Our home was built in the early 90’s when ‘kitchen desks’ were a thing.  Initially, I wanted to turn this space into a little bar area—wine fridge and all—but then realized how useful the space could actually be, so I kept it as is.

It was a blank canvas that soon became the official dumping grounds for all of Phillip’s and my stuff after we walked in the front door.  Mail would get stacked under our mountain of bags and coats and don’t even get me started on keys. After moving in to the new house, I’ve been determined (and mostly successful!) to keep every closet, drawer, and cabinet as organized as possible, and I’m not letting this area fall victim to such disarray. I’ve always loved the idea of a ‘kitchen command center’ so I decided to create one in this space that will help keep us organized and tidy throughout the year.  Once again, I worked with Krylon® Brand  to make this project come to life, and I couldn’t be more pleased with the result.

SUPPLIES

• Krylon® ColorMaster­® Paint + Primer in Gloss Navy Blue
• Krylon® ColorMaster® Paint + Primer in Matte Aqua
• Krylon® Silver Leafing Pen
  • These Krylon® products can be found at your local Hobby Lobby store
• Corkboard tiles
• Alphabet Stickers
• Painter’s Tape
• Dry Erase Board
• Mail sorter
• Pen holder
• Key hooks

INSTRUCTIONS

To start the project, I painted the cork tiles. I painted one tile using Krylon ColorMaster® Paint + Primer in Gloss Navy Blue and the other two with Krylon ColorMaster® Paint + Primer in Matte Aqua. Cork is extremely porous, so I did 3 coats on each tile and then let them sit for about 10 to 15 minutes until they were dry to the touch.  Once the tiles were dry to the touch, I added my accent designs.  To personalize two of the tiles, I put Phillip’s and my initials on them, and then made a triangle design with painter’s tape on the third tile. Then, I painted the tiles with the opposite color and let them dry for another 10 minutes or so.  Once the tiles were dry to the touch again, I removed the letters and the tape to reveal my design.

To give life to some standard (read: boring) medal desktop supplies, I gave them some pops of color!  I painted a pen holder in Krylon ColorMaster ® Paint + Primer in Matte Aqua and a mail sorter with Krylon ColorMaster®Paint + Primer in Gloss Navy Blue.  The ColorMaster®Paint + Primer adheres great to metal and had the perfect amount of coverage, so these both only required one coat.  Again, I let them dry outside for about 10 minutes until they were dry to the touch. After an hour or so, they were ready for use!

We’re constantly adding items to our grocery list, as everyone does, so I wanted to create something that was easy for us to update and check before we head to the store.  I taped off the dry-erase part of a dry-erase board, leaving only the frame exposed, and painted it with Krylon ColorMaster® Paint + Primer in Gloss Navy Blue.  Like with metal surfaces, the ColorMaster Paint + Primer went on like butter when painting the plastic frame. Once the paint was dry, I added some silver detail using a Krylon Silver Leafing Pen.

Lastly, we needed a place to hang our keys, so we weren’t constantly digging through bags and coat pockets to track them down.  I found a plain key hook rail, but like the desktop supplies, it, too, needed some color!  I removed the hooks from the rail and painted it with one coat of Krylon ColorMaster Paint + Primer in Matte Aqua.  After the rail was dry to the touch (again, only 10 minutes!), I screwed the hooks back in, and voila!  Lost keys no more!

 

I used non-destructive adhesive strips to attach the cork boards, dry-erase board, and key rail to the walls, should I want to switch things up later I wouldn’t damage the walls or the paint.  The cork boards are perfect to keep business cards for handymen or others so that you don’t have to rifle through junk drawers to track them down.  And since I didn’t want our grocery list to be the first thing you saw when you rounded the corner from the front door, I hid it inside the cabinet door.  It keeps the space looking clean and less-cluttered, but we’re still able to easily keep track of lists, etc.  In addition to the organizational items, I added a small desk lamp, a coordinating piece of art to hide to the plug/cords, and a small succulent to complete the space.  In the cabinets above, I organized our cookbooks by color (OCD much?!) for easy access. I also put a stapler, tape dispenser and extra batteries in the upper cabinets so that we can grab them easily when needed.  I had a plain white drawer organizer in my desk upstairs that I wasn’t using, so I took to it with my Krylon Silver Leafing Pen and wrote “BATTERIES” on the side.  Now it’s officially a ‘fancy battery organizer’, because, don’t we all need one of those?!

That’s it!  This entire project took just a couple of hours to finish and it completely transformed this nook into not only an extremely useful space, but a stylish one as well!

How are you getting organized this year?