This post has moved to my new site at Planq Studio. Please visit me there to find out how to make this fun project and get inspiration for loads of other projects too!
All posts in category Organization
Photography Styling Challenge #6: Order
Posted by Redesigned By M on December 2, 2013
https://redesignedbym.wordpress.com/2013/12/02/photography-styling-challenge-order/
[reorganized] Small Retail Space Gets A Facelift
My in-laws are proud owners of a frozen dim sum company in Vancouver. (Should you live in the area, the shop is called Gah Lok Dim Sum.) All the dumplings are wrapped by hand by a team of skillful workers, flash frozen, and sold to local restaurants, grocery outlets and also available to the public. My mother-in-law wanted me to come in to one of the shops to enhance its appearance. As you’ll see in the “before” photos scattered throughout this post, nothing had been done to the shop since it first opened its doors. If anything, considerable clutter and dust had accumulated over time.
The restrictions were as follows:
- No moving walls.
- No disturbance of architectural treatments.
- Minimal budget.
So, I made do with everything as it was (kept the floor tiles, the wall tiles, the counters, etc.) and just gave this place a much needed reorganization and facelift.
This was what everyone used to be greeted with when entering the shop.
My MIL wanted something pretty to cover that blank white wall, thinking mainly of a photo to market their products. Sometimes I lean towards creating my interiors with a dramatic flair, so I immediately thought to hang a large wall art to cover the entire space. I couldn’t quite explain what this meant to my traditional in-laws, so they just had to trust me. I ordered an adhesive wall mural in the exact dimensions of that blank wall. This was my splurge item, but I think it makes an awesome impact when you walk through the door. The photograph of the har gow (shrimp dumpling) was shot by me. It was my very first attempt at shooting food for presentation, so it wasn’t very creative, but my father-in-law loves this image the best.
When a customer purchased their frozen goods, this was the wall they saw when handing over their money. I only have one word for this wall: ick.
I took down the shelves, filled in the holes, gave the wall a fresh coat of white paint, and hung up more marketing images of dim sum; again, photographed by me. These were large posters hung in picture frames. The counters were cleared and dusted off. I still have to hang up those two smaller frames leaning on the counter (they’re the business license and other business stuff you need to have visible at all times). After the makeover, the customers thought the tiles on the wall and the counter were new!
This is what it looked/looks like behind the cash wrap. The “after” photos show further evidence of my love for containers.
One of the problems my MIL pointed out was that the register sat too low and the customers couldn’t see the price. So I built a drawer unit that would prop up the register AND store important everyday office supplies. Double duty, yeah!
After clearing out ALL the clutter, we were left with many empty cabinets. We turned this base cabinet into a coat closet by hanging an adjustable closet road. It was so simple to install and now all the aprons and coats are neatly hung up and hidden out of sight.
Finally, to give the storefront a cleaner appearance, I hung up frosted window film on the lower half of the windows, which still allow light to filter through the space, but also offers a bit of privacy. I used this same material on an old kitchen window that looked right into the neighbor’s house. Worked like a charm!
Anyway, not a huge project, but I think it cleaned up rather nicely. The shop gets twice as much natural light now since everything was moved away from the windows. Since I did this work all by myself, it was a royal pain to get all the junk hauled out, so I felt like it was a huge project. Hope you like the results!
Sources:
Adhesive wall mural: Eazy Wallz
Dim sum posters: Posterjack
Picture frames: Ribba by Ikea
Plastic containers: Walmart
Drawer dividers: Dollar Tree
Drawer unit: Materials from The Home Depot
Window film: The Home Depot
Closet rod: The Home Depot
Paint: The Home Depot
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Posted by Redesigned By M on September 6, 2013
https://redesignedbym.wordpress.com/2013/09/06/reorganized-small-retail-space-gets-a-facelift/
[reorganized] Linen Closet Makeover
This post has moved to my new site at Planq Studio. Please visit me there to find out how to make this fun project and get inspiration for loads of other projects too!
Posted by Redesigned By M on August 16, 2013
https://redesignedbym.wordpress.com/2013/08/16/reorganized-linen-closet-makeover/
[reorganized] How I Organized My Refrigerator
I finally got around to checking off a task that had been on my To-Do list for ages: ORGANIZE REFRIGERATOR!
For some reason, when we moved in, the shelves in the fridge were staggered, so it was nearly impossible to store any party platters in it. Leftovers got lost in the back of the shelves, therefore creating unwanted science projects. I wanted to rearrange things so that the refrigerator worked to accommodate our lifestyle better. So enough chatting! I think pictures will tell the story best.
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Smaller bins are placed inside the crisper drawers to hold smaller produce that can get easily tossed around and lost in a large drawer.
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This is the freezer shot. I have a bottom-mount freezer drawer. In the AFTER photo, I put a tall freezer bin on the left side where we store our homemade ice cubes. (We don’t have an ice cube maker.) On the right side where there is more drawer space, I store frozen fruits and vegetables flat in Zip-loc bags and file them upright. This makes it easy to see the contents at all times and easy to grab without having to rummage through all the bags.
What do you think? Do you think this is a project you’ll want to take on this weekend?
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Total time: To be honest, well on two hours due to all the food we had to throw out. And cleaning. And trial and error of fitting all the bins.
