How’s It Hanging?
One of our favorite things about Richmond is that it’s also known as The River City. Not because we have some piddly little stream dribbling through town, but because we’re actually the only city with class five rapids that run through the city limits. In short, we have a whole lotta river and it’s a whole lotta fun to swim, sun, and hang out there. It’s sort of like a beach town except think big flat rocks for sunning (and skipping across) instead of sand…
In fact, John and I can actually be classified as river rats. We have a “secret” favorite part of the river where we can always find parking and a big flat rock to call our own (it’s such a great free way to spend an afternoon and even an entire weekend). But lots of river visits lead to lots of wet beach towels and bathing suits. And it hardly feels very green of us to toss everything in the washer & dryer when we return home- especially when we plan to hit up the same rock the very next day. If only we had a place to hang our suits and towels to dry until the next river excursion. Nothing that $8 and a trip to Lowe’s couldn’t solve. Here’s the bare and boring corner of our sunroom before the makeover (note that it’s conveniently located right next to the back door):
And the same corner just minutes later after we screwed our three new brushed nickel hooks into place (snagged on sale for just $2.64 each):
Luckily since nothing is dripping wet by the time we get home (we like to lounge on the hot rocks til we’re pretty dry before hopping into the car) we don’t have to worry about water-logging the shoe basket below.
And because each of our Lowe’s hooks are actually double hooks, we can hang up quite a range of things in a pinch (in case a few friends join us or I push John into the river before he gets his hat/shirt/shoes off).
It’s actually very reminiscent of the mini-mudroom that we created in a corner of our den with an ottoman and a wall-mounted coat rack (which is super practical when it comes to wrangling purses, scarves, dog leashes, and even paper files- which are stored in the ottoman while no one’s the wiser). We’re just a-place-for-everything-and-everything-in-its-place kinda people, so we like creating systems that make things feel organized and automatic (since the mini-mudroom installation almost two years ago we haven’t lost the dog’s leash once!).
So what about you guys? Do you live in a city that calls for a little specialized corner for storing/wrangling specific items that you use on the regular? Scuba gear? Snowshoes? Farm boots? Is anyone else a fan of using simple coat hooks to keep things organized? Tell the river rats all about it.
Leave a comment
If you enjoyed this post, please leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
We live near Lake Michigan, but the Chicago crowds keep us from enjoying it (read: we never go). So our apartment isn’t in need of any such space. But I love yours! And I think we need to take a trip to Richmond just to enjoy the rocky river’s edge. Beautiful!
Love the hooks and Richmond! My hubby-to-be and I live in Washington, DC (proper not VA or MD)and we took an excursion to Richmond for Valentine’s day this year. What a beautiful town! Back to the post, we keep an entire drawer of maps, sunscreen, blister bandaids and Metro cards in a drawer for any visitors that might pop in to see us (and the city). Living in a tourist hot spot has its ups and downs but we are always prepared!
John/Sherry – unrealated comment, sorry. But I have had plenty of difficulty in voting recently because I’ll enter the verification code (perfectly) and it’ll say I didn’t and please do it again. I’ll try 2-3 times, and it’s the same. Sometimes closeing the window and restarting helps, but it won’t let me right now again. Has anyone else experienced this? Is it just my computer? I know it’s not a huge deal, but it’s getting a little old, and I was curious if anyone else noticed this or if it were just me.
Hey LauraC,
So sorry to hear about your voting debacle! We haven’t heard about this problem from others (chime in anyone else if you’ve noticed this!) but hopefully checking back a bit later or closing/restarting will work. There’s no chance you accidentally have “caps lock” pressed down right? Or “number lock”? That has been known to mess up code entries in the past. Hope it helps! Fingers crossed…
xo,
s
P.S. Love the picture of Burger – that shot and the river totally reminds me of the Wichita Mountain Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma. My husband was in the army so we spent most of four years there. There’s a river (smaller) that flows through there and we’d take our dog (Mocha – she says “hi” Burger) bunches of times! Sweet memories! But, no we didn’t have any organizational spots.
Love it! :) Very clever. And Burger looks adorable, his hair [er, fur?] blowing in the breeze!
Ok… I am getting super anxious, like the time my Phoenix Suns were in the play offs, or my Arizona Cardinals were competing for the Super Bowl…. There are only abt 100 votes separating 1st and 2nd place. People need to vote. A lot. Today, and tomorrow, and every day. I can’t stand it.
;)
Voted. Worked like a charm this time. Just weird, that’s all. And my caps and number lock were off, but I double-checked them, thanks for the reminder!
I’m from Richmond too! I think we all have our favorite “secret” spots on the River, heehee!
Love the hooks, they have kind of a Pottery Barn vibe to them. Looks good!
