Since I seem to be a home furnishings post writing frenzy, I found one more item to write about in my backlog of pictures.
Shortly after we moved in, I decided I needed something to hang coats/store stuff over by the sliding glass door in the north hall. I ended up buying a bench/coat rack/thing online. It worked well enough but became easily cluttered. Plus Tenar liked to occasionally climb up to the top shelf and eat things he should not. I hardly ever used the bench because it would get covered with stuff as I tended to use it as a landing space when coming in the door.
So I went online (this time to Overstock.com) and found a suitable option: a shelf with a row of hooks and a hanging bar. The measurements would fit the space and it wasn’t ugly, so I put in my order.
It arrived promptly and after I unboxed everything, I pulled out my drill, level, and a pencil and got to work. Soon enough it was in place and ready for use. As you can see in the pics below it really did de-clutter the spot while providing the same amount of storage as the bench.
Or course without the bench bit of the old rack I was missing a much needed spot to set things when coming in that door — which is the way I enter or exit then house most often.
Shortly after the shelf arrived I was done at the local nursery (plants not human) and they had a couple of small tables that caught my eye. Since I had the truck and they weren’t expensive, I snapped them up and brought them home.
Once home, I took the wooden tops off (just had to undo a few screws) and sealed the tops with a couple of coats of polyurethane. Once that cured, I reattached the tops and set the tables just inside the sliding glass doors nearest my office.
An added bonus is that Tenar loves it. In the mornings, when I have coffee or tea in my wee armchair he likes to climb up to the top metal rung. In the past a small play stand I made sat by the door and this is a huge improvement, not just in terms of height, but also the tables are so much prettier.
And what happened to the hold hack rat/bench stand/thingy? Well thanks to Freecycle.org (one of my favorite sites for re-homing things) after I dusted it off a bit, I found someone to take it away and give it more use.