Total cost: I’m embarrassed to admit that the bins cost me $95.09, after using a coupon I had. They are not cheap, those things! But I wanted to make sure I had fridge and freezer safe bins.
Related Posts:
Random Things Found In My Kitchen
Get Your Plastic Bags Under Control
The Medicine and Spice Cabinet
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Linking To:
52 Mantels
A Stroll Thru Life
All Things With Purpose
Chic On A Shoestring Decorating
Colours Dekor
Common Ground
Craft-O-Maniac
Crafts-A-La-Mode
Design, Dining, & Diapers
DIY Show Off
French Country Cottage
Home Stories A to Z
Homemaker On A Dime
I Gotta Try That
I Heart Organizing
I Should Be Mopping The Floor
Keeping It Simple
Lemon Tree Dwelling
Mod Vintage Life
My Romantic Home
My Uncommon Slice Of Suburbia
Nifty Thrifty Things
Not Just A Housewife
Redfly Creations
Skip To My Lou
So Much Better With Age
Somewhat Simple
The Blackberry Vine
The Charm of Home
The Dedicated House
The Girl Creative
The Shabby Nest
The Thriftiness Miss
Thirty Handmade Days
Twigg Studios
Posted by Redesigned By M on August 2, 2013
https://redesignedbym.wordpress.com/2013/08/02/reorganized-how-i-organized-my-refrigerator/
reorganized: Birthday Freebies Update
Just following up with my birthday post about picking up all my freebies! Thought you’d like to see all the birthday freebies that I got last Saturday. It was SO much fun to be able to eat all day for free and to get great discounts on my shopping trips. I also had a lovely trip to Bowen Island, my “B” destination this year. Read why I go to places that start with a “B” on my birthdays here. I’ll be sharing my day in Bowen Island a little later this month, so stay tuned!
For now, let me share with you my lovely birthday goodies!
As Value Village was the first shop to open of the day, I stopped here first to do some thrifting. I love thrifting on a normal non-birthday day, but I am MORE in love with thrifting when I can get a discount off my purchase! Above are just some wonderful things I picked up. You know I’ll be redesigning several of these things. Except the yellow bucket; that’s pretty much perfect as is.
Then I stopped at Tarts Bakery for a morning treat. There were several tartlets to choose from, but I chose the raspberry macaroon. Oh. My. God. Let me tell you, this tartlet was about about 1.5″ in diameter, but it was dee-lish-us!! I definitely want to go back for more and pay $1.75 for it. Yum-o!
After Tarts Bakery, I drove into Richmond to get some lunch at Pajo’s Fish & Chips. I was very surprised to be given an option of which fish I wanted. The Cod is $9.99; Salmon is $10.49, and Halibut is $10.99. Get the halibut to maximize your freebie!!! (If you like halibut.) You also get a free drink with it! This was almost a $15 meal for FREE! Heaven!
Then I washed it all down with a smoothie. I can drink these things every day, but they’re especially enticing on a nice, hot day. Oh, and did I mention that it was sunny and warm on my birthday? Oh, yes it was!
For my first dinner, I grabbed a burger at Vera’s Burger Shack. I’ve never eaten here before. Never even heard about it until I did my freebies research, but I’m glad I did because that was one tasty burger! I had to shell out $1.32 for the taxes on this burger, since the deal was only $10 off and not a free burger. No biggie!
I let the burger from Vera’s sit a bit before we went out again to get an ice cream cone at Marble Slab. We had to do the dessert before the second dinner because Marble Slab closed at 11PM on Saturday. I chose a cheesecake ice cream with strawberry mix in. It was pretty delicious; not gonna lie.
Second dinner! Now, I’m not a fan of breakfast food. Gasp! Did I offend some of you? Well, sorry, but it’s the truth. Luckily, Mr. M joined me and ate my Grand Slam. In return, he ordered a skillet for me, which I only ate about a quarter of because I was still full from my burger and ice cream.
This is the skillet I ended up eating and bagging to take home, which I ate for breakfast AND lunch the next day. Way to make my dollar stretch, huh?
So that ended all my freebies for Saturday! Oh, wait, there’s more!
BEFORE my birthday, I picked up my favorite birthday freebie from Sephora. Last year I got a couple of lip balms, which were really nice. This year, my gift was a mascara and a highlighter! Can’t wait to try these out!
Then on the day AFTER my birthday, I paid a visit to RW&Co with my 25% coupon to see what goodies they had in their store. There was a promotion of 50% off the last ticketed price on all sale items. I found a few items in the sales racks and took them to the counter. I thought my coupon would only allow me to use one of the promotions offered, so I didn’t think I could cash in my birthday coupon. The sales lady asked me if I had a coupon (since I was looking at it). She corrected my error and said that the birthday coupon was good off the final price, INCLUDING the 50% off promotion!!! In the end I saved nearly $100 and spent only $78. What a deal, what a deal!!
And my final freebie: a gourmet burger from Red Robin. I ordered the lamb burger (because it was the most expensive burger on the menu and I love eating lamb). What a big burger it was! And bottomless fries to boot! Great way to end my birthday freebies indeed.
Have you collected any freebies for your birthday? Let me know in the comments below!
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Posted by Redesigned By M on July 12, 2013
https://redesignedbym.wordpress.com/2013/07/12/birthday-freebies-update/
Visit me at my new home!
Visit me at my new home!
Redesigned By M 