This weekend was packed full of friends, family and food, but I also managed to squeeze in a little home improvement project that I’ve been contemplating for months.

Our historic home has several built-in storage areas, which are typical features of craftsman bungalows. One of these areas is a small part of hallway, and it is basically a section of floor-to-ceiling shelves. These open shelves provide much-needed storage space for my plethora of platters, serving pieces and cake domes, all of which I use on a fairly regular basis.

Sadly, I am not Martha Stewart. If I were, I probably could fashion and maintain a method of displaying this mish-mash of stuff that is both cute and functional:

But, alas, my inherent laziness knows no bounds. I finally decided that I needed to cover this area in a way that still kept the shelves accessible, and didn’t look too…tacky. With a sewing machine, a yard stick and no idea what I was doing, I hopped to it:

All I knew was that I did not want to do anything that involved screws, holes in the walls or other misguided attempts at handiness, so I assumed tension curtain rods would be a good starting point. I used the yard stick to measure each shelf (since they are not all the same size), and cut out fabric panels that were several inches larger than my measurements. I then hemmed the fabric and sewed a pocket for the tension rod, using my pathetically basic sewing skills. Ta-Da!!!:

It may not be Martha, but it’s good enough for me.

Now, if I could just cordon off the heathens’ room as a hazmat zone…