Master Closet Make Over Plans

Closet Plan for main wall

  

I have been excited to organize the master closet from Day 1. And again, I don't have a before picture, but maybe I can describe it for you. Before we worked on decluttering and organizing this gorgeous closet space, it was basically a storage room, and a dreaded space in the bedroom. Most clothing that they wore was in the dressers in the bedroom. There was a window covered up by shelving, and some drawers that were left off of their tracks. So it was really dark, without the natural lighting and with one of the light bulbs burnt out. We joke about it now, but the dogs didn't even know about the closet until we decluttered it.

But the interesting part of the closet is that it was potentially gorgeous, like a super model in her awkward puberty years? The actual bones of the closet were installed by California Closets, with whom I have a very strong love/hate relationship with at the moment. There was a lot of storage space, but it wasn't really fit for either Cindy or Greg.

It pained me to hear Cindy talk about how unhappy she was with the space, when all I saw was how amazing the space was. But then, she was the one who had to live with the closet, when I just saw it when I visited. So after warming up with the bedroom and the linen closet, we rolled up our sleeves and got to work! I started by sending her my vision for the space. She told me that she wanted funky colors, but in a Victorian style. Something feminine and neat, where things were easily found.

So I turned on my handy three-year-old Dell laptop and opened up my best and only program for interior design planning--Paint. Hey, you gotta use what you got! I emailed her the plans for the closet which included damask wall paper, wall scarf storage, exposing the window and a giant floor to ceiling mirror. And then I realized that wall paper in a closet was pretty expensive and impractical. At least for this space. 

So here are my gorgeously composed Paint interior design plans. The results will be in another post, perhaps tomorrow. ENJOY!

 

Organizing Update: Bathrooms

Bathrooms. The place where cosmetics and toiletries go to die. And since moving to New York, the bathroom is my least favorite place in a home. HOWEVER, this magical bathroom has an unlimited amount of space for his and hers supplies, towels, laundry and more! This past week, Cindy and I worked on decluttering two of the bathrooms in their lovely home. The first, being the master bathroom. There are two large under sink storage cabinets, four drawers, and a whole linen closet. I need to take some better pictures next week, but I have some pictures that show how many unnecessary things we people keep in bathrooms. For example, everyone thinks that medications belong in this space. Unless you keep a glass for tap water next to your sink, I think not. The only medications that should be up here are for cramps and other bathroom-related issues I won't list. The picture above is before we decluttered one of the cabinets. And the picture below is the after picture! That is all that is left from above. And we haven't gotten to organizing everything. We decided to leave the organizing step for later so we can get to decluttering more of the house.

 

Oh look, it's me! We worked on putting the bed sheets that were folded at the bottom of this linen closet in the master closet. I'll post more on that later this week. So now, the laundry basket is placed in this space, and out of the way, to create a more open layout in the bathroom and to better expose one of the windows. Yeah, I'm wearing Scooby Doo boxers...

 

 Finally, we went to the girls' bathroom to declutter years of "growing up" products. Two flat irons, a curling iron, scruncis, and lots and lots of Proactiv and hair products were thrown out, clearing two cabinets and resulting in just the items you see below. The blow dryer and flatiron that were left over went in a drawer below the sink storage area. It fit perfectly. 

In total, we were able to create two donation bags of bed sheets. In total, there were five or six donation bags of bed sheets from other areas. The next week, Cindy was able to donate some really nice silk bed sheets and a couple of other pairs of bed sheets to a family friend that lost their belongings to a house fire. They were able to go to someone that would use them right away. It's been amazing to see what has resulted in this decluttering and organizing binge I have been on. I have been able to give my belongings and help gather Cindy's belongings in order to support a family friend after a house fire, thrift my clothing to start an herb garden, and support Cindy in creating 20+ donation bags for people who could really use what we see as old clothing and clutter. It has been the most liberating experience, and it's only the beginning! And to see the sidewalk lined up with another 20+ garbage bags of the expired or broken clutter from the Cindy/Greg household was amazing. I see it sort of like getting rid of negative energy and giving more space to positive, new energy. 

