Monday, January 5, 2015

Bakers Rack Drop Zone

Happy New Year, friends! In keeping promise to my New Year’s Resolution of ensuring function in the process of decorating our new home, I’m writing this post about creating a bakers rack drop zone.

In 2011 when we moved into our first home in Kentucky, I purchased this Metal & Wood Bakers Rack from Amazon.com. Back then, it sold for $129. I guess it was popular (ya know … that and inflation) because now it goes for $167.  Anyway, totally worth every penny. I absolutely love the thing.



Back in Kentucky, I had it decorate to hold my wine bottles and wine glasses and wine bottle opener and all sorts of super fun stuff. You can kind of see in this photo, although this photo was when I had it “staged” for selling. I had purchased the matching table and chair set as well, and together, I loved them in my dinette.



Moving on … so our new house is totally amazing in almost every way except there is no room to keep my bakers rack next to or even near the table. In fact, the only good place I could find for it was against the staircase toward the front of the house.



It’s okay though because this is a perfect opportunity to turn that previous cutesy decorated bakers rack into something a little more functional. “Well, why don’t you just put back all your wine glasses and wine bottles?” You might be asking. Excellent point. The answer is: I have a two-year old now and he likes to break stuff. So wine bottles and glasses are now hidden in a locked kitchen cabinet.



I searched Pinterest for Bakers Rack ideas, but couldn’t really find much inspiration. People are using them for coffee bars (and they work really great for that), but I already have a coffee station set up by my refrigerator … where the coffee cream is. You see where this idea came crashing down …

I found one pin where someone turned their bakers rack into a deck/work area, and that was pretty cute. So working from that idea, I came to the Drop Zone Bakers Rack idea. Yay! It would be PERFECT for that! It’s right by the garage and front door, with lots of space for cute baskets and even better, a place for my giant baby bag. (Yeah … I still carry a baby bag. He’s two. Shopping requires lots of snacks.) My giant bag was previously taking up one of my bar stools and that just wasn’t working for me.

The photo below has everything labeled for its use. I don’t have it shown here, but you could also add hooks to the side bar and hang jackets from it. Everything on the rack was stuff I already had too, so it didn’t really cost me anything extra. Yay me!




I had a small collection of Longaberger baskets that I purchased throughout the years – the white/pink Hope basket, small circular basket holding pink flowers and small black basket with handles.  The other baskets were purchased at craft stores a few years ago. My mother-in-law gave me the “family” plate/stand and the black containers were hand-me-downs from my mom.  I included the speaker because I like rocking out when I’m cleaning house and it was taking up valuable space on the kitchen countertop. Plus, this way, I can hear the speaker from virtually every room in the house. 


I also had two old chairs that I will someday revamp but for now, they make a good place to sit down to take shoes off. My little guy even has some custom artwork on one …


So there you have it. A functional, but still attractive bakers rack.



Till next time!
xoxo
Jessie