The tale of two shelves

Once upon a time, there was a shelf.  It hung over the kitchen sink when Emily & Justin bought their house - in fact, it was the only "upper cabinet" in the whole house.

During an early demolition, Justin took the shelf off the wall and planned to throw it in the growing pile for the dump.  Emily begged Justin to save the shelf.  He looked at her with the same crazy look he gave when she wanted to renovate the only "nice" room in the house.  (He's an equal opportunity skeptic when it comes to proposed renovations that intend to redo either really nice - or, in this case - really, really awful things).

Emily was determined that the sad little cabinet would have a future in their home, even though it spent several months in drywall dust exile, and then even longer in back-porch prison.  The dust and the outdoor weather made the sad little cabinet look even worse, and even Emily's mother (and her least likely skeptic) said "just throw that thing away!  Buy a new cabinet!"

But Emily prevailed.  And skeptics are no longer skeptical.

It still has the rough edges of a cabinet with a story, but that's because it IS a cabinet with a story.

And it has the dignified duty of hiding all of the cleaning products and laundry supplies - a job it does quite well!

This shelf isn't the only one in the laundry room rescued from a former life in the kitchen.  I'll tell this tale in the more-normal first person :)

Remember when our original kitchen didn't have any upper cabinets (other than the aforementioned ugly-white-shelf, which Justin promptly removed)?  And then my dad bought & installed a nice shelf that helped to free up a bit of the counter top?  (Notice in the background of this picture, the sloppy white paint outline of the other old shelf, which was apparently painted in place).

This shelf, too, was destined for a place in the laundry room.  The light wood, which had matched in the kitchen, was out of place in the decor of the laundry room.  So I turned to the glue gun and staple gun and made a trip to Jo-Anns.  Half of yard of fabric and 15 minutes of gluing and stapling, the shelf was ready for a new home!

My remaining plan for the laundry room is in regards to the light fixtures. You know I can't leave anything as-is :)  I have new glass shades for them (from the clearance rack at Lowes), as well as a bottle of spray paint waiting for a kind non-pregnant helper to cover up that shiny silver.  The fixtures themselves will be oil rubbed bronze (to match the brackets on the shelf), and the shades are a muted golden color with little brown specks.

Anybody else out there a revamp-a-holic?