 

So far, I want to say there have been between 20-30 donation bags, 20-30 bags of throwaway items. 

We have decluttered and partially organized parts of the bedroom, the master bathroom, the master closet, the hallway closet, the girls' bathroom, one of the bedrooms and are on to the kitchen.

I'll admit that I have been really bad at taking before and after pictures, so I promise I will do a better job. I get so excited to just get to work that I don't really have an accurate showing for it. But every time that happens, I realize that this is what I really love doing. It sounds silly when I say it out loud "I'm so excited to declutter the bathrooms!" But it really feels great to be supporting someone clear space in their home for more things and, on a more spiritual hippy-dippy level, more opportunity. So thank you again and again to Cindy and Greg for giving me the opportunity to start in their home and trusting me with their belongings. It's going to look like a homey showroom when everything is done!! 

Tikki to Treasure: Mirror Makeover

Where did this come from? I'm not really sure.

*UPDATE* I know where it came from now, it's Melissa's.

I'm not really surprised though, since most of doo-dads and trinkets around our apartment have mystery origins, belonging to no one and having no home. And as a good hoarder, I save a place for them in my junk room and deep in my heart. I think the only reason we still have this mirror is because Melissa uses it to look at her mouth when she is making puppets. I also wish I had a picture to accompany this sentence. (She is a stop-motion animator) This mirror would be much much cooler if it were wood, or perhaps metal, but nope--it's plastic. And not the good kind of melamine, funky plastic but the "this would be a great Island Theme party goodie" kind of plastic. Let's represent this mirror with purpose!

So it is time. Time for this mirror to shine once more, away from Tikki Island, away from the junk room, and as a star component of the soon-to-be-posted hallway makeover. There is no excuse for fake plastic wood anymore, no gaudy gold paint. It's time for a *drum roll* MAKEOVERRR!

I wanted to paint this mirror a neutral color, so I went to the local hardware store, Saifee Hardware, down the street to buy some spray paint. When buying spray paint, be sure to get the right kind. Some spray paints are for plastics, others for metals, and so on. Spray paint also comes in flat, semi-gloss, and gloss. Since I'm not spray painting something large or super important, I got Krylon's "Khaki" in gloss. I thought about buying white or black, but I wanted something a little more like a beige-y color. Another tip for buying spray paint: be sure to bring your ID, as a lot of places card you to purchase spray paint and it is mostly locked behind bars. Luckily Saifee did not card me...I sort of think carding for spray paint is over the top. But enough politics.

Luckily this piece of crap disassembled. Ten points for Tikki mirror. Once I disassembled the mirror, I chose the parts that I wanted to spray paint. I set up a little spray painting station by the window, since there isn't much circulation in the main room and it's a really REALLY hot day in New York. I was a sweaty beast all day long.

Here is my pretty ghetto set up. I just used a large plastic bag and eventually placed this on the little emergency stairs patio thingy to spray paint. When spraying an object, read the direction on the back of the can. Don't spray too close or too far. If you spray too close to an object, you'll get gross drips and thick goopy paint smears. If you spray too far, the spray paint will just inhabit the air you breath, and you'll get loopy. Oh, and you won't get any paint on what you're actually spraying. So a good 8-10 inches away is perfect. Spray in short strands, not one continuous spray. This way you will get even coats and will even hit the crevices.

I let my mirror dry for about 45 minutes to an hour, which is probably not long enough but I'm really impatient. Once the spray paint dried, I added detailing with the dark grey paint from the bathroom. It made everything sort of pop. And here is the finished product!!

YAY. So it looks broken, but I assure you it is not. The mirror spins, so it's pushed a little forward.

So this mirror makeover cost only $5, a can of spray paint! And I can use the spray paint for other projects in the future. I didn't use the paint I have around the apartment because the results of spray painted items are much smoother unless you have a really steady hand. The next post will be the hallway makeover post, or a pre-makeover post. I will be looking for a storage ottoman, but it's secretly almost finished. The next attack will be where the red circle is, specifically the little nook to the left of the closet and also the closet.

Enjoy the weather guys, but not the allergies! AND don't be a stranger, leave me some comments. What do you want to know? Anything missing from my posts?