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Kitchen Spice Shelf

My new favourite show is called House Invaders seen on BBC America. The show's premise is to do a makeover with a thrifty twist. An intrepid designer and a team of DIY experts invade homes and perform makeovers with absolutely no money by recycling material already in the house. Did you get that? They spend absolutely NO MONEY. If that's not the most useful show on TV I dont know what is. I certainly dont have a thousand dollars lying around so I can decorate my neighbour's house. And I sure as hell wouldnt want someone else decorating mine! That's why I have been making efforts lately to follow that model. Decorating and being crafty with no money. I dont have any more money to spend anyway.

The picture above is one of my House Invader-esque projects. The bottom shelf was already in place above my sink. I had it crammed with stuff but still it left a big gaping hole above it because nothing was tall enough to fill it. While scrounging in the closet for a garbage bag I came across some old Ikea shelves that used to hang in my previous bedroom. They had been earmarked for my bathroom but I have four of them so I didnt see why I couldnt spread them around a bit. Besides, this project was meant to be. The shelf fit perfectly in the space and I had leftover red paint from my toyboxes to which I added a touch of water for a colour wash effect. I also had black and white paints and brushes in my craft closet leftover from god knows what. The paint style was inspired by my kitchen table and chairs.

I didnt know that I had the "music" plate but I have so much china that you never know what youre gonna find in my cupboards. It was quite a pleasing bit of kismet. (The shelf has a plate rail.)

This entire project took under an hour to complete including paint drying time and installation. Now I have all of my spices, fancy olive oils and utensils right where I need them. Any day now I'll even learn how to cook with them.

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