A little painting project

One of things I love about my apartment is two glass-front cabinets that separate the kitchen from the dining area (which I turned into my office). They are the perfect storage place for all the beautiful glassware my husband and I received as wedding presents. A few days ago an idea just popped into my head. The glassware is so pretty, but it sort of blends in to the cabinet since it's clear. What if I painted the back of the cabinets the same robin's egg blue (actual name of the color) that my office is painted? I thought it would show off the glassware nicely and add a spot of color to that part of the room. Here's the photo diary of my project:

Before through the glass door.

See how the glasses are barely visible?

First I taped the shelves with painters tape and newsprint. I didn't bother doing the undersides of the shelves, because you can't really see those edges and I have a fairly neat painting hand.

I gathered my tools. The paint, leftover from last September when we painted the office room in the apartment, a stir stick (also leftover), a paint can opener, a paintbrush - new (I left our old one in Ojai when I painted my desk white in December, oops), a rag for catching drips, which I didn't end up using, and more painters tape.

Painting in progress...it goes on so much lighter than it dries!

Paint drying.

Once it had thoroughly dried, I removed the tape and paper carefully. Not all the edges are perfect, but that's okay by me.

With the glassware added back in. I think it looks much better, don't you?

The finished project through the cabinet door. Pretty!

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com. Sign up for Lelah's News, a once-monthly newsletter.

Moving: stage five

So the heat is on now that movers have been scheduled for Friday. I have never moved with professional movers before, and I am tremendously excited. The last time I moved was five years ago, and I remember the aggravation of trying to get my couch up a flight of stairs and around several corners. I did it, with the help of my husband, my father, my sister and a surreptitious dismantling of an emergency exit sign. Though I'm not sure how the movers will choose to remove the couch and get it into the new apartment, I figure they have experience with this sort of thing and it will work out.

My sister and the couch, September 2005.

There are a few things on the to do list before they get here, though. We are mostly packed, so today we're going to focus on getting the new place painted and clean. The apartment has already been painted a lovely navajo white, but we are adding color to three rooms. Painting is physically demanding, but also satisfying. Once I get into the groove, I like seeing the fresh color bloom across the walls. Pulling off the painters tape once everything is dry is quite pleasurable.

I normally use painters tape with clients to create handy temporary or semi-permanent labels; I've enjoyed using it for its proper purpose of paint prep.

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com

Customized Command hooks

An organizing product that I've come to use and love in recent months are Command hooks made by 3M. They are instant stick-on hooks that work tremendously well and come off really easily, in case you want to move the hook. I'm experiencing this feature first hand as I pack up my apartment - the hooks are one of the first things that will be put up in the new place.

Here's a wonderful idea a friend of mine hand to customize the hooks she was using to hold keys in her entryway. When she painted the hallway, she painted right over the white plastic hooks, so they now blend right in to her decor. I love this simple but effective idea.

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com

Moving: stage three

Boxes. That pretty much sums up stage three of moving from our one-bedroom townhouse apartment to a two-bedroom that's got a laundry room and balcony to boot. The goal is to put stuff in boxes in such a way that they can't be crushed or broken when movers toss them in the back of a large truck, then stacking the boxes in such a way so they aren't a fire hazard.

We're repurposing boxes where we can and filling in with small cardboard moving boxes from Home Depot, reasonable at 67 cents apiece. 

Another, more fun, part of this stage is planning what colors we're painting various walls in the new place. The Glidden paint display at Home Depot has pre-mixed samples of its most popular paint colors. I got two today to try on our walls, before we 100% commit to Robin's Egg and Clear Blue Sky.

I'll let you know how they turn out.

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com