1 B is for Barre and Ballerina

This is one of those projects that seems sooo easy you just put it off and off and off... you know what I'm talking about?  I finally got around to putting up the barre up after hmm.... how many times of being asked?  I think my excuse was that because it was so simple I over complicated things and tried to add improvements to it like making it adjustable so I didn't have a bunch of holes in the wall to deal with later when Abby grows taller!  My thinking just got in the way!

The ballet barre is supposed to be around 9" from the wall, but I wasn't about to buy special brackets at $40 a pop.  Instead I searched my rummage pile in the basement for something and came up with a perfect solution, well almost perfect...  We had two of these curtain brackets left over from our Family Room decorating.  Although not 9" long they provide enough room for a little hand to grab onto the barre and perhaps a little foot to rest there.

I sanded them down a little but not to bare wood, we wanted them to have a shabby chic look when they were painted.  I hopped over to Home Depot to pick up a dowel, which was my only expense for the project!

Still a pretty simple project huh?  Well I had a split second thought of "how am I going to paint this (the dowel) without smearing the paint from holding it?"  The solution was to put a small nail in each flat end.  I put one end into a box and rested the other end onto the lip of a plastic bucket.  I could now rotate as needed, worry free.  For the brackets I simply put a screw through the holes and pushed them into the box as well.

Now just for making a bunch of holes in the wall and screwing it all into place!  I left the brackets far enough from the mirror just in case we want to add trim around it in the future.  I like the fact the brackets included a hole to put a screw through to hold the dowel in place.  Not bad - especially for only $8 $4.21 - oh and the mirror, that was also free but check out Melissa's blog to see where we got it from.  I guess I'll have to not over complicate things in the future and just 'get r done'.

Don't forget to check out Melissa's blog with other details!