Posts Tagged ‘Bragging

Yes, I’m writing a post about installing a paper towel rack under the cabinet.

No, I haven’t run out of things to blog about so I’m blogging about mundane chores around the house.

This is actually useful to know!

Would you believe my own mother hasn’t done this yet because she needs her handy-man husband to do it for her?

Say wha?? Handy-man husband???

Girls, pull up your big girl panties! You can do these things!!

I’m here to show you how easy it is to install a paper towel rack. It really is. You can do it yourself. Trust me. (Famous last words…)

Okay, so first off, buy a paper towel rack.

I bought this one at Bed, Bath, & Beyond. It was $12.99 but I used a 20% off coupon. If you don’t have one, wait like two days and you’ll probably get one in the mail.

You can use any type of paper towel rack. It doesn’t have to be this particular one. I’ve seen plastic ones at Wally World for like a buck, but I got this one because it looked a little nicer and it probably won’t break over the next 15 years.

Okay, so I’m sure this kit came with directions, but I threw them away. I know better than any directions. Ha! I can do it myself. (Famous last words…)

(No, seriously, you should probably read the directions first. Anything I tell you is my personal opinion and I’m not liable if you ruin your cabinet or cut off your finger.)

Okay, anyway, where were we? Oh ya, I’m suppose to be starting the tutorial. Man I’m chatty today.

I didn’t take a picture of step one because I don’t have 3 hands (one to hold the pencil, one to hold the paper towel rack, and one to take a picture), but basically hold the rack under the counter where you want to hang it and color in the screw holes with a pencil. Make sure you leave enough room at the back of the cabinet for the paper towels to actually fit and not get smashed by the wall.

Once you’ve got two little pencil holes, set the rack down and pick up your drill. Yes, I said drill. Stay with me here. You can do this.

Put a small drill bit on the end of it. I don’t know what size I used, but I picked one that was pretty tiny. At the least MAKE SURE it is SMALLER than the screw you are going to use!

Drill a small hole on each of the pencil markings.

Now that you have two little drilled pilot holes take your drill bit off your drill and swap it out for a phillips head screwdriver (the one that is pluss-ey. You know, it looks like a plus sign? + + +).

Put your rack back on the cabinet and line up the holes on the rack with the holes you just drilled. They should line up. If not, um, didn’t you drill on the pencil markings?

Drill the screws that the rack came with into the holes on the rack.

OMG we are done! Srsly. It was that easy.

I swear it took longer to write this tutorial then it took me to actually install the paper towel rack.

Wow, what a beauty. This looks so freaking amazing I should call it ‘art’.

Just look at how that bad boy hangs there (that’s what she said).

And whatdya’ know, the paper towels don’t scrape on the wall. Man I’m good at eye-balling stuff.

If you are nervous about eye-balling it, use a ruler. There is nothing wrong with admitting defeat and busting out the ruler.

And never forget:

You are freaking awesome and you can do it!

I like to say that I don’t need my man, I want my man. I think wanting him around is so much better than needing him around.

What do you think, Ben? How does it feel to not be needed? Wait. That didn’t sound right. Er, I mean…

I better stop digging now. It’s only getting worse.

(Famous last words…)

Have you ever created anything after seeing it here?

Do you want to be featured at House of Hepworths?!

If you’ve ever created any craft or project based off of one of my tutorials, I’m going to feature you!

Once a month I’m going to post all the crafts that you have created.

If you would like to be featured in this once-a-month Share. Inspire. Create. post, please email me with a link to your blog post about your craft or simply email me your photos if you don’t have a blog.

Rules {I know, I don’t like rules either!}:

To be featured you must email me your craft or project. I can’t feature you if I don’t know about it!

If you have a blog post about your craft or project, I will link back to your blog post (free linkage to your site! WooHoo!), but I do ask that you mention that you got your idea from House of Hepworths and link back to me.

If you don’t have a blog or haven’t posted about your craft or project, no problem! Just send me your photos and I’ll include your first name and pictures in the roundup.

I will post Share. Inspire. Create. the last Saturday of each month. To be included in this post I’ll need your email no later than the Thursday before.

This post is only for readers who have created something based off any tutorial of mine (it can even be from months ago!). If you have featured my tutorial on your blog, but haven’t made one of your own, I will add your button to my Features Tab.