Great, simple transformation. I wanted to do something like this at my place, but just couldn’t bring myself to add more holes to my rental, especially with only a few months left of living here! And I agree as well, Burger is adorable in that first photo!
I had no idea that Richmond looked like this. I’ve only ever passed by on the highway heading to N.C. What area, if I may ask, do you live in of Richmond?
Hey Laura,
We live in Bon Air (a cute little neighborhood full of older homes and historic hotels) and although the river runs all through Richmond we’re only about ten minutes from our favorite point of access (which is a total bonus considering we didn’t even know about it when we moved in!).
xo,
s
Great idea, simple, but simple works!
We have a hot tub in our backyard and are constantly going through towels and bathing suits. Our upstairs looks like a war zone…a war of towels that is! Every door has at LEAST two towels hanging from it. Very messy. And right now, we are in the middle of renovations and are painting the doors, hence no door knobs to even hang them on! And we have no hooks in the bathroom as of yet…it’s quite the dilemma. We need to come up with some sort of towel/bathing suit hanging station…ideas??
We live a few blocks from the Red River. There is a reason it is named the RED River. The water is a murky red/brown. On a good day, you can see more than 6 inches below the surface. You will never seeing me swim in that river. Not just because the water is nasty, but because I’ve seen the 3-4 foot long catfish pulled out of there. Those things will eat anything, and I’m sure your feet qualify as “anything.” The water there looks nice though!
We had a similar problem, both for beach towels, and for air drying my husband’s work pants. Our solution: a clothesline in the garage. We couldn’t put one up in the backyard (townhouse) and with summer showers in Florida, the back porch wasn’t an option. We now have a retractable clothesline in the garage that I can use for everything from drying clothes to beach towels. Less than $10 too!
Hmmm…not a corner, but I have a retractable clothesline outside, which is great, because its out of sight when it’s not in use! :-) Also, my laundry room is about 5 1/2 feet wide (the washer and dryer are in length-wise, so I can walk right past them) and I bought an extra shower curtain rod and hung it near the ceiling, so I can hang stuff there, too – also out of sight!
I *heart* mud rooms – and love your mini one! Will definitely incorporate that idea in my own house!!
Love your blog! Where did you get the shoe basket?
Thanks!
Emma- We think the shoe basket is from Target (it’s really old, just a woven tray/shallow basket that we grabbed a while back and then repurposed for shoe storage) but Bed Bath & Beyond and The Container Store are a few other good places to look. Hope it helps!
Brooke- No way! We thought we were the only ones. It’s such a small world. Hopefully we can swing by and see your River City someday.
xoxo,
s
Hey, Richmond isn’t the only city known as the River City! Jacksonville, FL is, too, because the St. Johns River (three MILES wide at some points) meets the Atlantic there.
I had the same voting trouble about a week ago. I checked the caps lock etc and couldn’t find a reason for the problem at all. But only the one time and since it’s been fine. It’s close…..good luck!!
Could you guys be any cuter or more clever? Doubtful. Could I be any more envious of your river? Also doubtful.
That looks like such fun! I like rivers, but the only one anywhere near us is the L.A. River and that is not a place to hang out (unless you want to contract something). Unfortunately it’s treated more like a trash dump. But we go to the beach a lot and usually hang/throw our towels in the garage. Not in so cute and tidy a way though!
We don’t live anywhere fun that requires these cute and quaint little nooks inside the house. You think being in CA, we would have a lot of chances to hit the beach, but alas, the nearest beach is 45 min away.
We do go snowboarding a lot during the winter months (and the 8 hr daily drive never stops us). The equipments are bulky and they do take up a lot of space in our garage. We will be trying to find a permanent place for them soon, but right now, they’re just sitting on one of the shelves.
Sherry, you are so right! Burger is a total camera hog! :-)
I have a couple different places that I like to use for storage. My hubby and I hang our keys and my purse on hooks by the front door. In the kitchen, I have hooks near the stairway to our basement that we hang our lunch boxes off of. It just helps instead of having everything on the floor or counter tops. Things tend to not get lost now :-)
Fellow Richmonder here! We also love going to the river. The dogs absolutely LOVE it! Cute idea with the hooks!
I love how filling an empty space makes the room more lived in. But, speaking of hanging, I found these instructions while surfing blogs…thought you might enjoy it…I think the right glue is key.
http://www.craftynest.com/2009/03/hemp-pendant-lamps/
We JUST did this this weekend! Our garage was a mess, so we completely rearranged everything in it and now it is sooooo much more spacious. The best part about the project was the storage area we made for all of our kayak gear. Its still pretty wet by the time we get home, and we were getting tired of drying it in the spare bathroom and then tossing it in an extra closet. We took two brackets(? not sure if that’s what they really are) we weren’t using, and an old closet rod I removed from my closet and made a clothing rod with a shelf on top in one corner of the garage. Now we can dry and store our gear in the same place, and there is even room for our paddles on top! The best part about it, it was completely free!
