Have You Seen My Keys?

If Adam had a nickel for every time he heard me ask that question, he'd be rich. Or at least slightly better off. So we decided to do something about it - create a space in our house (near an entrance) for things like keys, sunglasses and darling notes to one another. We began to brain storm - it had to be functional and be able to keep our accouterments organized without taking up too much space, and of course I'd like for it to look nice. Ta-da! Let's repurpose an old medicine cabinet into a mini command center!

I sent Adam off to our favorite recycled housewares store - not expecting to strike it rich the first time out - but he pleasantly surprised me with this great find.

Solid wood and in good shape and only $20. Sold. My initial thought had been to paint the interior white (it was a pale yellow and very dirty) so I set about sanding the surface to prep it for paint and as I let the sanding go a little too far I discovered the interior wood to have a really nice grain to it. Hmm..

Two rounds of paint stripper and a round of sanding and I was left with a sort of "distressed" look. I had hoped to rid it of all the paint but I sort of liked the result so I put on a clear coat to seal it all and called it good.

To install it into the wall Adam located a stud bay (the space between two studs) and cut a rectangle the size of the cabinet. He mounted it into the opening and attached it with screws to the studs on both sides.

Next was to fashion new shelves (the original ones were glass) and find small boxes narrow enough to fit on the shelves and hold our things. Adam headed to ikea and killed two birds with one stone by picking up a package of these wood magazine holders. The width of the wood was perfect for the thin shelving grooves and what he didn't use for shelving he cut down and cleaned up to be the storage boxes. PS Grand Budapest Hotel was great and I recommend you go see it. 

Then he reinforced one of the shelves with a small strip of wood and installed cup hooks along it to house our keys.

To create a space where we could leave the above mentioned love notes we took a sheet of magnetic sheet metal, cut it to the size of the interior of the door within its frame, and glued it in place.

Lastly I painted the outside of the door with chalkboard paint and now, as you can see, it's always Happy Hour at our house. You might notice the small patch job to the side of the cabinet - we had something hanging there originally and still need to touch up the paint but we're busy enjoying happy hour...

What's the most creative way you've seen someone repurpose something? Do you have a "repurposed" favorite in your house?