Back It Up

Happy Inauguration Day, everyone! I'm kinda upset that I missed it as I forgot about the three hour time difference (again), I'm still not used to being on West Coast time yet! I'm sure I'll get  an opportunity to see it online somewhere but there's something about seeing historic events in real time that's much better. Oh well.

I recently completed a really easy project that I've been dying to do since I saw it featured in the Young House Love book that I ordered back in November:

They took colorful wrapping paper or scrapbook paper to make the backs of their shelves more visually interesting. I have loved the idea of adding something special to some standard shelving and I finally got my chance!

It's no secret anymore that my storage in our area of the house is pretty much non-existent. We used to have one walk-in closet, one linen closet, a living room closet, and a second bedroom closet (not to mention a bathroom sink storage cabinet). And now: my little bedroom closet is all we have.

So, my answer? Shelving. Shelving with containers and baskets (and Russ absolutely hates baskets so he's learning to live with them... I guess he doesn't like wicker?). 

Yeah, I know it's not the most attractive thing in the world... but it's going to have to work for the time that we're in this rental house. 

To orient everyone, the door off to the left is our bedroom and the area off to the right is the laundry room that leads to an outside door. If you were to turn around from this spot you'd be heading into the game room/office area. There's also a bathroom to the right of this photo as well. 

I really thought that I'd probably have to order some wrapping paper that I liked online because I didn't think I'd find anything I wanted in town (which is pretty stupid anyway because you can find anything you want pretty much in Seattle... besides a Super Walmart, weird right?!... And Chick-fil-a... And there's only one Popeye's in the area and that's near Ikea! But I digress...)

I stumbled upon some wrapping paper at Homegoods for $2.99 that was almost exactly the same as one of the wrapping papers from Paper Source that I was pinning on Pinterest!

via Paper Source

Boom! Sold! 

I didn't want to buy foam board to cover with the paper because that seemed a little too involved for my little goofy shelf. Plus, I know that this will only be temporary as I'm sure my shelf backing tastes will change and I might want to spice it up another way.

So, my solution was just some easy masking tape to adhere the paper. No big deal, just enough to keep the paper stuck.

I used the shelves to measure the width of the paper for the backing which made it easier than taking a tape measure to it.

I stuck the paper to the tape and cut off the excess (the middle shelf is not moveable for stability of the structure).

I didn't worry too much about making the lines insanely perfect because there will be stuff in front of the backing and my paper didn't make mistakes too obvious. Also, if someone is looking that closely at your stuff perhaps you need to tell them to look closely at the other side of your front door. Just sayin'. 

And that's it. Super, super simple. It's been a few weeks since I put the paper up and the tape is holding just fine. The masking tape is also pretty easily removable that I don't think it'll peel off any of the backing when I want to make a change.

I will paint that awful, awful concrete floor someday... soon.

To dress up my little cat food containers on the top shelf, I used some chalkboard decals I found at Hobby Lobby for $7.

I think they turned out pretty adorable AND I get to draw on something... which I love to do.

My thoughts on this project can be perfectly summed up with this 'rental mantra': "It's not perfect, but it's getting there." There's also... "It'll have to do" and "I can't figure out anything else!" But, I prefer the former.