Monday, August 22, 2011

Homework Solution (or boredom buster)



This past Saturday, I WAS BORED!

Seriously, I felt like an annoying kid asking, "Are we there yet?" (except it was "Is it time for dinner yet?").

So, to find something to do with my time, I checked The Design Confidential and Ana White's Facebook pages for project requests. I've come to be kinda handy at drawing up plans, so I figured I'd give it a "go."

One of the more popular requests was the Daily System from PB.










Source: Pottery Barn













I've kept coming back to this, because it looks SO EASY, but I couldn't quite figure out exactly HOW it done.

The flat surfaces (cork board/white board) have all been covered in blogs, so I wasn't too concerned with them... It was THIS GUY that I wanted to tackle.






Source: Pottery Barn
















And you know what? In all the times I'd looked at it, I've never looked at the above image..

DUH! It goes in a FRAME!

When I was trying to figure out the gallery wall in my living room, I had gotten a bunch of different sized frames. I still had four 11x14 frames left over, so I decided to tackle this system.

To make sure proportions and dimensions were correct, I first came up with a few construction paper templates, and assembled them in the frames.



















When I got the sizes to be what I wanted, I drew up a master template and took it outside to start cutting. I ended up with this. If you plan to do this, make sure you measure the inside of your frame. That's the width of the "fronts". They're 5 & 6 inches high.











But you've already seen this much.


























With paper, you don't have to take into account the width of the wood when assembling, so I had to figure out where/how much I had to notch out to make the top front (the 6 inch one) fit (it still had to touch the glass on the frame, so papers didn't fall straight through).


















From here, I attached the sides of the bin to the inside of the picture frame using wood glue. Then I put the fronts on with more wood glue, and a little weight...




New use of rice 'n beans, hmm?













When it dried, I caulked the seams (something I would ALWAYS suggest for a more professional appearance) and wiped away the excess with a damp sponge.

Got her all spray painted up, and now I LOVE her!











































To make your own, you need an 11x14 frame and some scrap 1/4" ply.

I submitted this plan  to ana-white.com (here's the link), so you can download the template and get the cut list from there.

20 comments:

  1. Very clever. Love how it turned out. :) Would love for you to link this up to my (wow me) wednesday link party going on right now on my blog. :)

    Ginger
    gingersnapcrafts.blogspot.com

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  2. Great job.! I love how everything is perfectly staged for the final pics too

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  3. I love it!! I think I"m going to build it. Thank you for being awesome.

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  4. Dang, woman. That's awesome! Well done!

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  5. Ginger - Thanks, I checked it out!

    Dennis - Haha, I know, I normally don't have flowers at my desk! But they're still here, and I LOVE it, so it might be a new trend!

    Amanda, Hollow Squirrel & Ronda - THANKS! If you do build it, I'd love to see! You can link it up to the plan on ana-white.com!

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  6. Love it! It's on my To-Do List. :)

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  7. I love it! Also, where did you get that tablecloth? Target?

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  8. YES! The table cloth was on clearance at Target (for $10!!!!).

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  9. Can you send me the dimensions of your final master template for the front and sides?

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  10. This is exactly what I need. Pottery Barn is so expensive!! Thanks!

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  11. @Toya | The Limerick Lane Thank YOU for checkin' it out! :-) I'd love to see if you do it!!!!

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  12. You are awesome! I have drooled over this Pottery Barn mail organizer for years...wishing I could just buy one, but never wanting to fork over the cash. You make it look so simple. I'm so impressed that you just decided to figure it out and did it! You're my new idol! :)

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    1. I could SO get used to being called an idol. LOL! But it only looks easy because it is. Not like, I'm awesome or anything. Can't do anything most people can't do!!! So I'll bet you can do it ;-) Oh! And for cheap labels like the PB ones? Go to JoAnne's or Hobby Lobby, and look in the scrapbooking section. They have a ton of different kinds. I just used ones that matched the colors in the rest of the room!

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  13. i was so tempeted to buy the one from PB b/c i love the look of it and can't seem to find anything like it. BUT now i came across this and OMG!!!! I love it. I am going to make them this weekend. Thank you, Thank you so much for this.

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  14. Hey Gina, you even got me in Germany hooked on your blog. I love the way you make it look so easy. Thank you for sharing!

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  15. Hey Gina, may sound weird, but I'm not so craftsy...any chance we can talk about payment for you (or someone else on this blog) to do this for me?? I'm TERRIBLE at this sort of thing but absolutely adore this!

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  16. Just finished turning a hanging wall mirror/shelf with hooks into a mail center using your tutorial! Thank you so much for helping me transform what was headed for a garage sale or worse into a gorgeous mail center for my daughter. Total cost of supplies and cutesy decorations for it.....$16 as opposed to $50+ (and on sale) at Pottery Barn!

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    1. Best. Comment. Ever! Thank you for taking the time to let me know! You are awesome!

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  17. Can it fit a letter sized file folder?

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