Master Closet Makeover

 

Ta-da! Master closet in progress! This baby has taken about a month so far, with about 6-8 hours put into it every week. We began by decluttering, and then proceeded to finding a home for everything in the closet. As you can see in the image above, there is natural light coming in from the left! That would be the exposed window. The first thing I did when we walked in there was tear down the shelving that covered it up. The bedsheets are placed at the back, above the dresses, just like the closet plan. We did have some holdups, due to California Closet specifics. The handles, for example, were going to be brass/gold handles with a really pretty design on it from Home Depot, but when I unscrewed the white handles on the drawers, they did not fit. The handle holes were too far apart, and I'm guessing specific for California Closets. I am also still searching for bars that fit the closet so we can hang more clothing. The handbags and pocketbooks are standing up with the help of shelf dividers. 

We placed the jeans in their own little cubbies. They were in the bedroom before in one of the dressers. I want to say we got rid of about 15 pairs of older jeans? It looks like a department store!! And the purses are right to the right and above the shoes. The shoe storage is my favorite, considering that the shelving was already in place and it was just a matter of repositioning the size of each cubby.  

And the sweetest deal of all--the painted and stenciled wall. That sucker took a lot of sweat and paint fights to get done. Melissa was a huge help since she loves doing really tedious tasks. I thought the stencil would be bigger, but it was only about two of the damask designs. So there was a lot of repositioning and taping the stencil until it was finished.

 

Our future plans are to add chandeliers to replace the two lighting fixtures, and to go through the drawer space. We're also going to hang a mirror, since the mirror we bought from Home Depot did not come with all the parts. The last thing to install will be scarf storage on the wall. We will be using the FINTORP 31" rail from IKEA. 

Some of the things that we changed from the plan are, maybe the handles on the drawers,  and the hanging space.

Here is a list of everything that we completed in the space:

1. Decluttered: removed all of the unnecessary items and older "donatable" clothing.
2. Removed shelving by window.
3. Hung Cindy's blouses.
4. Assigned a home for items such as blouses, sweaters, dresses, photography supplies, shoes, belts, and ties. 
5. Painted and stenciled the wall.
6. Changed the lightbulbs. 
7. Vacuumed and cleaned off shelving.

 

 

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!

 

Herb Garden

 

 So I got creative, big deal. Herb garden on a piano stand in an egg carton? Now that's real class. After the untimely death of my 1 year old midget cactus, Moo, I decided to move forward in a positive way. "What better way than an herb garden!" I thought. So I grabbed a bunch of clothing, shoes and accessories that I no longer sport, brought them to good old Buffalo Exchange (hoping for maybe $5?) and left with a grand total of $22! Just the perfect amount for my herb garden supplies (plus some gluten free pastries at Tulu's Gluten Free Bakery down the street). When I got back home, I immediately ran into the living room, somehow thinking that I have space on my window sill bench? Or maybe my converted baker's rack plant stand? Then I should just make some pots on my pottery wheel that match my living room decor. But then I realized that I had none of these things. I had to quickly remind myself that I am, in fact, a lowly college student who sold clothing for an herb garden. Smart money moves. 

This is when I yanked out the keyboard stand that Melissa no longer uses, put the keyboard aside, as a reminder that piano lessons are still a possibility, and put my little plant stand together. I used some string to secure it to the keyboard stand and, used an old egg carton for little pots. You should have seen me poke little water holes on the bottom with a butcher knife.

It was quick thinking at it's finest. If only I could take clothing off that fast! (Parental advisory necessary.)

I chose dill, basil, cilantro, chile peppers, and parsley to start off. I wasn't sure what would grow well in doors, and for that fact, continue to thrive in doors. Today is Day 8, and everything but the parsley has grown. I think I planted it wrong, but we don't really use parsley anyway, so maybe it was a sign. My favorite cuties are the basil. I just want to pinch their cheeks. They're the third row from the bottom. 

 

Melissa has been super supportive for the past week. Whenever she gets home before I do, she sends me pictures of how much they've grown! It's kind of creepy having something alive, growing so quickly in our apartment. I keep thinking of Little Shop of Horrors. So until next week, this will be all you get to see of my herb garden. They're still very young and vulnerable so Icky is protecting them from Sandusky in my absence.