My largest pinterest-inspired project yet.

Yes, I'm a professional copy-cat.  I'm not afraid to admit it.  Why go to all the work of being original and creative when there are so many others out there willing to do the first part of the project for me?  Right?  So, when I saw this:

Source: Better Homes and Gardens

....I knew I HAD to have it.  Now, we had a beautiful sofa table in the area outside the kitchen (what was once the eat in kitchen, I think, but since the kitchen has been extended out slightly and the entry to the sunroom was added, the space really couldn't be "eaten in", so just an awkward open area).  I loved that sofa table....Loved it.  Got it 10 years ago when I bought my first house.  It was one of my first non-Target/Walmart pieces of furniture.  However, it was big, bulky, pretty, but so NOT practical.  It stored about nothing and held about nothing on top.  And I realized that in a house with 3 boys, practical beats pretty.  BUT, this little pinspiration was pretty AND practical.  Me thinks:  'How easy is this?!?  A few bookshelves, a bench, some wainscoting, and a shelf! It will take like 10 minutes to execute.' And then....reality.  Nothing is as easy.  Sigh.  BUT, all things considered this was pretty stinking easy.  Here's mine.

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, notice my GRAY walls.  That's GRAY.  Say it with me, "GRAAAAY!" Not smokey lavender, not bluish-gray, not purple-ish gray.  Just good old fashioned gray.  Right? If you ever set foot in my kitchen and call my walls ANYTHING other than gray, I will kill you kindly disregard your ignorance, colorblindness opinion.

Sorry, where was I?  Uh, yes.....Bookshelves (IKEA $30 each), Shelf (Amazon $39), Wainscoting (Home Depot $19, used half), Bench (FREE - it was the nursery's under-utilized toybox), Accessories (IKEA for next to nothing, or stuff we already had on hand), Bench cushion (....well...I underestimated the cost of foam, but got it half off thanks to a Hancock coupon, still...the foam, batting and the material were close to $40).  So for $158, I can hide a LOT of junk.  Mission Accomplished.  Better Homes and Gardens, thanks for the inspiration.  But, I like mine more.  Hee hee hee.   Oh, and there's another little pinspired item in there.  See it?  The shiny tall, skinny box on the right side?  (next to the statuette of those 3 little cutie-patoooooties?) Yep, that's a cereal box, cut down, and covered with scrapbook paper to make a file folder, magazine holder, paper boxy thingy.  That's more my speed that big furniture-organization units.  :)