Shoes and Ladders

I have an infatuation with heels (and it's justified: I'm 5'2"!). Though we live in the same city, I do not have Carrie Bradshaw's closet space for them (my apartment = Carrie's closet size... sniff, sniff).

Carrie Bradshaw closet

... if only.

Welp, on to Plan B. This image has been in the back of my mind for years (literally... I think I pinned it right out of high school):

shoes ladder orig pin

... and I had seen other ways that ladders were used for storage:

ladder inspo 2

ladder inspo 1

It's obviously not a novel idea... just last week I was in this fabulous shop in Brooklyn Heights, Collyer's Mansion, and snapped this picture:

ladder inspo 3

I had looked all around for a vintage wood ladder, but they were pricier than I expected/wanted to spend, so I enlisted my long-suffering father for the task. Poor guy is doomed to be my workhorse forever.

I showed him the inspiration image of the ladder with shoes, drew a diagram of what I imagined in a ladder of my own, and the next thing I knew, he whipped this out.

ladder 1

Pretty amazing, right? And so much more special than anything I could've bought.

ladder6

We had all the wood in the garage, most of it making up the shipping crates from our return from Saudi Arabia 17 years ago... it pays to be a pack rat! Details like that turn pieces in a room into stories.

ladder2

And it doubles as a hanger for satchels and totes!

ladder4

Even if the heels are gathering dust (city life and high heels don't mix), I love the vertical aspect of the ladder leaning against the wall. And maybe having them visible will be a reminder to stop buying them... flats are the way to go in this walking city! 

DIY: Tiny Shelf Makeover

One of my favorite things to do when redecorating a room is to see what existing furniture I have that can be reworked for a fresh look (like I did with my atlas-covered desk). During my last year of college I needed a small bedside table to hold a few necessities--namely, my ever-growing pile of books and a lamp with which to read them. I already had this little dresser with drawers that my grandfather had made years and years ago, which had been painted and repainted umpteen times. I had changed out his original knobs for these funky ones another time, but the drawers just weren't going to work for my books.

I liked the navy, so didn't bother painting it yet again. Instead, I took the drawers out and, taking care to keep the face of the piece navy (but apparently not careful enough--don't look too closely! A little painter's tape might have been helpful here...), spray painted the inside silver. I wanted something a little glitzy inside, but not too overboard. For the record, I don't always love to paint old furniture, especially pieces with sentimental value, but because this already had about five layers of paint on it, I didn't feel too badly.

With a little (okay, a lot; okay, he did it all) help from my dad, boards were cut to easily slide into the dresser as shelves instead of the drawers. I covered them in some wrapping paper I had laying around and reinforced the edges with clear packing tape--a great little trick to keep the edges from getting banged up, which you can't see unless getting very up close and personal! You can see where I was running out of paper and turned the stripes the opposite direction on the last shelf. Gives a little personality :)

Then I filled it with books! And a clementine crate, which fit perfectly, to hold odds and ends.

And that was that! I loved this makeover because I only used things I already had (read: free!), and it was so quick to do--and so functional! Here it is in situ in my old Charlottesville room:

What about you? Do you have any successful furniture makeovers? Contact me here or let me know in the comments below--I'd love to share them on the blog!