Antique Ladder repurposed as a plant rack

My kitchen was boring. White walls, and no counter space. This summer, Henry and I've been trying to fix up our apartment, make it more us, and more comfortable -while trying to spend as little as possible. We painted the walls a sunny yellow, and added the freezer and microwave shelf. I'd wanted an antique ladder to use as a plant rack above my precious south facing kitchen window for a while, and finally got it up last month. Now I'm actually getting around to sharing it! I found the idea on the blogosphere somewhere, and as a plant nut with no window space in my apartment, I'm always looking for creative ways to take advantage of my limited light. After unsuccessfully hunting at thrift stores, garage sales, and antique stores, I found this website: A Rustic Garden offers garden  accents and fencing, and they sell antique wooden ladders by the rung! Maybe it cost a bit more than I should have spent, but it was too good an idea to pass up, and it was such an easy way to get exactly what I was looking for! Isn't the interwebs great?

The ladder was hung with ceiling hooks and chain, very easy-peasy, and I like the mix of wood and metal, just wish I could have found white or silver hooks. 

I wanted to add some more color, and even though in these pictures all the accents look black, they are actually a pretty navy blue. The baskets I found at Stein's Garden and Gifts for a couple of bucks a piece, and I glued a navy ribbon around each to make them match the window swag. I hung the baskets on a bit of chain wrapped around the rungs of the ladder.

 I also attempted to make some candles, with the thought that the would make a really cool atmosphere for nice dinners. The mason jars were great, but since they are so big, I thought I would fill them partway with coffee beans so I wouldn't need so much wax. I didn't count on half the beans floating. I also ran out of wax, so I couldn't do multiple pours as the wax shrunk, so I wound up with essentially hollow candles. The coffee beans also smoke a lot when they catch fire, so I think I'll need to remake these before using them for a romantic dinner! At least they look cool unlit, right?

Over all I'm super happy with how this turned out, and I love looking at it in my much prettier kitchen! Plants shown by the way are Vanilla, Peperomia (Rugby Football Plant), Kaffir Lilly, Rose Geranium, and Tillandsia.

Repurposed Drawers as Shelves

A while ago I saw a magazine cover at work where an entire headboard was made out of old dresser drawers. I've been trying to find the picture of it online, and I think its a lost cause, since I can't remember the name of the magazine. In the mean time I've found other concepts, such as this:

Drawers used to make a modular bookcase

Finding the drawers in the first place was the hardest part of this whole project. I was hoping I would just serendipitously find them on the side of the road, but that hasn't happened yet, so I wound up posting an ad on craigslist. 1 person actually responded, and I picked up these 4 great drawers. They were the perfect size to use as mass market bookshelves. 

The paper in the bottom of them needed to come out, and they needed a good cleaning, but otherwise they were in great shape. Any they had awesome handles!!! 

I removed the hardware and spray-painted them my favorite moss/sage green, and then re-installed the drawer-pulls. I didn't feel like doing the measuring and math, but luckily Henry wanted to play, so he hung them up on the wall for me. We used "large safety spring Flush Mount Hangers"to hang them, and they seem to work really well. 

My bookshelf was stacked double thick with mass markets, so these drawers were great to actually be able to start organizing them!! Don't judge our nerdy science fiction tastes... I love how they turned out! 

Now I have three other blank white walls in our spare bedroom to deal with, and still have trade paperbacks double stacked on the bookshelf. Anyone got any drawers?