Shoes are Settled In

I am now proud to report all of my closet items have found homes back in the closet and my bedroom floors are now clear.

My heels went up in the shelves.  I will probably end up adding a shelf or two to hold more.  My ballet shoes and flip flops are in containers on the bottom shelf.

I bought a shoe cubbie for more storage.  I bought two but after putting the first one together I realized they don't fit my taller heels very well.  So one will stay and the other one is getting returned.  I'm just glad they are no longer all over my room.  While it seems I may have an excessive amount of shoes (not that I believe there is such thing) this is after I tossed about 10 pair to the donation pile.  I also got my side shelves reinforced.

Now I'll be able to store off-season items up top and get them out of the way.  Glad to be 100% done with all of this!

Closet Finish Up

I have been working on my closet after work each night and it is now about 90% complete!  The rods all got hung up.

I also put up 12" shelves above the two top rods.  I was going to do another 1"x4" support along the length of the shelf but I think I've decided to go with an L bar support instead.  I still have to buy those but they should be a snap to install.

It was exciting to start moving all my clothes back into my closet.  It's been driving me nuts having them spread all over the house.  

It definitely feels more spacious than my last configuration.

I am still trying to decide the layout for everything and how to organize my shelves.  I have an area on the inside right where I will be putting in shoe cubes.

 I'm really glad I finally got this done.  Now everyone cross your fingers that it doesn't all rip out of the wall and come crashing down.

Construction Begins!

Sunday morning my paint was dry and I hit up Home Depot for my supplies.

Everything set me back about $200.  I paid a little extra to make sure some of my rods and hardware were "heavy duty".  Last thing I need is this closet collapsing on me.  I'm using a Closetmaid shelf system for the back of my closet.  It was $99 but worth the time and energy not to build the shelves myself.

I started out putting these together as the height of the shelving unit will be my guide for additional shelving I will install.

I was sure to follow the instructions carefully and make sure the shelves were level and well secured to the wall.  Again, don't want anything falling down on me.  It was pretty easy to get together and seems very sturdy now that I have it all in place.

I finished it up Sunday evening and decided I had enough time to at least get one rod up.  I was careful to measure everything and keep it level.

I went with heavy duty oak rods because they would be easier for me to size down than the metal ones.  I was going to paint them white but decided not to in case the hangers eventually wore off the paint and made it look tacky.

I got the rod hung at a perfect fit for my hangers!  Now all I have to do is throw up 2 more rods and a top shelf and I will once again have a closet.  Can't wait!

Painting the Closet

Once I removed all of the wire shelving from my closet I was left with tons of holes to fill.

Since these patches would need to be painted anyway, I went ahead and repainted the whole closet to match the bedroom walls (Behr Sterling).  I also lightened up the trim.

Not a huge change but it certainly freshened it up a bit.

Tomorrow I'll be back with some actual construction updates!

Cleaning Out My Closet

I grounded myself Friday night so that I would tackle cleaning out my closet.  What a task.  I removed every stitch of clothing, shoes, drawers, etc.  They are all now residing in my office closet, my guest room bed and strewn around my bedroom.  It's one big mess.  On a plus side, I was able to make a pretty good pile for donation.  Here is the finished product.

And then a picture after I removed all the preexisting wire shelving.

It is currently the neatest part of my room since my bedroom has now turned into one big closet.  Having things spread all over the house has certainly made getting dressed an adventure.

A carefully selected collection of clothes.  This is all I can wear until I get my closet back together.

Oh, and were you looking for some jeans?  I keep those on the nightstand.

The timing of my project worked out because today is bulk trash day and I was able to kick all this to the curb.

Everything that was in my drawers inside the closet was relocated to my new purple chests (socks, undies, etc).  Tomorrow I tackle repainting the closet!

Claustrophobic Closet

I realize that sometimes problems with your house really are not the house's fault.  Sometimes your shoe obsession is to blame.  Or the ever changing fashion trends that force you to acquire more clothing.  I'm not blaming anyone, I'm just saying some things need to change.  My house has plenty of space and plenty of closets.  Unfortunately my master bedroom has a small closet that wastes a lot of valuable space.

Excuse the bad photo and the oddly "staged" closet.  This is what it looked like when I first visited my house.    It is a small walk in closet with wire shelves that circle the walls.  And there are 24 inches of pretty much wasted space at the top of the closet.  I found out the hard way that this is not very reliable storage.

