Thursday, August 29, 2013

Summer Pinterest Challenge: Measuring Cup Organization from Tidbits from the Tremaynes

My third pin tried for the Summer Pinterest Challenge, and my third food-related pin. This one also helps with organization, though.

I found the inspiration for the idea at Tidbits from the Treymanes. Since I'm constantly losing measuring cups and spoons, and hate stacking them up, this sounded like a wonderful idea, so off to Lowe's I went to gather my supplies.

I bought some Valspar Chalkboard paint, 7/8" cup hooks, a cheapo doors and cabinets kit with roller, as well as a stick of trim, not shown here because it's 8 feet long. I already had painter's tape and some wood glue.

I also had this glorious little thing. My father calls it a key, but I don't know what the actual name is. They had them at the paint counter and they make opening paint cans super easy.

I then wiped down the cabinet door to remove any grease or dust, let it dry, and taped it with the painter's tape. I probably could have carefully painted and avoided using the tape, but where's the fun in that?

I needed about 3 coats for the chalkboard paint to cover completely and smoothly. Once it was painted over to my satisfaction, I removed the tape and let the door dry. This is where my "hindsight 20-20" moments begin. I maybe should have removed the cabinet door prior to the whole process. It really became apparent when I went to attach the trim.

Before starting the whole process, I had also measured and cut the trim to size and painted it with some white paint I had for my baseboards. I tried to use wood glue to attach the trim with the cabinet door still hanging up, and the trim just tried to slowly slide down the cabinet door. At that point, I chose to hunt down a screwdriver and take the cabinet door off and move the project to the table.

This is also when I realized that I don't have any kind of clamps, and the trim wouldn't stay down without some help. I decided to use a chip clip, then stacked some teacher editions and my husband's Warhammer 40k army bag to weigh down the trim. I let the whole thing dry overnight.

Once the glue was dry, I spaced out my measuring cups and spoons to make sure they'd all fit. I marked each hole with a pencil so I would know where to insert the cup hook.

Now, I used a bit of a strange method to get the hooks into the trim. A normal, patient person would have waited until her husband was home with his screwdriver to drill tiny guide holes. Instead, I decided the project would be completed RIGHT THEN and used a hammer and nail to create the guide holes. I only hit my fingers once.

After creating the guide holes, I then twisted the cup hooks into the holes.

Here's a view with all of the cup hooks in.

I then wrote out the measuring equivalents and cup measurements with a chalkboard marker I already had.

I then hung it back up. You can see the evidence of my missing cups.

The only issue I've noticed is that if my hands are a bit wet, the words wipe off a bit. I had to rewrite the 1 cup writing after a mishap with baking.