DIY Project That Went Amok

In my tiny little foyer there was a hall/coat tree.
It held everything and more.

In the bottom which opened it held umbrella's, sidewalk salt for winter, doggy poop bags, shamwow for when the dog comes in wet, boots, trakkers for ice etc.
The coats and caps were all over the hooks. It always looked messy all the time.
It only made it look like I didn't have enough closet space - and I don't!

The hall closet is so damn small that it only holds a couple of coats. 
It also has weird angles in the closet so that cuts into space as well.

So when going out to walk the dog you could just grab your coat and go with this hall tree. Convenient but messy looking. The convenience outweighed the mess for 12 years. 
Then I just couldn't take it anymore. But I'm also broke so I couldn't buy anything nice either.

So what's a gal to do?
After I painted all the downstairs doors and put on new door knobs and hinges I put in racks on the inside of the doors. Those held a great deal of things that were in the bottom of the hall tree. I then cleaned out the teeny tiny little closet and got as many coats in there as I could without stuffing them.  Now I just needed something for the foyer that held all our stuff and still looked less messy.  Hard to be creative when broke and one lives in a small place. (actually 2200 sq ft isn't really all that small but it's small on storage for sure!)

I sat down and determined what I needed up there. Someplace for our keys.
Quick access to our hats, scarves, gloves, trakkers and dog things.  
So I bought a cheap piece of IKEA furniture unfinished. I painted it black and I decoupaged maps on the front of the drawers. I removed the door handles that came with the dresser and put on glass knobs.

Now each drawer is assigned it's duty. 
Example is the top left drawer is all Izzy all the time. Her chuck -it, her poop bags, her sham wow, etc. The top right is all Rick. I put in canvas boxes and divided things for Rick. 
Anything I can do to organize it for Rick is a helpful thing for me. (wink wink)
I continued down the dresser. It holds all things and more. 
I was loving the storage aspect of this.  The look well....not so much.

The bowl on the top made by my step daughter holds our keys. We have a beautiufully hand carved box that I bought at the Issaquah Salmon Day Festival that holds our sunglasses. 
We have a beautiful vase made of several different woods endemic to Jamaica. The picture above the dresser is a pen and ink drawing of the Flagship Niagara from the battle of Lake Erie.  There is even a funny wire piece of art you may be able to see in the pic. We got this piece at an art show because it made us laugh. It is of a man and a woman in a canoe and they have run themselves onto a rock.  Since this has happened to Rick and I we fell in love with this piece and had to buy it.  We have a very funny story that went with it and we couldn't leave without buying it. For the life of us we can't recall what city we bought this though. 
Bottom line is this was all done to house things from our travels and where we've lived as well as the maps to tie it all in.  And holding all our stuff neatly was a bonus.

It didn't turn out as well as I had hoped, in fact I don't like it much. But it will do for now. 
It's better than all those coats and hats all strewn about in my foyer. I just thought it was awful to see that hot mess when you walked into my home. I admit I miss it already because of the convenience but I don't miss the mess.

I did this all for $149. Not bad huh? I had the maps. I had the decoupage things necessary. So all I bought was the dresser, paint, and the knobs. 

My new life of living on a budget sucks but I am finding ways to be creative. 
Not loving it but one does what one has to do.  It won't be there for 12 yrs like the other furniture but for the time being it will be okay.

I put the hall tree in the dining room and proceeded to try to sell it. Oh my. 
Craig's List is every nut job known to man kind. Then I did our community's face book page and people didn't show up when they said they would.  It was all a royal pain in the arse. Finally I called a friend and said, "You want it? Come and get it  - just get it out of my house by Thanksgiving and it's free!" Finally got rid of it this past weekend. 
I knew she would like "free. " She's a frugal gal.

So this is my DIY that went amok. It is far neater though and I do like neat better than cluttered. But it's not what I wanted it to be. 

 Now if only we would stop taking off our shoes and leaving them here that too would look better. But the dog can stay, she's cute.

 These are the two items on the top left corner of the hall table/dresser- my blogger buddy Jenny made these. I have a few of her pieces. Most are very colorful these just happen to both be dark.But I love what they say.  Go check out her site. She has some great works.