don’t fly around the drawer when it’s opened and closed. In the front of the the baskets are odds and ends like a container of spackle (for quick hole-filling jobs), painter’s tape, duct tape, a measuring tape and sanding block.

In the right corner is a small wooden bowl that I bought (and three more like it) at the thrift store for $1. This is where we keep random odds and ends that we find around the house and have no idea what they go to. I call it the “Doodad Bowl”. Fancy, right? It’s really nice to have around because, if we ever realize a piece of something is missing, we’ll just go to the bowl and see if it’s there. As of right now, there are only two little doodads in the bowl.

So that’s the current state of our indoor tool storage. I’m sure that as our tool collection grows, the storage will be reconfigured here and there, but this is a good start – and not to mention better for my semi-OCD self!

Where do you keep your “everyday tools”? Any particular tools you can’t live without? Share your tool tails with us…

If you’re an avid Apartment Therapy reader, like us, you’ve probably already seen it, but if you haven’t… our kitchen was featured yesterday!!!

One of the writers for AT emailed us a few weeks back asking if we’d like our kitchen to be featured on Apartment Therapy. Seeing as how we’re huge AT fans and they’re pretty much the holy grail of before and afters, we were like, “Umm, YES!”. The only catch, they needed photos within the week. Needless to say, we scurried around here for the next few days putting on the finishing touches we could to get the kitchen looking a little more “done” rather than “almost done”. We managed to build the floating shelves near the window, “re-style” the peninsula, make the “EAT” letters above the stove, and spray paint and install the light fixture above the sink. When it was time to send over the photos, Greg was literally screwing the light fixture in place while I was eagerly standing by with the camera. Luckily, we got the photos in their mailbox just in the nick of time. Whew!

So, we have Apartment Therapy to thank for lighting a fire under us to get things rolling. Like we said yesterday, all there is left to do if find barstools and a window treatment. Then, we can finally call this turkey DONE! But we all know any room in your house is never technically “done”, right? ha!

If you haven’t seen the feature, check it out here!

I know this is kind of strange – for me anyway, not Ash – but when I hear the word “shelf” or “shelved”, one of the first things I think of is the I Love Lucy episode where Lucy, Ethel and Fred think Ricky’s movie, Don Juan, has been shelved and they try to cheer him up. I guess that’s what happens when you’re the husband of an avid I Love Lucy fan. But this post has nothing to do with I Love Lucy. It does, however, have to do with shelves. Three of them!

Yes, as the above photo proves, we finally got around to installing the floating shelves in the kitchen! Like the rest of the kitchen, you could call this project “Semi-DIY”. Basically, we took an existing product and made it into what we needed. Here’s what we did…

Each shelf needed to be 8 inches wide and 10 7/8 inches deep. First, we picked up two 24″ white Allen + Roth floating shelves from Lowe’s (these) with the intention of cutting them down to size. If you’re a visual thinker like Ash, maybe a picture will make more sense. (Thanks for the illustration, sweetheart!)

Once we made double-sure we had the right material, we headed over to the lumber department and asked them to cut the shelves for us.

Sure, we could have easily done it ourselves, but with their big, precise cutting machine, this was a lot faster. There was less chance of the process completely destroying the shelves or causing the paint to chip, too. And hey, it was free!

When we got home, we ran into one little snag. We totally forgot there is a small piece of molding in the corner between the subway tile and the cabinet. Rather than cutting a notch in the corner of each shelf (which could have been messy due to the thin material they’re made of), we cut a piece out of the molding. Using the scrap piece of shelving as a template, we marked where the molding needed to be cut. We then put a piece of painters’ tape on the cabinet for a little protection. We scored the edges of the molding, and with a little chisel action, the pieces came out perfectly.

The shelves came with a long bracket to “invisibly” mount them on the wall, so we cut the bracket to the depth of the shelf using a hack saw.

Now it was time to put the shelf on the bracket, but with only the bracket holding the shelf on, there was nothing holding the back of the shelf to wall, which caused it to wobble a bit.

To solve that problem, we took two pieces of scrap wood and glued them to each other then we wrapped the pieces with duct tape to act as a vice and let them sit to dry. There are screw holes in them because we were initially going to screw the pieces on the wall, then slide the shelf on. But the bracket was in the way, so that obviously didn’t work out. No worries, that’s where Liquid Nails come in!

We slid the pieces into the hollow part of the shelves, put a few dabs of Liquid Nails on the now not hollow part of the shelf and put them into place. After making sure the shelves were level, we caulked around the edges to make them look nice and finished. To make sure the shelves were totally secure, we let them set for 48 before putting anything on them. By Saturday morning, they were ready for styling…

On the top shelf is a mercury glass bird Ashley picked up at HomeGoods (for just $5.99). On the second shelf is a can of Bentley’s dog treats. (He gets a treat every time he comes in from “going outside”.) The can is from Harry Barker, but we refill it with Bentley’s prescription dog treats from the vet. (He’s allergic to pretty much everything.) On the bottom shelf is a conveniently placed glass jar filled with some rolled up dishtowels. The glass jar (without the lid) is from Crate & Barrel, and the dishtowels are from Anthropologie. I wouldn’t have known all of this if Ashley didn’t tell me… I leave most of the shopping to her.

The shelves are super sturdy and look as though they came with the cabinets. They didn’t even need a coat of paint, like we originally thought, because the cabinets and the shelves match perfectly – much to our surprise. This entire projects only cost about $35 and some change. Not bad for “custom cabinetry”.

Once the shelves were hung, we felt it was due time to hang the light fixture (from West Elm) above the sink! We ordered the silver light kit and spray-painted it our go-to finish of choice, Oil Rubbed Bronze. We really like the modern meets industrial look, and painting the hardware a darker color really helps it stand out against the white subway tile and cabinetry.

Here’s another shot of the new shelves and light fixture…

And a wide shot…

The sun was glaring through the window, but since we’re on a roll, how about one ultra wide shot…

Check out this before-and-after comparison. I feel super-accomplished every time I look at this picture…

The last two things on the grand ‘ole kitchen To Do List are finding a window treatment (the typical white blinds just aren’t cutting it for us) and bar stools for the peninsula. It’s so awesome to think the kitchen can be deemed “officially done” with just a shopping trip or two, hopefully!