Hooks with a difference

As I’ve said in previous posts, the obvious thing about moving into a new build is that you’re the first people to live there - and that means things like shelves and hooks just aren’t there. And you don’t realise just how much we take these kind of things for granted, until they’re not there.

I know that not having hooks isn’t the biggest issue in the world, but a hook-less cloakroom wasn’t going to be viable long-term so a solution - and hooks - needed to be found. It wasn’t right at the top of our list, especially as the cloakroom was initially a handy store for a few moving boxes that we hadn’t quite worked out where their contents should go just yet, but with friends and family visiting we wanted to be able to have somewhere to hang their coats, and also we wanted somewhere for ours too.

MOH was keen to just get something on the wall, but I know that game - once there’s something up that you may have compromised on, then it’s up and in use and it could be a while (if ever) before it’s addressed ‘properly’.

But I wasn’t keen on any of the hooks, or racks of hooks he kept showing me, and nor could I find the right hooks. So we remained hook-less for quite a while.

The issue for me was I’d seen some lovely hooks, that were quite distinct but couldn’t remember where I’d seen them, and so until I’d found them again I couldn’t move forward. Luckily my Google-search skills are quite advanced and I did find them again on the Nkuku site - along with many more decorative hooks (I’ve just looked again whilst writing this post and let’s just say it’s a dangerous place for my purse).

By this time of course MOH was ‘just buy the hooks’. So that’s exactly what I did, well after a bit of measuring, checking where pipes and cables might or might not be, and some soul searching on the price, but fortuitously all this meant I managed to time my order with their sale.

And the hooks arrived, three of them. Each with three moveable hooks, which required three screws for each wall mount. MOH regretted his stance when he realised that meant eighteen holes to make, but thankfully he agrees it was worth the while - and of course the first thing hung on the hooks was a cycling helmet!

And since then a lot more coats, fleeces hats and scarves. It’s quickly become a very usable storage space as we also store (amongst other things) our garden seat cushions, the internet router, umbrellas, our current go to everyday shoes - and our bottle bag for our empties ahead of recycling in here.

Though I’m hopeful that soon we’ll be able to put our winter coats away!

Getting organised with pegboards in my craft room

I’d had my eye on some pegboards for my new craft room since the room itself was a glimmer in my eye! Initially I thought we would make them up ourselves so that they could be truly customisable for whichever space I chose, as it really couldn’t be that hard. And if I had a truly awkward space I don’t think it would be that hard, but once I’d worked out where I wanted to put my fictional pegboards, and once I’d seen the IKEA Skadis pegboards and how flexible they were, there was no other choice for me.

I decided that my pegboards would make the best use of a blank wall inside the small walk in cupboard in my new craft room, which would also be the ideal way to store my quilting rulers. Since we’ve moved, and I’ve unpacked my craft room, they’ve not really had a dedicated space and nor were they all together. But that soon changed!

What I chose: pegboard size and accessories

Our house is a new build, which means there’s a lot of white - and for a self-confessed colour addict, surprisingly I’m ok with all the white, so for me it was always going to be the white version, although the black colourway would also have worked. I opted for two 56x56cm square pegboards, while I did have room for one of the larger size I wanted to keep some space clear, as that’s something else I’ve come to appreciate with our new house - we don’t have to cram it full of stuff, and the same goes for this small walk in storage space.

As I was ordering online I was keen to get the pegboards and accessories in one shop, however I didn’t really know what would work but given that the accessory pack prices were under £5 I decided to chance my luck.

The accessories I opted for were:

• Two packs of Skadis shelves, £4 each

• Two packs of Skadis clips, £2 each

• Three packs of Skadis hooks, £2 each

• A single Skadis hook rack, £2

• A pack of 5 Skadis push in hooks, £1

The final addition to my basket was the connector for Skadis pegboards, which was recommended when hanging two pegboards side by side (or in my case top to bottom!).

So for just under £50 I was able to bring a whole lot of order into a space which would otherwise have little use - and now that it’s finished it’s not only useful, but it’s a pretty and practical addition too.

MY SKADIS PEGBOARDS BRING FUNCTIONALITY TO AN OTHERWISE UNUSED SPACE

Even better though I guessed just about right on the accessory front. I used most of the ones I bought - though I did have a few challenges along the way. I naively assumed that all of my acrylic quilting rulers and templates would come complete with a hole to hang them from. That wasn’t the case, especially for those which came as free gifts from magazines, and some which I’ve had for a long time (I reckon I’ve had my Fiskars ruler - the one bottom right in the photo above - since the early 1990s), so the hooks weren’t going to work for those, or at least not in the same way.

Thank goodness for creative thinking though!

I was able to position some of the hooks so that the templates could balance on top of the hooks, and used the clips for the long Fiskars ruler, which I still probably use the most. I realised I had little use for the hooks on the hook rack, but the rack itself was useful to hold more templates.

The trays bring a 3D element to the pegboards, and while I’ve used them to store smaller templates and the hooks I’ve not yet used, I’m not sure if I’d opt to buy these if I were to do this again.

