Seeing the ugly

 

I made myself a long to-do list for this weekend and one of my items was "hang white shelf."  Now the white shelf has been sitting in my closet for probably a year now and I couldn't decide where to hang it up.  So I started to look, really look, around the house for a good spot and crossed a few spots off as possibilities.  Then I eyed this...



This was hung up 7 years ago when I first moved in here....by my ex....as a TV wall mount for a small TV in the bedroom.  Once the TV was mounted, womp womp, it was too heavy for it and the TV just faced the floor.  So this terrible looking wall contraption has been sitting on this wall for 7 years.  Yep, 7.  Now...I have tried to take it down in the past but my ex, using all his smarts, stripped the screws in the black portion of the mount.  It hit me when I was looking this tonight that I walk by it all the time, hell I look at it nightly from my bed....but I don't SEE it.  I don't see the ugliness because I choose to ignore it.  (more on this later)  So my mind made up, I decide to tackle the wall mount.  To my surprise, the white portion pops off and the screws come out super easy.  What the hell was the purpose of the white portion?!  The mount was all that was needed!  #theexdidit

So after taking off the useless white section of the mount I verified once again I couldn't get the black portion off.  And I took out my lovely shelf. 

It even came with the cutest little level! 

Enter me with a drill.  This is where things will either go great or horribly wrong.  I had returned my cute, pink drill some time ago for a big girl drill.  I grabbed my instructions and figured that thing out in no time flat.  Like a boss. 

After removing the unnecessary, white stuff (maybe it was to hide a cord?) I was left with the black, ugly mount.  So I played with shelf placement and figured out exactly how to make it work for me. 

Proof I am no home improvement expert above:  The hole on the left I couldn't drill into because it was a stud and I just couldn't get it.  The screw on the right is a bit higher than the screw on the left.  But the best part....it hit me as I was putting the screws in the wall that maybe I needed to be screwing the actual bracket on!  At least I realized it early before I got the screws all the way in.

After successfully getting the rest of my screws with the actual brackets on my shelf was ready to go.  I had made these DIY chalk paint mason jars a few months ago and had been saving them for this shelf. 

The mount is still there, but it's hidden pretty well unless you're really looking at it straight on and actually looking for it in particular. 

Pretty happy with how it looks now!

My two supervisors during my project.  One obviously scared of the drill and the other....

 

seems to not be concerned about me attempting home improvement and must place himself in the center of the room where I need to be moving around. 

 

As I was completing this project I was really thinking about how long I let this go.  I walked by this ugly thing every day and chose not to acknowledge it.  I just pretended it wasn't there when really, it was a very big, ugly "thing" in my room.  Then I got really deep (cause that's how I roll) and started thinking that is a lot like many parts of life.  So many times I've pretended ugly things weren't really there until one day I realized how long I've let something go...for example, 5 years of an ugly marriage.  But sometimes it just seems so daunting of a task to tackle it and I think I can't do it or it's too hard.  But really, you start taking it down little by little and yes, there are still holes that aren't filled, and there are still marks...but you can replace it with something much prettier, something you can really enjoy. I can deal with leftover marks when I know I'll end up with something better. So often I've failed to acknowledge the ugly things or make excuses as to why it can't be fixed and settle for less than what it could be.  I'm more talking the big things, not little, minor things.  Those big things that I choose to ignore that are right there in front of me...an ugly TV mount, an unhappy marriage, debt I needed to tackle. Not to say people don't always acknowledge the good things in life...but that post is for another day.  I waited 7 years...but taking this down and putting up something new was a lot easier than I thought it would be and the result makes me happy.  I actually like what I see now...and I'll enjoy looking at it daily.