Hi friends! Hope everyone had a happy, happy New Year!! I had a wonderful weekend, celebrating with good friends, being lazy and getting some projects done around the house.
In honor of the new year, I decided to do some updating of the closet in our master bedroom.
As all of you know, David and I live in a 1952 ranch.
I absolutely love the character of our "old to the world, new to us" home, but I can safely say that it didn't come with modern day amenities. We've got lots of creaks and squeaks, an old heating
and air system, and no walk-in closets! Eek!
In addition to the fact that it's an older home, we actually decided to take over a room the former owner of the home used as a little boys room (you can read about that transformation
here), so all we inherited closet-wise was a teeny tiny closet that was not in good shape. Much different from our former house, which had a walk-in closet big enough to call a bedroom itself.
Lets start at the beginning: this is how our closet looked before we moved in.
The door into the bedroom and both closet doors opened up into each other, providing for a
less-than-comfortable space. There was also a lot of wasted space towards the back of the closet,
due to its odd "L" shape. So, our first step (in fact, one of the first once we moved in!) was to remove both closet doors. This instantly made the space a lot more open and accessible.
Last summer, I replaced the doors with some DIY fabric panels (read about how I made those
here) which match the curtains I made for our windows. That brought instant flow to the room.
Fast forward to last week, when we decided that we finally had to tackle the space inside the closet.
We decided to pull out all of the existing shelving units. I also painted the inside with a fresh coat
of the paint on our bedroom walls, which makes the area feel like an extension of our
bedroom, instead of just a small, closed off space.
Then, we hit up Ikea, Target and Home Depot for some tools to help us keep the closet organized,
including hanging racks, canvas bins, and shoes racks.
Here's what our little closet looks like today.
On the left side of the closet, we built in two wire shelves and some Ikea sliding bins. David's shirts go all the way back to the back of the closet. My shoes are in a hanging rack on the left next to our hamper.
If you're looking to reorganize, my best advice is CONTAIN everything. Nothing looks neat when it's strewn all over the place. I bought six or so of these canvas bins and they hold random odd and end things,
like David's "pocket dump" collection (please tell me I'm not alone in this?! Seriously, what is up with guys and their desire to keep that random matchbook box from a pub they visited six months ago?).
I even have some up on the top shelf, holding bulky items that we don't hang, like sweatshirts.
The other side of the closet has another hanging shelf (for t-shirts, belts, etc), my tops and an Ikea rack hanging pants and skirts. David's shoes are on a shelf on the floor, also on this side of the closet.
Of course, David and I have pared down our closet wardrobe to only the clothes we wear all of the time. Each season, we go through our bins and the rule is: if you didn't wear it last season, it goes to Goodwill.
(Are you listening, honey? Time to get rid of that hideous Hawaiian shirt!)
And, truth be told, we've got some of our less used items, such as suit jackets, my cocktail dresses, rain boots, etc. in our larger guest bedroom closet. They're accessible, but not in our "every day" attire.
Sure, it's not incredibly glamorous, but it's what we've got! I'd estimate that we made over the entire closet for right at $100. It's clean, organized, pretty and functional- and we are loving it!
If you're starting the new year by reorganizing, good luck! As always, email me any of your favorite home reorganization tips or posts that you've done! And happy 2011 everyone!
Sharing with:
Thrifty Decor Chick
Between Naps on the Porch
Skip to My Lou
Tatertots and Jello
Under the Table and Dreaming
The CSI Project
