hella DIY

**this post is dedicated to charlie's uncle john, because i always keep my word**

i was never really into dolls or dress up growing up. my mom's convinced my new obsession with charlie's clothes and hair bows and headbands is somehow related to filling this childhood void. *whatevs*

that being said, my addiction to girly stuff for charlie reached an explosive level this week when her outrageous headband collection exploded all over the floor of the nursery. i'm just about the least DIY person ever, but a solution was needed to wrangle the bands and bows...and #SAHM life right now, so why not try?

i broke the glass of an ikea frame a couple years ago and mike tried to throw it out. my inner hoarder picked it out of the garbage and said "ooooh, someday i can do some sort of DIY project with this." approximately 98.3% of the time this thought comes to my head, there is a 0% chance of me following through. but lo and behold, the frame turned out to be the perfect base for this project. i decided to continue the white/copper/oak theme of her nursery (pictures to come...someday) and make a bow and headband holder. depending on your decor, you could really do this project with any wire and stain. you could also replace the wire portion of this project with some hot glued ribbon. whatever floats your boat.

we already had rustoleum copper spray paint and sealer, gold hooks, minwax classic oak stain/poly combo and some white latex paint. i ran out quick to grab some 16 gauge copper wire, the o shaped eye hooks and a wooden dowel. first, i removed the little tabs that keep the glass and backing in the frame with a pliers (they pull straight out). then i painted the inside edge of the frame with the white paint to get rid of the brownish cardboard looking color. once that was complete, i stained the dowel with the natural oak stain/poly combo. two coats made for the perfect match to everything else in her nursery. i'm not going to show you pictures of those steps because, come on, figure it out.

mike spray painted the hooks with a few coats of the copper paint and one of the clear enamel to prevent scratching. we probably should have painted the eye hooks to match, but, meh, it turned out fine and i was impatient and wanted to get this project done. i wanted four bow holder wires, so i divided the width of the frame by 5 to figure out how to space them (in this frame's case, that was every 3 inches across). #yaymath! mike then drilled pilot holes in the inside top and bottom of the frame for the eye hooks and then screwed them in by hand but not all the way tight. you'll want to use a bit that's one size smaller than your hooks. he also drilled two holes on the outside bottom of the frame for the c-hooks and screwed those in by hand as well to full tightness (using a rag so as not to scratch the paint). mike then strung the copper wire between the eye hooks and wrapped the copper around itself to tighten. he then tightened the eye hooks a few more times to make it completely tight. then he sawed the dowel in half to the length i deemed perfect (i had it extend about 1/2" past each side of the frame).

final step was to clip the bows onto the wires and hang the headbands from the dowel. BOOM! done.

here's a nicer picture when i minimized the hoard of headbands. it's clear that i'm either going to need another one of these or should have used a poster sized frame. ha.