The Easy-Peasy Ballet Barre

Handrail Bracket
We have a ballerina who lives in our house. So we thought it would be fun to install a simple ballet barre in her bedroom. This may have been the easiest DIY project ever. And not expensive at all.

Here's the breakdown:

  • $5 for each handrail bracket, I got two in white
  • $5 for the 4' pine closet rod, which I cut to size
  • $10 for the mirror 
  • $0 for the purple spray paint I had leftover from another project
The first step was the toughest ... and that was clear a space in the kid's bedroom. I won't lie, her room usually looks like a toy hurricane just blew in, so I took this opportunity to sort and trash about 45% off what you see here. And I relocated her desk to the other side of the room. 

BEFORE: The Mess!
Brief sidenote: We discussed installing the bar in the basement but "there are too many spiders" down there. Arghh!

Next, we painted the pine rod a dark purple, which looks nice with her lavender walls. Once dried, I installed the brackets using my extra-long level and easily attached the bar along the top using my drill.

Work in Progress!
Next, I added the mirror, which goes up pretty quickly thanks to the little plastic brackets that come in the kit. 

And that was basically it. Done. 

AFTER: The Completed Barre!
Ugh, the Mirror Shows All the Messes
You could add more mirrors or make the bar longer/shorter, depending on your space. But for $25 bucks and one cloudy afternoon, it's a pretty easy win.

And by the way: Pottery Barn sells a ballet bar kit for $159 ... so you win.



Related posts:
All my project posts

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The $80 Kitchen Pantry Update

Image
It took two days and about $80 in supplies, and now our kitchen pantry is REBORN! Here's a quick review of the project in pictures, starting with the BEFORE pictures: My main issue with the wire shelves were bottles or anything "thin" would tip over. And with my commitment to bulk, I wanted to store glass containers in here but knew they wouldn't be "safe." I foresaw broken glass at some point. Plus, it's a great space, so I knew I could add more storage space if I was strategic. Last, wire shelves are ugly. So then I demo'd the pantry and painted the walls (which was just primer) with leftover paint from the rest of the house. It's called Polar Bear. I paid an electrician to install an outlet at "counter height" in the pantry, so I could move the dumb microwave off the counter. (The electrician did a slew of other small jobs around the house, not just this outlet, including a motion-activated light in this pantry. Tres Fancy
Keep reading »

Family Calendar Improvement

Image
 Made a quick improvement at the start of the school year that I'm pretty excited about.  And yes, I'm probably the only one excited about it, but here goes ...  Here's our "command central" in our kitchen. This is a good landing spot, and a central place to all look at the family calendar ... it's that huge wipe board in the middle of the photo. All our activities are supposed to be written on here and our electronic family calendar on Google.  (Brief aside: my family is the WORST at writing their plans down in either calendar and Dave still doesn't share his events on our Google Shared Family Calendar consistently, which makes me nuts. And they all ask me "what are we doing today?" instead of looking at the calendar, usually directly behind me. But, that's another post.) I went to so much trouble putting this little area together and that huge calendar with wobbly writing was really killing the sophisticated look of that space. PLUS, we don
Keep reading »

Basement Shiplap Project

Image
The guys left me all the unused shiplap from the bathroom and I've been trying to think about where to use it. I had so many ideas but not a lot of shiplap, so I eventually settled on this corner of our basement. It's where the exercise mats and treadmill live, right behind the sofa. And also where the Marvel-themed bathroom with shiplap is located. So it made sense. It took much of a rainy Sunday to cut and nail up the new boards ...    I even had enough to do on the "backsplash" of our little kitchenette in the basement I've been slowly building out.  Next up will be to patch all the nail holes and calk around the edges for a clean look. And then the best part ... picking out paint color. Since this is a "free" project, I'm hoping I can find a color in my paint cabinet.  I'll keep you posted. 
Keep reading »