I have filled my closet to the max even while using other closets in the house and Tupperware storage for off season clothing so I knew it was time to come up with a fix.

Since I'm cheap, of course I looked for a way to do it myself.  And I decided I am anti-wire closet systems. Sorry, Container Store Elfa.  I'm sure you're great, just not for me.  After playing with plans and measurements, I decided to built a mostly wood walk in with a shelving unit on the back wall.  Here is a basic rendering of my plan.

I will have bi-level rods on the left and a tall rod on the right for organizing tops, pants and then dresses.  This configuration will give me 180" of hanging space versus the 126" available with my current U-shape single level system.  A 12" wood shelf will go along the top foot of the closet for sturdy, short storage of shoes, off season items, etc.  I will use the shelving unit for folded item as well as shoes and then will be adding more shoe storage once I'm better able to tell the floor and wall space I will have available.  It's ambitious and will involve some work but I think it will really make my life better.  A happy wardrobe is a happy Thea.

Out With the Old!

I swear I've actually got house updates this week but today I just have to post about what's really got me excited this morning.

I FINALLY broke down and bought new alarm clocks for my room and my bathroom!  This has been a long time coming.  I had finally had enough of my clock radios from the 90s.  The beige one by my bed was just plain ugly and the silver one in my bathroom would not stay tuned on a station.  I'd be half way into a shower and the speakers would start blaring static.  Do you know how annoying it is to shower to static?  I found these new alarm clocks at Target.  They not only have radios but the also can charge and play my iPod and iPhone.

The cute little cubes came with 'skins' to allow for about 6 different colors.  I went with hot pink for the one by my bed and silver for the bathroom.

I'm happy to report that they both did their job this morning!  Pinkie got me up and Silver kept me jamming all the way through my shower.  As for these puppies...

They went out with the trash this morning.  After almost 20 years it was time to part ways.

Hangers Hung

Luckily my No Wire Hangers needlepoint was a size that easily fit into a regular picture frame.  I didn't plan that so I got lucky.  I grabbed a basic frame at Target.

I did have to trim the edges a little bit but other than that it fit right in.  I decided to keep the glass in as a cover and to prevent any bubbling or dirt.

My plan is to hang this inside my closet once I remodel it, but for the meantime I decided to just hang it on my closet door.  Not wanting to drill holes in my door, I picked up some of these awesome 3M Command hangers.

You just stick two strips together (they are like hardcore velcro), stick one side on the frame, peel the other side and then pop it up on your surface.  Piece of cake.  I love these things.  And when I decide to move the picture, they'll come off without marring my door.  Score!

Now that I have new drawer storage in my bedroom, it's time for me to get cracking on the closet remodel!  I hope to have it done in the next couple of months!

Terrific Trash!

Man, between the holidays and a nasty cold I've really fallen behind in life.  Fear not, I'm back.  Remember the nightstands I stole from my neighbors bulk trash pile in the middle of the night?

Over the past couple of weeks I'm been working on them off and on.  I sanded them all down and primed them with some Kilz primer I had on hand.

I decided on a bold Purple for the chests.  After a failed attempt at buying regular paint to use, I resorted to my old standby...spray paint.  It worked like a charm!

I moved them into my bedroom and they work great!  It's still a work in progress in here.  I need to figure out what I'm doing with my headboard situation but I'm still up in the air on that.

So the some total of this project amounted to 2 cans of purple spray paint...$7.50.  You just can't beat that.  I think they look like I could have spent a couple hundred on them.

Spanish Art

While in Barcelona this summer I saw a lot of beautiful art.  But what caugh my eye the most?  The random graffiti all around town.

I took a bunch of pictures and when I got back I decided to blow a few up to frame.  I ordered them in 11x14s.

They sat around for a month or so until my frames went on sale for 40% off and I was able to use an additional coupon for 25% off my whole purchase at Michaels.  Basically it was like getting 4 for the price of 2.

I wanted to hang them on the blank wall in my bedroom since my art in there is all pretty colorful and funky.

No idea why that last picture is sideways.  The ellipitical kind of covers that wall but I decided that I'd still decorate as if nothing was there.  It took a while but I think I got them fairly centered and straight.

I love all the random statements they are making.  "We are all one."  "Remember who you are."  "Do what you love."  "Be human." "Peace worldwide starts inside."  Nice little sentiments to see every day.