06/28/2011
This summer is all about renewal for me. Out with the old and in with the new. Well, more like rearrange the old so that the new can fit, too.
Anyway, my room is filled with things leftover from elementary school onwards. Space is very limited, and while I've let go of a few things, I still don't have the space I need.
For years the walls of my room were left to the whims of my experimentation in taping up all sorts of decorations. Everything from Spice Girls posters, to magazine cut outs of hot celebrities to feather boas and other art projects has graced my walls. When I started college, I took down a lot of these things so my walls have been relatively blank. But now that I'm back, I need to put boxes somewhere, and I noticed that some of my sturdy bookshelves were filled with decorative knick knacks and figurines taking up valuable space. I also realized that a lot of space on my walls were not being utilized.
So I decided I would get floating shelves and use the space above my window, door, and other wall space that is just out of reach for display objects I don't usually need. I looked online for shelves, but there are so many it's almost overwhelming, and on a trip to Target with my sister one day I noticed they had floating shelves. I went back a few days later to buy two shelves and these cute block like shelves.
One thing about college I loved was that I got to use powertools in some of my art classes- drills, power screwdrivers, dremmels, etc. At home, my dad is the one who uses those and I usually didn't get a chance to use it because he's an engineer and a bit of a perfectionist, which is wonderful, but it didn't allow me to learn how to use them. So this time around with my shelves, I wanted to do it all by myself.
I decided to put up the shelf above my window first, since it was in the most difficult location to reach, above the window from my bed, which is on wobbly bed risers (I've knocked my bed over twice this summer, squishing my prints and works on paper underneath! They seem okay, no worries!)
What I found with this first shelf was that it was terribly difficult to get the plastic dry wall screws into the wall. I asked my dad for the drills, as initially I was trying to do this with just the screwdriver as the directions said I could. So he came up and he explained that usually there's often a board above the window which I was probably trying to screw into. So naturally he took over requiring only a little bit my help. But after finally getting the mounting strip into the wall, we discovered that there was a flaw with the design of the shelf. There was a lip on the shelf itself which hit the wall before the other half of the mounting strip could reach the other, so it wasn't stable. After debating solutions, including returning the darned thing, we decided to add washers to the shelf. And that did the trick! Or it worked well enough to get the half of the mounting strip on the shelf to be level with the lip of the shelf. After much trial and tribulation, we got it!
This summer is all about renewal for me. Out with the old and in with the new. Well, more like rearrange the old so that the new can fit, too.
Anyway, my room is filled with things leftover from elementary school onwards. Space is very limited, and while I've let go of a few things, I still don't have the space I need.
For years the walls of my room were left to the whims of my experimentation in taping up all sorts of decorations. Everything from Spice Girls posters, to magazine cut outs of hot celebrities to feather boas and other art projects has graced my walls. When I started college, I took down a lot of these things so my walls have been relatively blank. But now that I'm back, I need to put boxes somewhere, and I noticed that some of my sturdy bookshelves were filled with decorative knick knacks and figurines taking up valuable space. I also realized that a lot of space on my walls were not being utilized.
So I decided I would get floating shelves and use the space above my window, door, and other wall space that is just out of reach for display objects I don't usually need. I looked online for shelves, but there are so many it's almost overwhelming, and on a trip to Target with my sister one day I noticed they had floating shelves. I went back a few days later to buy two shelves and these cute block like shelves.
One thing about college I loved was that I got to use powertools in some of my art classes- drills, power screwdrivers, dremmels, etc. At home, my dad is the one who uses those and I usually didn't get a chance to use it because he's an engineer and a bit of a perfectionist, which is wonderful, but it didn't allow me to learn how to use them. So this time around with my shelves, I wanted to do it all by myself.
I decided to put up the shelf above my window first, since it was in the most difficult location to reach, above the window from my bed, which is on wobbly bed risers (I've knocked my bed over twice this summer, squishing my prints and works on paper underneath! They seem okay, no worries!)
What I found with this first shelf was that it was terribly difficult to get the plastic dry wall screws into the wall. I asked my dad for the drills, as initially I was trying to do this with just the screwdriver as the directions said I could. So he came up and he explained that usually there's often a board above the window which I was probably trying to screw into. So naturally he took over requiring only a little bit my help. But after finally getting the mounting strip into the wall, we discovered that there was a flaw with the design of the shelf. There was a lip on the shelf itself which hit the wall before the other half of the mounting strip could reach the other, so it wasn't stable. After debating solutions, including returning the darned thing, we decided to add washers to the shelf. And that did the trick! Or it worked well enough to get the half of the mounting strip on the shelf to be level with the lip of the shelf. After much trial and tribulation, we got it!
Here is the final result. I've probably already put too much stuff on it. Also note to self: I need to repair those blinds somehow. And get a new curtain rod...The next shelf I put above my door went up much more quickly and fell into place smoothly, probably because we knew to add the washers, and we weren't in a small space. Now it is home to my koala collection (1/3 of the size it used to be, I packed away much of it, believe it or not).
Here is that shelf! Note: I also stuck my samurai cow, Mozart action figure and Van Gogh action figure, holding his spare head, on the shelfA few days later I put up my three boxes all on my own. Unfortunately things didn't go as easily as I had hoped. While there may not have been studs, the place I tried to put it was near a corner of my closet, so there were things in the wall I didn't expect. The drywall screws did not work out well, and I managed to make a large hole in my wall, where no matter what I couldn't get it! Ooops. My dad wasn't as mad as I thought he would be, he just said he had spackle somewhere I could use.
Here is a picture of the Hole in my wall.
And here is the final result of the three boxes, no longer in size order as I had first hoped, but what could I do? I also hung up the "whatever" clock I got as a gift from my uncle who passed away a couple of years ago, and a few other things in my room!Here's to hoping I don't end up like Flat Stanley!
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