Memorial Weekend Blogathon: Day 4 The Reveal

Well, we are finally done with the closet.  It took about 2 full days to complete, which we spread out over the weekend.  It cost us a little over $500 total; slightly over budget.

Without further ado:

 This the right side of the closet.  The double rods in back are for my clothes, and the long rod in front is for Nick's dress shirts, and my dresses (yes, multiple dresses).  The center shelves hold bedding, Nick's hats, Nick's shorts, a pair of sneakers, and some empty boxes waiting for expansion.  The boxes across the top hold cool weather blankets. 

This is the left side of the closet.  The back double rods are for Nick's polos and dress pants.  The shelving is for my things.  The top shelf is for seasonal, and fat/thin clothes.  I've put all of my handbags/wallets on the shelf, and used magazine holders to keep them orderly.  Towels and pants on one shelf, and little boxes to hold hats, scarves, and belts on another shelf.  More shelves for shoes, and drawers for "floor" clothes, workout clothes, and pajamas.  The narrow shelves are for shoes.  I have dress shoes in storage boxes, and a drawer at the bottom for flip flops.


I'm glad to be finished with the closet.  I've been working on it for months now.  I've looked at hundreds of pictures of closets, planned out the space multiple times, and window shopped for the supplies.


Here are some things I found to make your closet look good and function:
1.  Use identical hangers. 
          Whether you have plastic, Huggable, or wooden hangers, as long as they are all the same it will make your closet look cohesive.
2.  Find similar storage boxes.  
          We chose Ikea boxes because I could get a variety of box sizes for cheap.  Plastic containers, fabric boxes, or other storage boxes are all great options.  Make sure all lids match though.
3.  Utilize the height of your room.
          We added a board on top of the right side so we could add more storage to the room.  If we didn't do that, we would have lost out on a 11 in tall area to store blankets, and bedding. 
4.  Maximize hanging space.
          Double rods are awesome.  Most people don't need a lot of tall hanging space, so double rods will literally double your hanging space. 
5.  Be prepared for growth.
          People accumulate clothes, so think about the future, not just the present.  We have room for growth with the systems we put in place.
6.  Use similar color throughout.
          We chose white because it was the easiest to match with the different closet systems.  But "cherry wood" is a very common color as well.

Memorial Weekend Blogathon: Day 3

Today was an easier day, which I needed, because I was a little sore from Saturday.  I worked on the right side today, with a Closetmaid system.

This went in very easy.  I added a board across the top so that we could store some extra items up there.  

We started to fill it, and Nick said "We have almost everything in here, and there's plenty of room left".  He's not wrong either; there's room for growth now.  

Tomorrow, I will be doing a quick shopping trip to return stuff, and pick up some boxes.  I'm very excited to show the completed closet.

Memorial Weekend Blogathon: Day 2

Well, Friday night, we emptied out the closet.

After dinner, Nick decided to start to demo the closet.  The flippers (we bought the house from some flippers) did a great job of installing the closet, and then painting over the installed pieces. (Sarcasm!!)

So we had to patch, sand and paint the walls.  I was a little unhappy with this, because it just shows the quality of the flippers work.  
After fixing the walls, we started with a clean slate.

The rest of the morning we installed the Pax wardrobes from Ikea.  In the afternoon, I worked on the double hanging rods.  Because I was planning on Nick hanging his suit jackets on the double rods, I decided to add some extra depth to the hanging rods, to accommodate the extra width of the suit jackets and its hangers.

These are two 1x2s screwed into the stud.  The extra 2 inches should help with the width of the suit jackets. 

We are done with the left side of the closet.  

 Tomorrow, we will finish the right side of the closet.  I'm looking forward to finishing it up and filling it back up.

See you tomorrow!

Memorial Weekend Blogathon: Day 1

For the usual readers, I usually post on Sundays but for the holiday weekend, I will be posting everyday this weekend.  Yes, Friday, Saturday, Sunday AND Monday.  We have decided to redo the master closet this weekend, and will be keeping all of you updated with the progress daily.   
Here's how the closet looked before.  It seems to have lots of storage, but it really doesn't.  You couldn't use the double rod on the left side, and the shelves in the back were difficult to access.

Here's how the master closet before:

 

Here's the plan for the new closet:

 The plan is to have shelving on the left for shoes, and a double rod for Nick's clothes on the left.  The right side will have a double rod for my clothes, shelves, and a single rod for long items.  

Come back tomorrow to see how far we have gotten with the new closet.

8 week countdown ends + TJ

Since my birthday is this week, the countdown is ending.  As I mentioned last week, we had a set back.  I was in a bad accident that totaled my new truck the end of April, and it put a hold on most projects.  Yesterday, we went and got a new truck. 

I know what you're thinking, "That's your new truck? It looks like your old truck".  It's identical with my old truck.  I call him Truck Junior or TJ.  No more rental car, YEA!


So here's how the countdown finally finished up.  Not to bad actually.


8 Week Countdown
Curtains-office, guest room, living room

Paint post on front porch

Finalize plans for walk-in closet

Plant grass

Put down rubber tiles by dumpster
Shop for sideboard
Patch/spray office wall
Clean cubes in living room
Photograph bedroom

Move hose corral

Install light over dining table 

Next weekend is a long weekend, and we have plans to upgrade the master closet, and BBQ some ribs.  Any plans for the weekend?

Razorback Office Upgrade!

While I was working on the office curtains, I had an idea to rearrange the Razorback office.  Luckily, I had a day off work that week, and took it as an opportunity to rearrange the office while Nick wasn't there.  I moved the Billy bookcases (Ikea) to the lounge area, and moved his Besta unit (Ikea) to flank an Expedit unit (also Ikea), with the intention of buying another Besta unit if he liked the changes.
We usually have a 30 day let's-wait-and-see-how-we-like-this policy.  We move/change something and live with it for 30 days before we make a decision on whether we approve of it or not.  Most things don't make it the 30 days.  It takes about 7 days for us to decide if we like it, and we move on from there.
Well, last weekend Nick said the words I've always wanted to hear, "We need to go to Ikea".  He had decided that he liked the new arrangement, and wanted to pick up the other Besta unit.  After the other Besta unit went up, we realized that the 2x2 Expedit unit was awkward in the room, so we switched it out with the 4x2 Expedit unit we had in the guest room. 
 So here it is, the upgraded Razorback office:

 We have created more space for Razorback items, although we have limited the art space.  It looks a little sparse right now, but after our vacation to Arkansas in November, it should be looking fuller.  

We are still working on the countdown list, but I can guarantee that it will not be completed by my birthday.  We hit a big snag two weeks ago, and it's been slow progress since.  We have about two weeks left though, so if we get to a couple more items I will be satisfied. 

P.S. Happy Mother's Day!

Curtains and Art

We have been busy with lots of projects.  Two weeks ago we officially became an aunt and uncle.  Nick's sister had a beautiful baby girl, Abigail.

 For weeks before she was born, the in-laws and I were working on artwork for her room.  We picked out fonts and colors, and I had it sent to printers, thinking it would be ready before she was born.  She was born before I could finish it.  I finally got it done this week.  

The color is a little lighter than I had expected.  But I still like it.  I will be visiting the in-laws this weekend, so I might be able to take a picture of it in the room. 

I was also working on the countdown list.  This week, I was working on the curtains in the living room.  I bought two pairs of Ikea curtains (Henny Rand) that I had been admiring for a while.  I put them up, and have them pinned for the hem.  Hemming will be done this week probably.  

 This is a bad photo, but I will show better photos when I am done hemming.

Have any of you finished some projects lately?