Twelve Dolla Shelves

I love me some twelve dolla shelves. Especially since we are in a rental, or else I might have put a little more in to getting some longer-term more stylish shelves. But with these bad boys, it was like Bob Barker calling my name to come on down on the Price is Right because let me tell you, the price was right. 

Let's start with the little space where we put these up. There is an awkward little space in our dining room/kitchen/laundry room (yeah, it's all together up in there) that looked kind of like this. That's our living room to the left and our "laundry room" on the right (which is really just an upright washer/dryer combo right next to our fridge in the kitchen).

Straight on, our kitchen to the right.

And from the living room.

And from the dining room/kitchen. There. I think you've seen it from every angle possible.

Mostly, it's a cute little nook where we keep the Buster Boy's food and drink. Let me also explain that we don't have a pantry in our kitchen. Our kitchen is small and tiny and minuscule, and the only thing I really like about the kitchen is the white cabinets that I think somehow make it feel bigger. That and the window. Anyways, this little nook was basically dead space in our little house, and I wanted to fill it up. Especially since we are so desperate for some storage. Cue IKEA! 

Trusty IKEA always has a solution on the cheap. These shelves were $3/shelf plus $0.50/bracket. Don't worry, I'll do the math for you. That's twelve dollas!

I wanted a plain white finish, so I used some white primer I had from this project. After a couple coats, it was as good as white! The shelves were the perfect size for the little nook. I liked the staggered look, so I let the hubby do his thing to install them (with my helpful assistance of course). I like how they are off center and not perfectly spaced (well, we made sure they were level, but other than that...). We put them high enough up to leave room for our little DVD shelf underneath, which is the perfect spot to store Buster's leash, collar, and harness while not in use. It also doubles as our wine rack :).

I'm kind of in love with how it turned out. Not only does it give us more storage (and cute storage at that!) for some of our food stuff, it's colorful and cheery and I love just walking past it. Yup, I'm a dork like that. Don't things like that make you happy too? :) My lovely husband makes fun of me since this was supposed to be our sort-of pantry and mostly for food storage. But of course I couldn't fill it with ugly cans and boxes of food, so I put pretty things up there! Like one of my favorite pictures of us from my friend, Kim's, wedding. And this cool retro chevron canvas I painted. 

For Christmas, my mom got me these sweet vintage thermos' (thermosi?). They came in this red plaid bag and I love them! OK, so I haven't actually used either thermos yet, but they sure do look good up there.

The shelves were only $12, but I guess I did spend as much on these glass canisters (also from IKEA) so we could stylishly store our grains. $12 shelves, $12 storage.

And that, my friends, is a super cheap storage solution for you. Please tell me one of you walks past something in your house and smiles silly like I do when I walk past these shelves? No? Just me? OK then. :)