I will only feature your craft or project once, but I will feature you as many times as you create a craft or project!

Here’s how Share. Inspire. Create. will look:

Sarah from Life at 2222:

Heather from Pirates n’ Princesses:

Joy from Mommas Kinda Crafty:

This Fresh Fossil:

Addicted to Homes:

Sandy Sewz:

Sandy Sewz:

Keeping It Simple:

Today Along the Journey:

Michelle from Sustainably Chic Designs:

La Bella Casa:

Emily:

Sandy:

Sandy:

Pam:

Kathleen:

Kat:

Karin:

My next Share. Inspire. Create. post is this Saturday, so hurry and send me any past projects you’ve made (even if it was from months ago). I’ll accept submissions until late Friday night.

These projects were originally featured at House of Hepworths here:
You’ve Been Busy
Round 3: Readers Create Wreaths & Pumpkins

Do you remember when my ceiling flooded and I had to tear out the sheetrock and replace it with new sheetrock?

Last month I ended my post with my sheetrock looking like this:

Unfortunately this is NOT a follow up tutorial for how to finish installing sheetrock (aka texturing it to look like the rest of the ceiling). Nope my friends, I STILL have not finished the patch job. It still looks like it did a month ago.

However, when I was patching the hole and ended up with the above result, the reson I never finished the job is because I got totally sidetracked on a different impromptu closet project…

I’ve been keeping this poor saw busy lately!

The reason I borrowed this saw from my dad was for this closet project, not the fence project like you might assume. Fortunately for my husband, I already had this saw on hand when I did the fence job which is the only reason the fence was fixed and not just knocked over.

Okay, so what on earth did I do???

The closet looked like this when we bought the house:

  
I put two pictures side-by-side to try to show the the whole closet.

I cleared all the clothes off the middle section and moved everything out of the way.

This middle section is coming out! It just makes the closet so claustrophobic and dark. I will lose a little hanging space, but do we really need that much anyway?

I made sure that if I removed it it wouldn’t mess up the carpet where it was attached to the floor. To my surprise and sheer excitement this section was installed after the carpet was installed. Basically the side piece of wood was just sitting on top of the carpet. I have the green light to proceed!

I probably should have moved everything out of the closet because of all the sawdust flyin’ but I figured the closet was already covered in insulation from the ceiling drama, so I just kinda shoved all the clothes out of the way…

Next thing I did was to measure where I needed to cut the top of the shelf.

Then I just took that little saw and cut on my line praying the entire time that this project actually works and I don’t ruin my closet.

T-iiiiiiii-mmmmmm-bb-eeeeee-rrrrrrrrrrrr!

Okay, so it really wasn’t that dramatic. I had to wedge it and force it over, but regardless, the center section fell over.

Here are the two pieces I’m left with now – the piece that made the side of the shelf and the piece that made the top of the shelf.

I removed one of the closet rod holder things from this leftover wood and attached it to the middle section on my wall that I just cut apart.

I installed this metal closet rod holder right on top of where the previous wood was attached for the section I removed.

Now it looks like this:

I just need to cut one of the leftover clothes rods to fit in the empty space along the back of the closet.

Perfect!

The lower levels of clothes rods on either side of the closet didn’t have any shelves on them. They were just open bars, so I couldn’t set anything on top of them to use as a shelf.

I took my leftover wood and cut it down the middle to form two pieces.

Once they were cut I just set them on top of the clothes bars to create a shelf.

This shelf needed to be cut at an angle which was really fun trying to figure out the angle to cut it.

You can tell I made these shelves out of the leftover shelving because there are sections that aren’t painted. Also, I need to add a layer of caulk around the back edge of each shelf between the wall and the shelf.

Here’s the closet almost finished.

Here’s another angle of the new shelf above the lower level clothes rod. You can tell I reused the wood.

I ran out of wood so the shelves don’t go from end to end…

But honestly, I like having them not finihsed because it created a little space to store less-used items of clothing like suits.

And the finished result:

Before I got crazy and ripped out an entire shelf in my closet:

AFTER I finished:

I still need to caulk and paint, but overall I’m LOVING the new space.

By removing some shelves and taking away some storage space, I created a more open bright space that has room for dressing in the middle.