If you follow my 365 blog, you know I had the drill out the other day.
That’s because I was busy hanging things up.
I found this long white shelf at Goodwill for $4 and decided to bring it home for Sonia and Lisey.
If you have girls like mine, then you know that they always have a bunch of little things that need homes. Animals, jars, origami, play-doh creations….the list is endless.
So, now Sonia and Lisey have a bit more space for their special things.
They wasted no time in filling that shelf to the brim.
The fullness of the shelf doesn’t really match my personal design taste (I’m a sparse kinda gal!), but the girls are pleased. And really, I’m happy that these small things aren’t on the floor or windowsills now.
I found a little white shelf at Goodwill for Zoe too, so all her little animals have a place to sit.
These two hooks were the last things that needed to be hung. I bought ‘em new, but they were less than $5 apiece, and I think they look great!
Classy. Mmm-hmmm.
Sonia and Lisey’s towels used to hang on over-the-closet-door hooks which worked great when they were little and I was the one supervising bathtime. But now that they’re older and they hang up their own towels, the closet door hooks were just not working out.
This is much, much better.
Hey, if you need to hang something up on your walls, I highly recommend this type of drywall anchor. You just use a screwdriver to screw the plastic piece into the wall (no drilling required), and then screw the metal screw into the anchor. Easy-peasy.
(Of course, if you happen to run into a stud like I did when I was hanging up the towel hooks, you’ll have to get the drill out. But that’s sort of good because screwing things into studs is always better than using drywall anchors.)
I like these anchors because they tend to stay in the drywall much better than typical drywall anchors. You can hang some pretty heavy stuff on these, and they still sit firmly in place.
You should be able to find these at most home improvement stores, and I just saw that they even come in a metal version online
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Today’s 365 post: These have seen better days.
Joshua’s 365 post: The Happy Chicken
{ 22 comments… read them below or add one }
Great shelves! We recently moved to South Africa (from Boston), where the second hand market is so different from the U.S. treasure trove- it’s less common to update, and also less common to get rid of stuff so second hand is a lot more expensive. But we’re learning fast and are forced to get creative with repurposing what we find.
The other thing we’re learning about is brick walls. Much harder to drill into, but in general the walls can hold a lot and I don’t have to think about studs.
That’s a good sign, though, huh? That people hang on to their possessions instead of endlessly upgrading.
I love the shelves – they look like crown moulding which is awesome.
There is a complete mixture of walls in my house. Never know whether I’m going to find plasterboard (drywall), studs, bricks, crumbly old plaster or inpenetrable concrete. So my tip is to have these anchors AND normal rawlplugs/screws that fit in the same size drill hole. That way you can drill an exploratory hole and then put in whichever is going to work best.
I want to do home improvement because my husband hates it and is bad at it (but he is a good mechanic
- can you give any advice about painting walls? I have never tried and it scares me!
Oh, that doesn’t need to be scary!
Use good tape (frog tape) to tape off your trim and such, use a decent roller (mid-grade), and use good paint (like Behr).
And don’t glop it on too thick…thin coats are always better and they’re less prone to dripping.
You can do this!
Zoe’s shelf is so tiny and cute – love it!
I love getting these sort of projects done. Somehow they are even more satisfying than the big ones :0)
Just finished a project a few minutes ago using these anchors. Makes me more motivated to hang b/c I don’t have to find studs.
I know, right? It’s so easy.
That white shelf from Goodwill is a fabulous find. I found something sort of similar at a yard sale..and the lady was giving it away for FREE…Yeah!!! Someday I’ll get it up on the wall, but I definitely want to make sure that it gets attached to the studs in the wall…That and it’s my aunt house, and it’s her request
Love and hugs from the ocean shores of California, Heather 
These shelves look great! I need lots of shelves right now I’m thinking about having some pallet shelves for our books on the wall. Plus our bathroom needs a makeover from dog damage. So glad she lives outdoors now.
Love those anchors too. The package tells you how much weight one will support. You can save money by buying the right size instead of making do with something too big.
Kristen – I have to recommend the metal anchors, they don’t break as you go in and are so much better…we use them all the time!
Ooh, good to know. I did break one when I was installing things that day.
Great tip on the anchors! We have plasterboard, which is actually NOT the same as drywall. It’s similar in that it’s still a gypsum board, but with a layer of plaster applied as a final finish instead of just mud and tape.
Plasterboard is what came between plaster-and-lathe and modern drywall, and it’s typically found in houses from the 40s and early 50s. Plaster was applied over the top because the early drywall couldn’t be manufactured with a paper surface that was considered to be smooth enough and non-porous enough to apply paint directly.
Since it is similar to drywall, I can usually get away with anchors. It’s also thicker than modern drywall, so I have to be careful using anything designed with modern drywall in mind (like finding studs or installing the boxes that encase electrical outlets and are designed to clamp onto the drywall!).
I wish I saw this post 6 months ago when I decided to put up shelves as well. Didn’t know I had to use drywall anchors…and yes, the results weren’t pretty.
That shelf is just perfect for fun little trinkets!
That big shelf looks exactly like the ones we have (originally from Pottery Barn, ooh la la) that hang in my son’s room. Even though he’s older than your girls (he’s 10-1/2), he has so many little special things and downright weird (to me!) things that he cherishes. He bought a trilobite fossil and proudly displays it there! I had to laugh when I saw the mini pumpkin on your shelf. When he was little, he carried one around for months until it finally was too gross to keep.
Well. I will pretend that mine is originally from Pottery Barn because it makes me feel like $4 was an even better price. Hee.
I LOVE the shelves! I think one of them looks like a fireplace mantle, which I always think are sooo cool!!
Those are lovely treasures. I like the blue bottle, the little pumpkin, and Zoe’s Japanese erasers!