I had planned on doing some yardwork this weekend, but today the weather is crappy – cold, dark, grey, and a bit drizzly – so mom and I decided to do an indoor project instead. We’ve wanted to clean up the hallway, currently cluttered with an awkward and full coat tree, a shelf I have my shot glass collection and pegs I hang my purses, scarves and hats on, as well as a bunch of junk on the floor.

Naturally I forgot to take a “before” picture. Mom and I just jumped into clearing out the hallway – moving the coat tree, taking down the pictures, the bulletin board, the click lights, and the letter oragnizer/key holder, and clearing out all my shoes and laundry bag - then did our measuring, then headed off to Home Depot to get all the stuff we’d need, and it wasn’t till we were coming back that I realized it. *sigh* I need to put a post-it on my brain or something. Remember to take a “before” picture!!

Anyway, we picked up all our stuff: an 80″ strip of wood already painted white (It’s actually some floor molding, but it was perfect for our needs! In fact, we used the same stuff a couple years ago on the Art Wall project.), five silver hooks, a key ring holder, and some hole filler. I finally took a kinda/sorta before picture when I got home:

The project is actually going to be along that empty wall. That overstuffed bookshelf/shelving crap at the end of the hall will be dealt with at a later date.

The first thing we did was find the studs along the wall, and marked with a starter hole where the nails would go in, then we measured and marked where the nails would go on the board. I took it outside to get the nails started (I’ve found it’s much easier to do this rather than try to hold the board up and pound a nail in from the beginning!) till they were all sticking out of the back of the board just a little bit, then brought it back in, lined up the nails with the starter holes, and pounded them all in just till it was secure. We checked that it was level -and it was! on the first try! – then I finished pounding in the nails.

Once the board was up, it was time to screw in the hooks. I bought five plain, silver-coloured hooks, which will be as functional as they are fashionable. I initially grabbed some large, fancy silver hooks, but when I put them up again the board we were going to buy, I immediately changed my mind: they were way too big and overwhelming for the board, and I realized they would look terrible in the hallway. I’m really glad I changed my mind; the hooks I chose are perfect!

I measured in between the nails, and centered the hooks right in the middle. The hooks had two holes, so I started with the top hole on all of them, making sure it was in the right place; the second hole would just line up all by itself! I made a starter hole which made it much easier to install the screws using our power drill. It didn’t take hardly any time at all, and all five hooks were up:

The final thing we did was to put up the cute little key ring holder we found – it was pure luck, I’m sure, but I’m so happy we found it! It’s perfect: a small white board with four little silver hooks that are similar to the ones I chose for the coat rail! It makes me insanely happy!

This little key ring holder-thingie gave my mom and I an opportunity to do somehting neither of us has ever done before: install molly screws. Frankly, mollys have always intimidated me a bit, but mom had seen them installed on a home improvement show, and said it looked fairly easy: you just drill holes, pound in the mollys, then screw the screws into them. The mollys expand into the drywall to hold whatever it is you’re hanging securely. Sounds simple right? Well, guess what? It was! A little more measuring, checking, and measuring again, and we were on our way. In no time, I had installed the key ring holder:

Finally, we put one of the click lights up above the key ring holder, et voila: the finished project!

We have a lot more room to walk around now. It’s really opened up the space! Our next project is a bit bigger, and will probably be done over our next three-day weekend: we’re completely redoing our den. It’s a huge undertaking, and I’m a little scared, but I think it will look fantastic when we’re finished! Stay tuned!