A decanter for a beautiful bathroom

A beautiful display for bathroom essentials

Before I decided to get a tray, all these stuff were scattered all over the sink counter (of course in theirs original containers). The lotion was in a tube, my cotton ball was in a plastic bag, q-tip came in a huge paper box which I got from walmart years ago. They consumed my counter space (which is already small) and made a total mess.

So in my effort to beautifying my little home without spending a huge fortune buying a whole set from big retailer, I use mostly items that I already have. The big tray was from a yard sale for just $5 (yay summer, I love going to community yard sale). Then I store all my little bathroom necessities in small Mason Jars.

The little jar for Q-tip is 4oz.  I use 8oz jars for cotton ball and a lotion pump (direction on how to make it here). The nice thing about mason jar is that you can remove the lid for easy access and keep the outer cap on. It looks nicer since the cap hide the screw edge of mason jar while also acts as decoration piece. This bathroom set costs me nothing since I already have them on hand (and they are sold at Target, pack of 12 for $8).

I add a silver plate for hand towels (match the Mason jars that I have, usually there is only 1 towel on the plate, but I sometimes put 3 on just for taking picture ^^)

And fragrance candles (my husband loves candles). They are great decoration items as well as refreshing your bathroom with lovely fragrance.

For the space behind the candles, at first I thought of adding a flower vase. But I wasn't sure if putting flower right next to direct heat (and too much decoration pieces on the same tray) would be a good idea. After a long talk with my girlfriend, the flower vase goes on my bathroom shelves (which is in progress so I cut it out of the picture). And she suggested placing my mouthwash on the tray, using a nicer bottle. Therefore, I decided on a decanter with crystal design to match my mason jars. (This is sold on Amazon for $12).

And finally my bathroom sink is now completed:

I am no expert on decoration, and I actually had to go through ton of pictures on Pinterest and Google just to see which style would be best for me. I hope I just don't get bored of it too soon lol.

Thanks for reading.

DIY mason jar soap dispenser

What you will need:

• Mason jar: less than $1 each, Target sells these at $8 for a pack of 12 8oz jar
• Pump: I bought mine at dollar store, just reuse the pump and keep bottle for other purpose
• Some pain/ink that is washable for marking
• Hot glue gun
• Hammer
• Flat head screwdriver

Procedure:

• Start with a mason jar and a pump

• Use acrylic paint, smear it on bottle edge and press the edge against mason jar lid

  

• Using hammer and screwdriver to punch holes around the paint mark (if you have a drill bit that's big enough, this process would be easier but I don' have one that big, hence the manual work)

 

• Cut the plastic tube to fit jar

• Use hot glue gun to secure pump to jar

• The inner side looks a bit dangerous to leave it like that, so I use hot glue gun to cover it up, this also helps secure  the pump

• This is what the final product look like

• Pour in your favorite soap and start using:

Thanks for reading.

DIY makeup brushes organizer

All you need is a glass container of any size ($1 at thrift store, my thrift store never fail me when I need glass item), some glass gems, color as desired ($1/lb at Walmart). I buy 4lb to fill up half this glass container. Super easy, super cute and could make a wonderful gift.

Thanks for reading.

DIY necklace organizer

I have too much jewelry ~~. If you have a thing for necklaces like me, this is a must read. This is so simple to make, costs little and doesn't take too much time of your weekend.

What you will need:

• Wood strip: $1.22 per 8ft at Home Depot, cut to size (as long or as short as you want)
• Cup hooks: $4 a pack of 100 hooks, Home Depot
• Spray paint: $4 a can, Home Depot, already on hand
• Drill and drill bits
• Screws
• Ruler and marking pencil

Process:

• Start with measuring and marking where you will drill.
• I make 2 rows, each 1 inch apart, these small holes are for screwing in cup hooks.

• At 2 ends, I drill bigger holes for securing it to the wall.
• Spray paint everything, include screw's heads. Let dry. Then installing cup hooks using a pliers (or your fingers will hurt, really hurt).

• Hang it up and you are done. (Above is my frame earrings organizer)

• I also make one for my hats with the extra wood I have left, or it can be use for keys, pretty much anything you can hang.

I hope you enjoy reading this post.

Thanks for reading.

DIY ring holder

What you need:

• Any box: mine was a watch box found at a thrift store
• Foam: I got extra foam from one of my previous project, DIY tufted headboard
• Felt: a 8x12 size felt sheet is $0.23 at Walmart
• Scissor, hot glue gun, pencil and ruler

How to:

Measure your box and cut foam to size (you can cut as many strips as you like, as long as they fit your box), and don't worry if your cut is not straight, felt is thick enough to hide imperfection.

Cut your felt sheet to size so that it wraps around foam strip

Use hot glue gun to glue felt sheet to foam piece

Insert to your box and you have a ring holder:

This project is super easy and cute. If you have a lot of rings or stud earrings, you can use the same method with a bigger box and more foam strips. Over all I spent less than $2 for this cute ring holder (and it seriously took me like 30' from start to finish).

Thanks for reading.

DIY hanging clothes with chain

Continue with my tiny closet problem, I tried making double clothes hangers:

This used to be my greatest discovery...

But with my love for shopping (don't we all?), my closet just seems to always have tooo many items.

So a new closet system is necessary:

Using a chain (70c/feet at Homedepot) and 1 shower curtain ring (a pack of 12 is $1 at Walmart), this save up at least 1/3 of my closet space. Of course there are vertical hangers that are sold but some of them have sharp edge or made of cheap material. The sharp edge one can be dangerous, while the one made of cheap material will bend or break if used to hang heavy items. Some have small hooks that don't fit closet rod or just difficult to slide.

A shower curtain ring slides across the rod very easily, while a chain can hold up to hundreds of pound, and you can cut it to as long or as short as you want. And this is my "new" closet:

It looks so nice. I also color code them, when you arrange your clothes in the same group of color, it looks neater and is easier to find what you want to wear instead of going through the whole closet just to find that one piece. However, there is one down side to hanging clothes this way: It's easy to remove the hanger, but putting it back on the chain is quite a hassle. Therefore, most of my favorite items are hung regularly.

Also putting away your out of season clothes is a must. If you don't wear them, it should not be hung. I just finish putting away all of my winter clothes using space saver bag (yes they work, and I do recommend them). Not only they compress your bulky winter clothes to half their normal size, they also protect your clothes through out storage time. I got mine on Amazon. Small and Medium size bags are good for clothes, while large and Xlarge bags are good for comforter/blanket.

 

Hope these tips would help :)

Thanks for reading.

DIY bracelet holder

What you need:

• Glass bottle with thin and long neck: found mine at a thrift store, $0.80
• Paint, color of choice: this depend on how much you want to spend, I got paint at walmart, $1 for 1oz color paint

• Process:

• Wash your bottle inside out, let dry for at least a day. You want your bottle to be completely clean and dry so paint can stick well to its inside
• 
• Pour paint into your bottle
• 
• Swirl paint to cover the entire inside wall
• 
• Pour excess paint back into paint container
• 
• Let dry (it will take quite a long time for this to completely dry)

When it's dry, wipe off paint on edges of bottle, and you can start using it as a bracelet holder:

These are so pretty and easy to make. Aside from bracelet holder, you can also use them for home decoration, as a flower vase. If you want to make a few more for flower vase, just remember you don't want to put water or real flower in without a vase liner. This is just color paint, they will dissolve if you pour water in. If you use a mason jar, it can also be use as candle holder.

Have fun and thanks for reading.