Remixed Boot Tray

One of my brother's Christmas gifts this year was a boot tray, a handy little thing that serves as a catch-all for sloppy, snowy, wet boots. Before this winter, I would have never thought I needed such an item, but thanks to the massive amount of snow/ice we've had these past few months, I've realized it was an imperative addition for my apartment entryway.

My Inspiration

While my brother's tray is nice, it's a bit of an eyesore - since my entryway is part of the same space as my living room (and kitchen), I wanted it to add to the décor of the room. I found this idea on Apartment Therapy and fell in love. The original poster used a LADIS lid from IKEA as her tray base, but unfortunately, IKEA no longer sells that type of container. I searched high and low during my last visit, only to be met with disappointment. *sigh* So, onto Plan B.

Once I confirmed that it
wasn't super-valuable, I
colored over it's original
gold eyes with a brown
Sharpie, turning them a nice
(and more updated) bronze.

I searched and searched for a suitable black plastic lid at various stores but kept striking out. I also perused trays, but those were often too expensive (the LADIS lid was $3.00) or too cute to be used to hold dirty boots (like this one, from IKEA). My mom also pointed out how small my available space was - opening my front door leaves an area of about 11" between door and wall. I had my work cut out for me. Enter Ohio Thrift, a locally-based thrift store chain that I recently discovered while visiting friends. Needing a little bit of a pick-me-up after dropping my mom off at the airport the other week, I found myself browsing the aisles, sizing up items and scavenging shelves. I had a good feeling, since during my last visit I scored this little fellow (right) for $1.99! In the midst of my wandering, I found a few contenders for my boot tray, but they were all discarded when I found a deeper black wooden tray for $2.99. I sized it up in the store but hung onto the receipt, just in case I needed to return it for another option later. Luckily, I didn't need to! I brought it home, cleaned it up, and filled it with four bags of black river rocks from Dollar Tree. End result? Awesome functionality.

My mini entryway - the door passes
right over the tray without catching.
Also, please note the mini snow shovel,
bag of kitty litter, and ice scraper.

My Version!

Yes, these shoes are props. ;)

Door Décor: Winter Sunburst

Since taking down all my Christmas decorations, my front door has been a stark, sad site. I knew I wanted to buy/make something winter-y to put up there, but I just couldn't figure out what to do. Many ideas I found and liked seemed a bit Christmas-y (you really can't get away with decorating with anything evergreen out of season), and the others seemed to involve hanging a pair of ice skates from a wreath. Don't get me wrong, that's certainly winter-y, but it's also slightly expensive (do all these people just have vintage pairs of skates lying around? Because a pair from eBay seems to run anywhere from $15 to $30, plus shipping). Yeesh. Also, ice skates seemed a bit clunky to store in the off-season (and space is premium at my little semi-studio).

Pinterest gem!

Thankfully, I kept up the search and turned up this little gem on Pinterest. The directions (found on some versions of this pin) were ridiculously oversimplified pictures, the hallmark of a future Pinterest fail, but then a little more digging turned up the original source for the craft - a legitimate craft blog with complete directions and everything! With the assurance that this was a realistic craft, I began gathering my own supplies in earnest. This mainly involved scouring the yard in front of my apartment building for branches and twigs - but I had to wait for the plethora of snow to melt first! I was also glad that the trees around my apartment have a darker-colored bark than the willow twigs pictured, since I have a white door. After breaking down the branches and twigs into usable pieces, I went to my local Wal-Mart for jute twine... and couldn't find any! So, I decided to use what I had on hand, which was plain old twine. I wasn't sure how it would turn out at first, but after wrapping it around a cardboard ring that I cut out (following the blog instructions), it turned out pretty well.

 I ended up estimating the amount of twine I would need, then cutting it from the spool (in order to loop it around the ring). To keep it from tangling, I wrapped it around a clothespin, using it like a needle, if that makes sense. Originally, I had made some paper blossoms out of book pages to adorn my sunburst (following the directions from this site), but I felt that the look was a little cluttered once the twine-wrapped ring was completed. The pics below show what I mean (sorry for the bad quality - night-crafting strikes again!). The left photo was more of a concept shot, before adding the ring and another round of twigs.

The roses are so cute...

... but I just felt that they hindered the clean
lines of the finished sunburst.

 The construction was simple, once my ring was prepped - I simply hot-glued the twigs in sets (four, then eight more, then sixteen) to ensure even spacing and balance in the finished product. I love the random, messy look of the example one, but I seriously doubt I could achieve the same. And, let's face it, I'm meticulous. :P I contemplated leaving the ring in the back like the original picture showed, but I liked the look of the wrapped ring. Good thing, too, since the hot glue looked a hot mess when I was done! I kind of took liberties knowing it would be hidden - and maybe it shows. But nobody will see! Except people reading this...














A quick note on hot glue - if you have a door that gets direct sunlight and tends to cook your door hangings, the glue is probably going to melt. My door barely gets sun (and most winter days in OH seem to be overcast), so I'm not too worried. All in all, once the twigs were gathered, it was an easy evening project, and I love how it turned out! Wintery, natural, and still mod-chic - sunbursts are so popular at the moment! Happy Winter, everyone (we have ANOTHER snow day today... bye, bye Spring Break)!