I just have to say that I am so happy that you include your “little dude” Burger in most everything that you do. Seeing him in your pics has become like a little “Where’s Wallace?” for me! I just love this picture, looks like he is having a doggone good time!
OOPS….I meant “Where’s Waldo”!!!!
I love belle isle. One of my favorite summer spots in RVA. It does beat a long drive to the beach. I have my favorite spot too…where I always find a great spot to soak in the rays!
Loving the whole basket/hanging towels. What a great idea!!
That picture of Burger is totally awesome! The mighty Tennessee runs through our city and we happen to have a very good friend with a ski boat so we will be spending a lot of time on the water this summer. So excited!!
The only river near us is the muddy Mississippi. Not exactly the place for swimming or sunbathing. That’s so neat that you have a place you can go for a quick outdoor getaway.
Thanks for the info about the basket!
With Hubby being in the military, we never know what size our city (or house!) is going to be. We’ve always loved wrought iron umbrella/coat hangers, but can’t guarentee we’ll always have a place for it. Instead, we bought decorative wrought iron hooks (also from Lowes) to screw into the walls in our entry way (ahem–door vacinity, as the case may be). Really helps make the area more “pulled together.”
Hi Youngsters,
You guys are so lucky to have the river so closed to your house. Being from Miami, I’ve never been to a river so after seeing those pics I added that to my list of must dues.
I wanted to know where the gorgeous blue and green bottles you have in the sun room are from. I’m seriously obsessed with them. Also, if you don’t mind telling me where you got the white tray you use to display your jewelery. I meant to ask you that in the email I sent you a couple days ago. Thanks for the quick response and continue to be fabulous.
Hey Yansy,
The blue and green bottles are just old wine and Pellegrino bottles that we saved and soaked to remove the labels! Isn’t that the simplest way to decorate on a dime? It’s one of our favorite tricks (and everything looks better grouped en mass on a tray). Of course we mixed in a few $2 blue vases that we picked up at Goodwill but the rest are all just recycled from beverages that we snagged at the store. Hope it helps!
Oh and I got the ceramic egg crate for my jewelry a few years back in NYC at The Container Store but we’ve since seen them at Anthropologie so that’s a great place to pick one up. Happy hunting…
xo,
Sherry
I finally found a deal on a storage trunk for our back door on target.com: http://www.target.com/Rectangular-Rattan-Trunk-24x16x17/dp/B001GXD728/sr=1-1/qid=1244001776/ref=sr_1_1/190-6663882-0747124?ie=UTF8&frombrowse=0&index=target&rh=k:rattan%20trunk&page=1
Only $50 with shipping! We are getting the carpet in that room professionally clean this week and I want to keep it clean, so a place to store our shoes and a towel for cleaning the pug’s feet after rain will be perfect!
Hey.. those are my bath towels!!! Do they have beach towels in the same pattern?? (running to Target to see if pattern is still in stock! lol)
I’m a water rat that is unfortunately without such a convenient watering hole. Great idea for greening up your towel usage!
I’m wondering where your secret spot is… Pony Pasture is usually a safe bet but it’s sometimes crowded and tough to find parking.
Hey Julie,
We were waiting for someone to ask, but unfortunately we can’t spill the beans because then it wouldn’t be a secret! The hint is that it’s near Pony Pasture. Happy hunting…
xo,
Sherry
I must admit I am a teensy bit jealous of your river rat way of life. We love the Guadalupe river but its about 5 hours away. We have a cabinet in the garage (it used to be a fish tank stand) that we use to store items related to our 4-wheelers (boots, gloves, sunscreen, bandanas and such). Yours is way cuter though. Maybe ours needs some hooks.
Just wanted to let you know that I copied this idea, and we love it! We have two little girls, who spend a lot of the summer playing in a kiddie pool in our backyard. We hung hooks in our screened-in porch, where we come in from the yard before going into the house. It’s been perfect for hanging up their towels and bathing suits to dry. It’s also made it easy to head out the next time because the bathing suits and towels are already on the porch, dry and ready to go. Thanks for the idea!!!
Hey, I was wondering if you guys had any ideas for a “mini mudroom” for an apartment?
How about using the method in the bottom picture (storage bench under coat hooks on wall)? You don’t need a laundry room or a mudroom or a large hallway to do it (heck, we stuck ours in the corner of our den). Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Hi, I know this is an old post, but I just linked through from your recent “Sunroom Reveal” and have a questions for you. One of y’all’s other recent posts convinced my husband and I to make ours a “shoeless” home. I love the basket you have under the towel hooks. I’ve seen similar baskets around (one is even on sale at Target this week), but I was wondering if you could tell me the measurements of yours. Thanks so much!!!
Julia
It’s 20″ by 14″.
xo,
s