Weekend 3

You weren't really expecting weekend 2, right?!

After a quick trip to San Antonio to work with my best friend on her wedding plans, it was back to getting my closet back in shape!

Here's a quick peak at a few of the updates:

One thing I hadn't really planned on was the rug.  And it's almost my favorite thing in here. I went back to Ikea to get some more magazine holders and the rug that had called to me the first time I was there was really yelling this time. Our master bedroom is all tile. Great in the summer, horrific in the winter. The light fixture is SO pretty, but not very bright.  The task lighting still needs to be installed on the new shelf that was install, as well as the rest of the painting

The Light!!!  Tell me this isn't better than an ugly bare bulb...also, you can see the second shelf we installed above the original one. It's really nice to not have boxes of patterns falling down around my head when I reach up to grab something. My only 'oopsie' is that I thought it had a draw string, since this closet doesn't have an on and off switch.  It doesn't. The Builder said he will install one. My goal is to have it done before Christmas!

The last sneak peak (forgive the terrible lighting, it was dark at this point and the 40 watt bulb doesn't produce the best light for photograph!). The shoe rack is only going to hold the shoes I wear most frequently. My reality is that I would truly need a bigger closet if I was going to have all my shoes on display or I would have to take out my sewing table. Since neither of those is going to happen, this is the best option for me.

Still to do:

1. Finish paining the closet
2. Install some floating shelves
3. paint the peg board gray to match the closet
4. Print my vinyl that goes on the small chest of drawers I bought
5. Install the task lighting under the back shelf

Weekend 1

It's the end of the first weekend and some progress has been made!  Not as much as I would have liked. I underestimated the amount of crap stuff that has accumulated in the closet over the past three years. 

I won't bore you with paint cut in photo's.  But here's a small peak at what was accomplished:

The color is the same as our master bedroom. I was going to go a shade lighter with my favorite Silver Screens but The Builder was concerned that it would look funny to have a lighter color when you open the sliding closet door. Eh, I think it would have been fine, but since he volunteered to help me paint, I decided to compromise. 

One thing we quickly discovered is that we wouldn't have anywhere to sleep if we emptied the entire closet into our bedroom. Oops. So I hung up a plastic tarp to protect my our clothes from any paint. The goal is now this weekend to finish painting the other quarter of the closet. This side of the closet has the least amount of stuff but has most of my clothes.

See the ugly bare light attached to the ceiling?  That will also be gone this weekend, to be replaced with the light I bought at Ikea last week.  Super excited to not have that ugly light bulb! I also think I'm going to need some task lighting under the shelf you see in the photo because that's where my sewing table goes. There has never been enough light in here and there are no widows for natural light (and yes, I asked my glazier husband if he would install one.  The answer was "maybe at some point" which might as well be a no, lol) so the extra task lighting would be helpful, but might take me past my budget.  

OK, this is looking a little more like it's supposed to! The additional shelf is really making a huge difference in my storage capabilities. This isn't exactly how it will be arranged, but it works for photo's. I bought a peg board to hang up my scissors and some other things. I have WAY more magazines than that and need to figure out a way to better organize them - a second trip to Ikea is definitely in order (but the budget!!!). I also want to tuck a small bookcase back in the corner behind the garment bag. I have a ton of sewing books as well. The painting is one I did with The Teen. The dress was Audrey Hepburn inspired and so it will remain as a bright pop of color in the closet, even if that's not ultimately where it ends up!

More to come!

30 Day Challenge

It's the last day of the month.  I'm still waiting on my boy's comforters to arrive. The shipping was free so I can't complain, but I'm itching to have them come in so I can pick out paint and get their room update done.

Because I'm impatient I have time on my hands, I decided to join the 30 Day Room Challenge. I knew that I needed a small project because:

1. I don't want something I can't finish quickly
2. I want to complete my boys bedroom as well
3. I don't want to spend a ton of money
4. I don't have time for another large project!!!!

So I chose my master bedroom walk in closet!

Yes, this is really the "room" I chose.  It also doubles as my sewing/craft space. It's also our "dump everything" closet. You know, when you're cleaning up the house in a rush and you 'need' to hide stuff you don't know where to put? Yep, that's my master closet. So aside from needing to de-clutter and toss some stuff, there simply isn't enough storage. So I've manage to cram it full of boxes and piles. And of course, that's not working. Here's my closet it all it's shame:

Up until Christmas, it was fairly organized. You can see boxes for my shoes, all my white hangers, and some storage bins on the shelves. But it was downhill from there.  My sewing machine is buried and I pull it out to use it on the dining room table when I need it. My craft supplies are piled willy-nilly.  It's a mess. That's the original paint color to.  Blah. I have bars to hang clothes that I don't want and I need more drawer space (The Builder keeps 90% of his clothes in the dresser in our bedroom).

I sort of have a plan!

I'd really, really love to build some custom storage, but my reality is, I don't have time (remember I still have a temporary vanity in the kids bathroom upstairs!)  I was at Ikea the other night to purchase the pendent light you see in the idea board above, when I saw that the Malm dresser was on sale. I realized the white dresser what exactly what I needed to copy one of my Pinterest inspirations:

I saw this at least a year ago and fell in love! However, it wasn't going to work anywhere in my home. But I pinned it. Because that's the point of finding things you like that you will most likely never use, right?! 

After going back to the original blogger's post, I found that she used a vinyl sticker.  I have seen them on eBay, but I think I want to do my own take on it.  You may have noticed the picture on the inspiration board. It's actually a poster. My thought is to use it in place of the vinyl sticker. Of course, The Builder thinks I should just buy the sticker on eBay. And I might. But I really think I want to personalize it just a bit! Although I may ultimately go with a black and white poster over a color one. We shall see.

My goal is break this down into weekend work:

Weekend 1: Paint the closet and hang the new light fixture (I'm giddy over this one, as I currently have a bare bulb attached to the ceiling with a pull string - don't even get me started!)

Weekend 2: Organize the sewing and craft supplies.  This closet is basically a big box for the most part, an the back wall has an outlet, which allowed me to put in my sewing table and set up my machine. The problem is that there isn't enough shelf space for all my stuff, so I need to get creative with storage.

Weekend 3: I will be out of town this weekend so I don't plan on any work getting done.

Weekend 4:  Complete the dresser update (this allows me to order the poster or vinyl sticker online this weekend and have time to get it shipped to work on during weekend 4!) and get my artwork hung up - I have an original art piece already completed for this one!

Weekend 5: (yep, 5 this month) Finish it all up!