New Round Mirror
Moved the rectangular mirror to dining area so needed to replace the mirror. I thought that a round one would fit better in this space. Since we only have light coming from one direction, I like to have mirrors to bounce the light around. Also, the space is small so mirrors help give the impression of additional space.
Move the City Map by the Front Door
This image was a gift so we didn’t have a space that we purchased it for. It was hanging in our dining area but the colors are brighter than I prefer to look at in such a prominent area and I just really wanted a mirror in that space to reflect the light from the wall of windows opposite that wall. It made sense to me that since it’s a map of Chicago, it would make sense to be placed near the front door since that area represents leaving our home and venturing into the city. We had purchased some colorful coat hooks for my son that we’re in the bedroom but we’re super functional where they were. So I thought to move them under the colorful city map and make an entry storage area for my son.
Simplify the Shelves
My next step was to simplify the shelf in the hallway. It’s always easy for areas like this to become junk collectors so I wanted to make sure that everything had a place to go. This piece had originally belonged to my dad who had used it as a stereo system shelf. The boxes sat on the middle shelves with two large speakers at either end. I wanted two baskets for the end area that were as big as I could fit and it took me awhile to find ones I liked but I’m really happy with the ones I ended up with. I use the basket on the right for storing self-care tools (theracane, tigertail) and the basket on the right for shopping bags and other things that need to be brought down to the garage. These baskets are really the perfect height, tall enough to fit a lot while not seeing in too much and just enough room to make it easy to get things in and out.
Add a Table Lamp
One of the harder problems to solve was figuring out how to get electricity to a lamp on this shelf. Prior to redoing all of this, we had run the lamp cord across the hall to the wall opposite the shelf and had placed a rug on the ground to hide the cord. It was not a great solution because you could still see the cord and it made cleaning a pain. I was determined to figure out a way to plug in the lamp without running the cord across the hall.
My first plan with to just get another outlet installed but while we searched for an electrician to come out to do it, my husband tried to figure out other ways to do it without taking on that extra expense. He wanted to run the cord around and into the playroom but I was not okay with that because that would leave a cord plugged into an exposed outlet and that would defeat the purpose of having a safe space. He then had the idea of moving the peg board to the playroom and installing it over the outlet so that it would hide the plugged in cord behind it. We checked and the pegboard hung out off the wall with just enough space to fit one of the flat style plugs. We didn’t have one in the right length or white (and that was really important to me since I wanted it to blend in) so we had to buy a new one but all in, we only had to spend about 15 for the cord to get the lamp plugged in with out seeing the wires. After the cabinet lighting project, we also had some leftover cord covers that we were able to use to hide the cord the distance that it was exposed. Yay! Ended up saving a couple hundred dollars on an electrician.