Hanging Things Around the House

One of my favorite ways to organize and decorate my small apartment is to hang things. Getting stuff on the walls is not only useful, but it can be a way to add decoration to the wall (rather than just hanging artwork).
Here are some moments around the house that serve function and design:

We have a small hallway when you enter the apartment. Most of it is filled with furniture, but we do have our little coat/hat/umbrella frog hanger that we bought at our favorite antique shop in Healdsburg. James was sold on it once he realized that one of the frogs is playing a banjo.

We wanted to get one of James' banjos off the floor and looked at ordering a wall mount, but were not impressed with the look of them. So, we created this piece out of a scrap of wood and a basic red tool hook. It fits the banjo neck perfectly and better yet, all the elements were free!

This is one of my favorite areas in the kitchen. We hung a vintage pepsi box that holds various nick-nacks. Hanging to the left of the box are a set of old hot plates that my brother gave me for Christmas. Under the pepsi box is a scrap of wood that we screwed vintage hooks into and use to hang our dish towels. Lots of "hanging" things in this area!

Our kitchen has an awkward wall where the bottom of the wall extends out, making it hard to put furniture against the wall. So, we bought these nifty shelves from Ikea to create much needed storage on that wall. We're able to hang pans off of it and store things above.

Converted Cabinet

This little cabinet was found on the streets of the Marina. My sister and I saw the potential, though the doors had been removed and the knobs were tacky. We stuffed it in James' car, with much puzzling to fit both Claire and the furniture safely in the backseat. We learned two things: do not compromise the safety of people for your furniture, and do not give up when packing furniture in tight spaces.

James and I decided to convert this piece for our own use. I'd been wanting to try distressing planks of wood (the salvaged wood look)and found that the doors allowed for this experiment. After playing around with color, sanding and the dark furniture wax, we came up with this piece. I like the way it combines the look of old (on the planks) and new (the matte finish on the rest of the cabinet). We also bought some new hardware that compliments the distressed feel. We are now using the cabinet in our multi-purpose (now mostly furniture restoration)room. It hides our office items, like paper, envelopes, staplers, etc. Useful, check! Free, check! Fun, check!