We’re all grown up now (I suppose.)  We’ve both adopted new roomies (our hubbies), and Ally McBeal and Cybill are long gone from tv-land (dear Cybill’s friend Maryann: I miss you.)  Jess has three awesome little boys, and I have two awesome furry boys.  We still meet up for the odd beer when we can, but we’ve graduated from soda biscuits slathered in processed-cheese-in-a-jar to real restaurants and coffeeshops (oh the luxury!)

And our bar days have been replaced by Ikea dates.  :)

Today, we are meeting for our first ever Ikea date.  I can’t wait.  Not only do I get to hang out with my Jess (and her Cameron, the happiest baby I’ve ever met), but I get to do it at Ikea.  Am I a happy Joy?  Yes.  I’m a happy Joy.  :)

I’m excited to be Ikea-bound a) because I get to see my Jess, but also b) because so many projects are so agonizingly close to being complete around here, but require just a little Ikea-love before I can swish my hands together (like they used to do in old movies – you know what I’m talking about right?) and declare (outloud, of course, and rather overdramatically) “done!”

There’s my stairwell.  Oh, stairwell project, how your unfinishedness haunts me.  The walls have been carefully patched and painted (in lovely BM Edgecomb Gray), the baseboards (stringers?) tediously caulked and taped and repainted (the rumours are true: I do indeed have rather beautiful stringers now)…  And yet I can’t yet swish my hands together.  Why?  Because I’ve got a bare lightbulb hanging from my ceiling at the top of the stairs.  Yes.  You read that correctly.  A.  BARE.  LIGHTBULB.  Please don’t tell.  I’m a little embarrassed.  And it’s even more embarrassing that that sad looking naked lightbulb has been swinging (all uncovered and stuff) for over a month now.  Yup.  Consider me officially mortified.

Yes, we could have just put the original ugly boob light back up (um…  if I hadn’t thrown it away in disgust…) but after all the hard work I put into that stupid silly stairwell, I’ve refused to compromise.  No, it needs a new lovely fixture.  And Ikea has the answer…

Alang is Alovely, isn’t she?  And she’ll look even more alovely at the top of my stairwell.  :)  When Sweetie and I last visited Ikea, they were sold out of dear Alang, so I’m guessing that I’m not her only fan (although I may be her number one fan.)  (I love her just that much.)

I also need some of these…

…for my yet unfinished pretty little laundry room.  It’s hard to put shelves on a wall without brackets (unless you’ve got one of those fancy schmancy floating shelves) (I do not have one of those fancy schmancy floating shelves.)  And I desperately need shelves on the wall.  I have THINGS (a few baskets, a pretty little picture, a new-to-the-laundry room clock) (oh, and laundry detergent too) to put ON a shelf in my laundry room, just no shelf.  It’s a bit of a problem.  So, Ekby Stilig brackets, you are indeed on my list.  :)  If Ikea-shopping was anything (at all) like The Bachelor, Ekby Stilig brackets: you would be getting your rose.

Lastly, I need a little more Slom in my kitchen…

…since I ran short on Slom mid-pantry project a couple weeks ago.  And an unfinished pantry is an unhappy pantry (pretty sure that’s how the saying goes.)

And so, off I go (like, literally, right now) to meet my Jess, her Cammy, and my eagerly (if a jar can look eager?) awaiting Ikea-finds.  There may even be a cinnamon bun waiting for me on the way out too (according to Jess, one cannot truly appreciate the full Ikea-experience sans cinnamon bun.  Who knew?  Apparently I’ve been doing it all wrong for so long.)  Our Ikea date may not be quite as exciting as Cheese Whiz on crackers at 3am on a schoolnight, but it sounds like a delightful way to spend a snowy Saturday afternoon to me.  :)

A few days back, my friend Shawn (who has his own blog called the Olde Stone House) (hi Shawn!) was telling (er, texting) me about how super excited he was about his new pantry (which he just posted about here yesterday – great minds think alike, apparently!) and mid-jealousy (he has an entire room designated for pretty pantryness) (and an entire bedroom newly redesigned as one huge walk-in closet [not at all related to this topic, but also equally envy-inciting]) I realized that I DO kinda have a pantry of my own.  It’s not very big (but, well, nothing in this house is, really) and it doesn’t really have its own designated space, or a door for that matter, but it could indeed be considered pantry-ish.  My goal this weekend?  Make ‘er pretty. :)

My inspiration?  This pic (found while hanging out with the fine folk at Pinterest the other day) from Kristine at The Painted Hive:

Lovely labelled canisters via The Painted Hive

I’ve gotta be honest: I had a full-fledged eureka moment when I found this image.  The sameness of all the canisters makes everything collectively look so perfect together.  I know that this is likely lesson #1a in Decorating 101, but as a pantry-perfecting principle it was a near-epiphany.

So (of course) off I went to ikea to find me some canisters.  And canisters I found!  (And, even better, they were very inexpensive – only $2-3-ish each!)  I bought the SLOM series of jars, which are actually the same canisters in my inspiration image (giving me much hope that my puny pantry could indeed look lovely!)

And so (insert big reveal here) I present my befores and afters.  I haven’t yet labeled my jars (I’m not sure if the transfer labels Kristine used for her pretty canisters are available here in Canada, but a trip to Michaels to see what they can offer me might be in order!) which means that while I know what’s in my jars, no one else does LOL.  Absolutely fine for me, and likely fine for Sweetie even, but not so great for future guests looking to add sugar to their coffee.

Befores…

Ack! Ugly floor alert! Ugly floor alert!

From this angle it doesn't look terrible I suppose, but the hodge-podge of jars makes it just a little cluttered non?

And presenting my afters…

All tidied up (just don't look at the floor)

Arborio and lentils and couscous oh my

Uniform loveliness :)

Amazing what a little uniformity can do to tidy things up!  OK…  It’s not a major “wow!  What a crazy difference!  Your house is now complete” kinda moment, but I think everything just looks a little more deliberate and organized now.  Which makes me happy.  :)  I ran out of jars, so I’ve still got more to add (an excuse for another trip to ikea!) and if I get around to adding labels, I’ll post pics to show that too.

All in all, though, it’s not a bad quick little pantry project for a Saturday afternoon!

PS – For future reference for future guests, the sugar in the jar next to the coffee, top shelf, second jar from the right.  :)