Come Shopping with Us: The Hardware Store

Kensee and Bruni are off to the hardware store in hopes of finding some great accessories for upcoming interior design jobs!

During my last few trips to the hardware store for my basics like spray paint and glue pens, I decided to sleuth a little more than normal and document it for you! There are so many normal household items at the hardware store that can be used for miniature items. There’s more than meets the eye at your local hardware store; I hope you too find some surprises here!

I went to Orchard Supply Hardware for this little adventure.

Who can possibly resist an aisle called What-cha-ma-call-its? Let’s Explore!

In addition to many other areas of the store, we decided to scour these drawers for items to use in crafts or just as is. Your local or chain stores might have something like this too.

Here’s what we found:

 

So these white “bowls” look like great kitchen mixing bowls, there’s even a smaller size in bright red! Upon further inspection, the metal component does not come out (or at least I haven’t figured out how to remove it yet!). They can definitely still be used for props, but from head on (see below). Tubes always seem to come in handy to create mini household items, so these could be great for creating containers for something like cleansing cloths (think Lysol Wipes) or canned food.

Nut covers make great kitchen bowl props!

There are so many great weird things that you can use for crafts out of hardware store items. For example, I am working on making some cute trinket boxes out of the black square caps below.

 

These mini ball bearings are great decor for a bowl or table top in a modern themed diorama. I also love these screw covers for making something like a household lid on those tubes above (think cleaning cloths or even a beauty bottle).

No need to comment on the wood section (furniture legs)! Love!

Household Aisles

Leg caps come in various sizes and in black and white.

I just go into these stores and stare at everything with an open mind and hope ideas come to me.

 

I am fascinated with these ribbed galvanized nail thingy’s (upper left corner)! I just know they might work great in a garden scene, but I haven’t bought them yet. I’m also a huge fan of the wood button plugs, I’ve even made large cupcakes out of them!

 

I’ve yet to figure out what I want to make out of these cut rubber cubes (right side). They could be a really cool lid to a modern canister or even just decor on a table top. I’m not sure, but I just know they will come in handy! The leg caps are great planters or dishes as you likely saw in the IG post where I added puff paint to make a hobnail dish (see pic above). Most of these caps come in black too! The small clear discs would work great in some of our glassware projects (think candle pedestals).

Mirror holders make great accents to glass and crystal accessories.

I love these Rosette Mirror holders for many projects. I’ve used them as a base for a crystal lamp and even a compote base as seen in the glassware blog here.

 

Cork coasters anyone? They are the perfect size. Also, Command strips are getting smaller and smaller, so that’s great for us mini crafters.

These brass hooks are one of my favorite finds as they are the perfect scale for diorama hooks. They can be nailed into wood or pushed into foam board easily.

Plumbing Aisle

Toilet bowl caps make great mixing bowls!

These pre-cut copper pipe caps are pricey, but if you absolutely love the look, you could get one and use it as a planter or the base of a lovely copper pot for your chef’s kitchen!

 

These toilet bowl caps actually are free and clear of any metal components, so they are perfect for a mixing or kitchen bowl (see pic above). What a funny thing to use for the kitchen, but yay! I also found that they have a large collection of black O-rings in a variety of sizes. My thoughts are that these could be used as parts of small home accessories or even something like a round purse handle!

Electrical Aisle

Electrical caps as soft drink cups, whaat?!?

I immediately thought of a large soft drink cup when I saw these large yellow wire connectors! The lamp section has lots of options for lamp finials that can be used for decorative accents or even the base of your own miniature lamp.

 

There are also lots of wire options at the hardware store and they are often much less expensive than at your local craft store.

Paint & Tape

Of course, they also have all of the basic items you need for your crafts. This is where I found the craft and hobby enamel that I used for most of the custom accessory projects that can be found here.  I definitely frequent the spray paint aisle and feel like I am constantly waiting for someone to open the cases for me.

 

Basically the hardware store is my second favorite place to the craft and fabric stores!

Thank you as always for stopping by! I hope you gained some inspiration for your next trip to the hardware store. I do have more DIY tutorials to share with you, but I’ve realized that I can’t pump them out every week. If only we could craft full time, but that’s not real life for many of us. I have so many ideas and plans, so I will do my best to get those out to you as quickly as I can. Be sure to Follow us so that you receive notifications when we do post new content. Until next time….(when I announce the winners of the design challenge!)

Al la prochaine

Rie & Bruni