(very small) home improvements

I wish I had remembered to take a "before" pic for this post but I am a bit too scattered for that these days! Nonetheless, in our hall we have a strange and useful cubby of sorts built into the wall just above the air intake for the HVAC. The man who first built this house and who lived here for about 40 years (!) was kind of a nutcase and also really cool. He was a handyman with OCD and we find little lists and odd things hiding in drawers and cabinets - reminders of Mr. Nelson. Anyway, the space is pretty cool because the inside of the door holds a ton of useful things on hooks: screw drivers, tape, a shoe horn, an extra air filter, lint rollers (a *must* with three dogs), nails, screws, a hammer........ this keeps us from having to run down to the basement where all of the "real" tools are kept every time we want to do something small like hang a picture.

Anyway, the front of this thing was super ugly - basically just a big piece of wood panelling inside a frame... so I painted it with chalkboard paint and left a love letter to my hubby! (Now, I know that chalkboard paint has had it's run on design websites and everyone is completely over it and all, but I love black and white more than just about anything and therefore with my white walls I will heart the matte black of chalkboard paint - AND it's functionality- forever!)

(much improved!)

Next, I embraced another love of mine - succulents! Every year at the beginning of summer I head out to buy a few more of these guys - because it's likely I killed quite a few from the last year by leaving them outside past first frost! I think my dollar store dinosaurs add that little touch of "quirk" that make these extra fun:



I love any small project that brightens up the space with a sense of humor and bring some life to your home - don't you?