Finally, a finished project here... A command center #2.

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About a year ago I shared with you our Command center. This project is still one of the most popular on my blog. Almost every day somebody stops by that post.

But, as much as I loved it, it didn't work as well for the rest of my family. Especially the kids because they didn't really like that our family calendar was in the master bedroom. So I finally agreed to move the command center to a more visible and accessible spot, aka our kitchen. Here it is in all it's beauty:

For the longest time we had this sad spot in our kitchen:

At some point I had a picture hanging there too but I took it off a long time ago. These shelves were made of leftover pieces of gutter and I loved them. So I reused them in the new command center (just spray-painted with Rustoleum metallic paint that I already had on hand and added vinyl letters).

The whole process was a "use what you have on hand" thing. Hey, I'm doing a No Spend challenge this month after all, right? :) And I didn't spend anything. It was a zero dollar project :)

First, I stenciled the wall with the same stencil I used for our ceiling fan update:

The paint was a "custom mix" (I basically mixed together some leftover paints I had on hand to get this mossy-green). Hubby then framed it for me with some thin molding that we had in the garage. I wanted to add some fabric baskets too. At first, I fell in love with these ones from IKEA. The small baskets seemed perfect! But there were only two in each set, and I needed three. I wasn't about to spend $12 and end up with three more baskets I didn't need (no, I'm not that cheap. It's all about the challenge:). The solution? Make it myself, of course! Ha, I have actually sewn something again. Can you believe that???

After looking through a ton of pictures on Google, I found this tutorial. Her instructions are so easy to follow, even for a novice like me. I really like how they turned out:

Again, I just used scraps of fabric I had on hand but they match other house decor perfectly. The last thing I added was the two clocks on the top. Why two, you might ask? Well, one shows the local time, another one - time back home in Russia. I happened to have these two clocks from IKEA that I bought a while ago:

They were only $1.99 each but kind of ugly and cheap-looking. So I just taped the ... and sprayed them black. So much better:

A little paint makes such a difference!

I love how it all turned out. And more importantly, the rest of the family likes it too :) And this spot doesn't look very sad any more:

And now I just need to go and re-fill this empty calendar :)

I shared this post with these awesome parties:

Elizabeth and Co    Thrifty Decor Chick    The REAL Housewives of Riverton    By Stephanie Lynn
The Shabby Nest      DIY Show Off