I’m glad I opted for two of the smaller sized pegboards - and the connectors were an absolute gem according to MOH who was tasked to put these on the wall for me. As well as the feeling of space, I can use the whole pegboard making use of the space below as well with the rulers, templates and metal rings I bought to make some crocheted mandalas (one day!) hanging off the bottom.

I’m so pleased with how these turned out, and how it’s made a space that usually wouldn’t be used into a functional feature. And yes, I’m using the rulers and the space is still this tidy!

Industrial open shelving in our pantry and utility room

Coming from a house which had neither a pantry nor a utility room it was exciting (in a domestic kind of way) to have these spaces in our new house. Both spaces had room for, and needed more storage - the pantry especially, which was essentially a large walk in cupboard. We knew soon after we viewed our new build barn that we wanted something that stood out, but was also functional too, and we quite quickly settled on the idea of pipe shelving.

I’d seen a few companies selling shelving that could work, but in the end settled on the Acumen Collection for custom-sized shelving. We also looked at buying the components separately, but decided against that because we could get what we needed for our spaces from a single supplier, which worked better for us - and it also meant that someone used to supplying these checked over our design.

As you’ll know by now I do like a plan, and this was the plan for one of the custom units we sent over for viability checking:

Thankfully this, and the smaller custom sized unit for the pantry came back with top marks, and it wasn’t long before we placed our order. They took a good couple of months to be made and be delivered, and when they did we were stepping over multiple boxes as we’d ordered a lot of shelves. But once they were here we were keen to get started, or rather I was keen for MOH to get started!

Since we moved in we’d used the dresser we’d had in our conservatory and a couple of bookcases as impromptu food storage, and while it worked as a temporary measure it made our kitchen diner feel more cluttered than it needed to be, and remembering exactly where I’d put things was becoming a challenge.

These are the shelves that tested the patience of a very patient MOH, and given this I was so glad we didn’t opt to source the components ourselves - though now the shelves are completed if we were to do this again, I would seriously consider doing that. But as a first-timer, probably not!

They’re heavy, and tall so had to be built in-situ - and MOH soon (mostly) got the knack of putting them together with a few swear words thrown in occasionally, as is the way with DIY.

They’re up, and they’re fantastic, and we even got them up in time for Christmas so that we could get a bit more sorted before we hosted Christmas in our new house.

A PLACE FOR BREAD IN THE PANTRY

And of course when they first went up it was all a bit daunting - what should go where and so on. One thing I knew was that I wanted my new-to-me enamel bread bin to have pride of place, and so that was the first thing on the shelves. Thankfully it just about fits with the lid on, and instead of bread it houses my pasta. Obviously.

GRADUALLY FILLING UP…

… AND FULLY LOADED

My aim was to have a mix of practical and pretty, while having the things we used the most within easy reach - and so that meant breakfast things at eye level on the smaller unit, and interspersing the pretty items - the cheese dome, the enamelled bread bin. I reused the baskets I’d used in cupboards in our previous kitchen, hunting around the house as some had been redeployed following our move - and I think the symmetry of the baskets helps bring some order to what could be a jumble of a space.

I always planned to incorporate our old wine rack at the bottom of the unit, and this was easier said than done. The wine rack didn’t want to play ball, it wasn’t square and no matter how much MOH shaved off it still needed more. We got there in the end, but it took a while as obviously MOH didn’t want to take too much off.

ADDING SOME ADDITIONAL POP UP STORAGE

It’s through using a space that you learn what works and what doesn’t. I knew that over Christmas I wanted some more surface space in here, and then I remembered my wooden fold up table which used to hold my sewing machine. That hadn’t been used since we moved and was just the right size for what I had in mind - a space for the Christmas cake!

It worked so well as a temporary solution that the table now lives in the pantry behind the door, along with the new step stool I bought so that it’s easy to reach things on the top shelf. That means I’ve needed to revise my plans for shelves behind the door, which MOH is pleased about as I now want about half the shelves I previously did!

THE NEXT SHELVING PROJECT

Here, at some point in the Year of the Shelves, I’ll have shelves from just above where the table is for spices and random cans of drinks which will tidy up this part of the pantry no end - I can’t wait - we have the wood, so I’m hopeful it won’t be too long…

A similar approach in the Utility room

We opted for the same style shelving units in the utility room to provide consistency, and because we liked them! Here though we were able to choose one of the standard sized units with six shelves. In the end we only put up five of them as while there was space I actually don’t think it needed it.

This is also fits the pretty and functional brief - and has spaces for candles, wax melts and their associated paraphernalia, batteries, our medical kit, flower arranging supplies including vases, shoe cleaning stuff, table linen, light bulbs and my lovely new(ish) preserving pan.

It holds a lot of stuff but still manages to look organised and not too arranged! And in case you’re wondering the light bulbs are in one of the large baskets on the bottom, again previously used in our old kitchen and repurposed for our new space; the batteries are in a wooden wine box next to the new medical supplies tin. And apart from that tin and the preserving pan, everything else we had in our old house, where mostly they were in cupboards either in the kitchen or elsewhere in the house.

I wasn’t sure if either space would stay so tidy, but they have - thankfully, and even more so now I’m (domestically) excited about having these spaces in our new house!