Winter Project Number 2: Closet
Every since we moved into our house, our third bedroom has been utilized as a homeschool room. The boys were little and were happy to share, and I had so much curriculum passed down from my mom and so many books and craft items, it just made sense.
As time went on, I kept thinking about how it would be so nice to take down the wall between the schoolroom and the livingroom just to open up the living space a little. We do a lot of hosting and it just seemed so cramped.
Of course, tearing down a wall is a big project and Ben wasn't at all interested in the idea of tearing down a wall or paying someone else to do it. Boo.
Luckily, fortune was in my favor. When it came time to start in our addition, the county informed us that our septic couldn't support 4 bedrooms so one bedroom would have to be eliminated. I proposed the idea of tearing down the wall between the living room and the schoolroom again and the contractor agreed. I was thrilled.
So, they took down over half the wall, took the existing door off of it's hinges, and removed everything in the closet (door, shelves, etc). It could then officially be counted as a dining room and we were good to go.
Once the dust settled, Ben pointed out that it was a bummer about having to remove the closet because now that we had easy access to that room from the front entry, that closet would have served us well.
That comment sparked an idea. A friend turned their closet into a little alcove with a bench, baskets, and hooks. It was cute and usable. I suggested we do the same. Ben liked the idea and we put it on our to-do list.
This is the before:
[caption id="attachment_2553" align="aligncenter" width="200"]
Sad, ugly, neglected closet.[/caption]
And only 7ish months later, this is the after:
[caption id="attachment_2554" align="aligncenter" width="200"]
Gussied up, usable closet.[/caption]
It's hard to tell from the pictures, but the closet was still painted the brown color that was everywhere when we first moved in. Ben put up some fake wainscoting, I painted it white, and then painted over the brown with the same gray that's in the rest of the room. It looks so much better.
It's still an odd little space. The boxed in part is from when some pipe-y stuff used to run through there. Furnace-y stuff maybe. I've no clue, really. Whatever it was isn't there anymore so we could have torn all that out and re-dywalled it and...yeah, that wasn't going to happen.
It's an older home. That's what gives it charm. Right? Yeah, let's go with that.
The bench and hoods are from IKEA and the little baskets are from Target. The light-colored baskets on the wall are from Hobby Lobby, I think. I might add some more lower on the wall so the boys can reach them better. And, of course, I'm going to be adding something decorative at the top there, just because I can.
So, that's our second project of the year. It's really nice to have a functional closet. Maybe we'll actually get used to having it and utilize it all the time before the weather turns warm. :)
As time went on, I kept thinking about how it would be so nice to take down the wall between the schoolroom and the livingroom just to open up the living space a little. We do a lot of hosting and it just seemed so cramped.
Of course, tearing down a wall is a big project and Ben wasn't at all interested in the idea of tearing down a wall or paying someone else to do it. Boo.
Luckily, fortune was in my favor. When it came time to start in our addition, the county informed us that our septic couldn't support 4 bedrooms so one bedroom would have to be eliminated. I proposed the idea of tearing down the wall between the living room and the schoolroom again and the contractor agreed. I was thrilled.
So, they took down over half the wall, took the existing door off of it's hinges, and removed everything in the closet (door, shelves, etc). It could then officially be counted as a dining room and we were good to go.
Once the dust settled, Ben pointed out that it was a bummer about having to remove the closet because now that we had easy access to that room from the front entry, that closet would have served us well.
That comment sparked an idea. A friend turned their closet into a little alcove with a bench, baskets, and hooks. It was cute and usable. I suggested we do the same. Ben liked the idea and we put it on our to-do list.
This is the before:
[caption id="attachment_2553" align="aligncenter" width="200"]
Sad, ugly, neglected closet.[/caption]And only 7ish months later, this is the after:
[caption id="attachment_2554" align="aligncenter" width="200"]
Gussied up, usable closet.[/caption]It's hard to tell from the pictures, but the closet was still painted the brown color that was everywhere when we first moved in. Ben put up some fake wainscoting, I painted it white, and then painted over the brown with the same gray that's in the rest of the room. It looks so much better.
It's still an odd little space. The boxed in part is from when some pipe-y stuff used to run through there. Furnace-y stuff maybe. I've no clue, really. Whatever it was isn't there anymore so we could have torn all that out and re-dywalled it and...yeah, that wasn't going to happen.
It's an older home. That's what gives it charm. Right? Yeah, let's go with that.
The bench and hoods are from IKEA and the little baskets are from Target. The light-colored baskets on the wall are from Hobby Lobby, I think. I might add some more lower on the wall so the boys can reach them better. And, of course, I'm going to be adding something decorative at the top there, just because I can.
So, that's our second project of the year. It's really nice to have a functional closet. Maybe we'll actually get used to having it and utilize it all the time before the weather turns warm. :)
Comments
Post a Comment