Wednesday, October 5, 2011

The Barn Crate Wall

the crate wall
I've been wanting to share this barn project with you for over a month. It was a spontaneous makeover my mother and I threw together right before she had to return to her teaching job in California. Do you remember those fantastic crates she hauled home from Madison Bouckville? They sat on her front porch until the forecast of Irene intensified, and we had no choice but to bring them in (letting one remain). There's always a need for storage in her little barn, but wall space is hard to come by between the radiators and the many windows. And then the light bulb moment happened. I had never been completely satisfied with the bathroom divider and its many iterations over the last year. You can read more about it here, or just take a quick refresher peek of the previous photos.
crate wall 2
So, those crates were configured into a dividing wall. Two vertically and one horizontally across the top.The wooden crates seems to grow right out of the old barn floor. It's sturdier and little less busy then other versions. Still fun and wild, but since this is the first thing you see upon coming upstairs, it's nice to let the eyes have a moment to take everything in.
crate ledge
A little ledge was left on one side. Nice for rotating displays, since the afternoon sun hits it like a spotlight.
crate shelves
One side is wall, and the other... a bank of shelves in her bathroom/closet. We had fun filling it up, but it's still evolving.
shelf wall in the afternoon light
See that toilet paper, laugh if you will, but that's my favorite part of the entire makeover! Since this shelf is close to the toilet, we could have continued to just have baskets of tp. While we were pondering this, my mom noted that the top shelf was wobbly. "It needs a little shim..." I said as I wandered over to the studio for something to temporarily do the trick. That's when I spotted the "kill two birds with one stone" (what an awful saying that is!) wooden spool thingy we had gotten together years before.
tp
It formed the perfect "shim" and tp holder! Don't you love those moments? I love "playing" with my mom. STILL.
spool holder
I sure hope my kids will enjoy playing with me when they grow up, too. Pin It

20 comments:

  1. How much fun it is to have a peek into your lovely abode, the bathroom no less... yet oh so tastefully decorated, Maya.
    Thanks for the peek !
    xoxo Kim

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  2. This is awesome! I LOVE how it turned out!!! Also, I love redecorating and "playing" when my moms comes to visit too!

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  3. I do indeed love playing with my mom too some of my favorite sundays are spent working on projects in the yard. And I wanted to include we call those moments of random perfectness when things accidently happen 'happy accidents'. its like the project is working with you :)! as always thanks for sharing

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  4. Me gusta tu trabajo, todo, todo, es fantástico conocer a gente como tú, tan creativa.
    saludos

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  5. thanks everyone!
    momma j- "happy accidents"!

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  6. brilliant, beautiful and so clever. love that kind of project and then to be able to share it with your mom, the best!! xo

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  7. Love it Maya!...and Mom!
    You guys have so much fun together, thank you so much for sharing them with us! And I love those ah! ha! moments, creativity at it's best!
    ~ joey ~

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  8. I love this idea. I have used dressers in this same way as room dividers before. I adore how you used the globes! Well done.

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  9. The barn is a grown-up play house!
    I love the collaboration you & your mom created

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  10. There is nothing about this barn that I don't like. Wow, another creative re-use, fantastic. xox Corrine

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  11. I much prefer "feed two birds with one seed." what a fun place this barn is!

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  12. Oh Sarah lee, me too! I will adopt that saying this moment! Love it.

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  13. What a great time you have together! So inspiring.

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  14. love it...especially the tp holder. you and your mom are quite productive when playing together!

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  15. oh yeah, the t.p.'s the best part (of an already awesome project, admittedly, but form AND function? that's hard to beat!)

    love that you still love "playing" with your mom :)

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  16. oh yeah, the t.p.'s the best part (of an already awesome project, admittedly, but form AND function? that's hard to beat!)

    love that you still love "playing" with your mom :)

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  17. Maya, I love the new shelves! (Makes me want a bunch of old wooden crates.) But also--I recently used "kill two birds with one stone" in a blog post myself, and I too observed that it's a really terrible saying, and a friend with children at a Quaker school informed me that the Quaker version is "feed two birds with one crumb." Much better! ;-)

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  18. Hola Maya!
    hacía tiempo no pasaba por aquí!!
    Me encantó tu pared de cajones de madera!
    Buena idea!

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