renting

My Pot Rack

August 30, 2011 Filed Under: about my nest, dishes, idhtbptbb, renting

Pot racks are like minivans with automatic doors, once you spoil yourself with one, you can never go back to not having one. Which is why I’ve never had a minivan with automatic doors. I cannot imagine my future self whining and complaining about having to open a car door, how annoying I would be. Back when we moved into this house with the pre-installed hooks just begging for a pot rack I was sure I wouldn’t use them. We have an embarrassing amount of cabinet space. More than enough to store all of our pots and pans.

But after a few months of living here, the thought of being able to just grab a pot from above instead of unstack it from a pile in a cabinet was just too enticing. It’s been two years since I dedicated a post to all things pot rack so I thought it was time to revisit. And my pot collection has grown.

Not only does my Ikea pot rack keep me from whining about having to reach into the dreaded cabinet to get my pots {oh the humanity} it also does something just as important for me. We are renting and as much as I appreciate a nice newish kitchen, this kitchen is not really my style and it’s all I can do sometimes to not whip out the can of paint. So, a pot rack is a great way for me to personalize a not so personal kitchen. So I purposely put white and aqua on my pot rack to help spread the Nester style love.

see the empty pot rack back there?

A few months ago when I was going through one of my purging stages, I cleaned off the pot rack and took it down to see if I liked it better without all that junk hanging up over us. I asked my husband what he thought and I’ll never forget his words, “It looks like we just moved in and we don’t know what we are doing.“ For some reason I took that as a huge compliment that somehow the fact that I had a bunch of junk hanging from our pot rack that my husband hits his head on because if I hang it higher I cannot reach it which is an even bigger annoyance for him because then he has to walk in and hand me every pot I need–made my husband feel like “we knew what we were doing”.

One of the other tricks I do with my pot rack is make sure to stagger the heights where stuff is hanging.

For me that meant digging in my junk drawer till I found some brown wrapped wire and twisting that up then hanging a hook on that. You could do the same with ribbon or twine. But I like that some of my pretty stuff is hanging at different heights. I even added hooks to those awful chains that hang down. I know I could cut those chains off but you know one of my renting mantras, if I might use it in another house soonish, why permanently altar something just so it can work better in this house?

My pot rack is still a work in progress, I need about 10 more hooks to really be able to hang everything I want and to balance stuff out~then I’ll really look like I know what I’m doing.

Pot racks….love ‘em or hate ‘em?

95 Comments

A Secret Decorating Ingredient :: It’s Awful

February 7, 2011 Filed Under: nesting, renting, seasonal

This weekend I finally found something that I had wanted for a very long time. I wanted a sailfish. I felt dumb even admitting it here a few times. Why in the world did I want a sailfish on my wall? I remember a fish {was it a sailfish?} on my grandparent’s wall growing up [...]

82 Comments

Master Bedroom

January 10, 2011 Filed Under: about my nest, budget living, home tour, idhtbptbb, paint, renting, thrifting

so far before Our bedroom had been neglected for far too long. I was ready for change and my requirements were: neutral colors a pretty bed drapes masculine and feminine feel places to sit an 8 x 10 rug surfaces to place books and tums and snoring medicine and my other old lady paraphernalia better [...]

175 Comments

31 Days To A Less Messy Nest Day 13:: Edit Much

October 13, 2010 Filed Under: 31 Days To a Less Messy Nest, renting, shop the house, thrifting

Lately, I’ve asked myself what’s the least amount of items I can have displayed and still love the look? Not that I’m trying to go minimalist or anything, I think you can tell that by my full gallery wall. But what has my obsession been with much? In years past, I asked myself, How can [...]

58 Comments

It’s Stuffy in Here

September 8, 2010 Filed Under: idhtbptbb, renting, Uncategorized

A month ago my sister and mom and I decided to have a yard sale this October. I’ve been slow with getting stuff together. I just had a big sale last year, I probably didn’t have much to sell. But suddenly I’ve been bombarded with reading poignet blog posts about stuff and then there was [...]

172 Comments

Chalkboard Fireplace Surround :: A Year Later

September 2, 2010 Filed Under: quickies, renting, seasonal

This corner fireplace has been a challenge to deal with. Here’s how it looked when we moved in. It has a yellowy fake marble surround and a tiny piece of weak, glued on scroll work. I had that carved wooden piece for years, I bought it from TJ Maxx for $13 so I nailed it [...]

54 Comments

Painting Pine Furniture

August 19, 2010 Filed Under: nesting, renting, shop the house

This is a repost from July 2009, but it’s one of the most common questions I get asked:: “where did you get your armoire?” I recently painted my yard sale purchased, pine armoire. This is how it looked before. I think about 25% percent of houses in my neighborhood have a piece of furniture that [...]

64 Comments

Making Over a Renter’s Kitchen

August 10, 2010 Filed Under: budget living, paint, renting

the right corner up there with the mixer is where I do half the kitchen work, in the evening it was DARK as night This is the second nicest kitchen I’ve ever had. But it’s not mine. It’s not mine because we rent, but it’s also not mine because it is simply not what I [...]