Tiny Nursery: Closet Makeover

When we moved into The Ear, we had two small, crappy closets.  One was in our bedroom (improved upon last year), and the other was in our office-turned-nursery.  Both closets were used to run HVAC ducts, which is good for aesthetics but not for storage capacity.  

The nursery closet was a bit better off than our bedroom closet.  It had a couple of Home Depot supplied Closet Maid brand shelves, which, although they were hung ridiculously high, would hold some stuff; the bottom one sported a rod.  And much like with our bed room closet, we filled this space up with coats and luggage as soon as we moved in then focused on to other things, leaving its hole-y, unpainted walls and general dirtiness to fester.

At some point over the summer (maybe during the bathroom addition?), I realized that I needed to tackle this area sooner rather than later while I could still fit in there and turn around.  So I gave the space a good cleaning, patched all the holes and cracks, and tried out some leftover paint colors:

I decided on this unidentified yellow; the green was a little too bright and cheerful.

Better already!

I bought materials to hang two more shelves and two more rods.  As I mentioned earlier, the closet had been outfitted with Closet Maid wire shelves, so I stuck with that brand for uniformity and ease of acquisition.  I was not terribly happy with the hardware and installation process of this system, however.  It's really designed for modern 2x4 framed construction, not old lathe-and-plaster of unknown structure.  Hanging the new shelves took far longer, and far more patching compound, than anticipated.

Mistakes being made & fixed.

 Eventually, I got the new shelves installed and commenced shoving all the baby stuff we had been collecting from neighbors and family members and garage sales in there.

Disorganization!

Eventually, we got everything sorted, washed, and hung in its proper place.  We removed the closet door to save on space, hung some little hooks, and I made a curtain to match the others.  I wish my clothes closet looked this cute and happy!

A Little New Year's Project

Hello from this side of 2013!  Over the New Year's holiday, I found myself with another chunk of spare time, so I tackled another small project.  This time, some "built-in" shelves for the living room, completed in the last two or three days of 2012. (Sorry about the bad color balance!)

Empty hole between the wall & HVAC duct, behind a chair:

Metal shelf brackets up.  I painted these green to match the wall:

Brackets and shelves getting multiple coats of green paint, same as living rooms walls:

Shelves done and loaded up with CDs! (yes, we still have, and occasionally still buy, CDs).  Happy space-saving new year!

The Crappy Little Closet That Could: A Thanksgiving Project

Saturday: we painted the shelves.

Sunday: we filled in the hole in the floor.

before

after!  why pink?  why not?

The finished product!

Okay, so not totally finished.  We haven't filled the shelves with our belongings, or figured out if we need to buy any over-the-door storage, or hooks, or something else.  But, the hard part is finished, and it's nice to see our new closet pristine and empty for a little bit before we fill it up.  Pretty good for a long holiday.

The Crappy Little Closet That Could: A Thanksgiving Project

On Friday, we began work on our closet shelves.  First, we made a paper pattern to capture the dimensions of the odd shape (each shelf is a pentagon).

We traced around our pattern on our plywood.  Then we made many many cuts with the circular saw while enjoying the late-afternoon sun on our back patio/wood shop.

And lo and behold, the shelves fit!  We've got ourselves a revamped and way-more-useful closet!

In between times, we accomplished one other thing today: we picked up our the antique mission-style sideboard that we bought off Craig's List for a song.  Fits just right!

The Crappy Little Closet That Could: A Thanksgiving Project

On Wednesday, I got the interior of the closet all painted gray for a fresh finish.  I used leftover paint from some of our other projects.

And then, 'twas the night before Thanksgiving, and we went to Home Depot for plywood!

On Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, we made pies and ate them.

The Crappy Little Closet That Could: A Thanksgiving Project

Monday & Tuesday: after cleaning out the closet, I spackled, patched, and caulked.  There were many holes in the walls from old hanging systems that were no longer extant (as well as an old, capped gas line you can see near the middle of the picture).  I also sealed the gaps in the drywall box (the left edge of the picture) that houses more HVAC ducts.  This ought to help cut down on the dust in the closet.

I created some additional shelf supports with scrap wood left over from my basement demolition and painted the whole space with primer.

The Crappy Little Closet That Could: A Thanksgiving Project

Hello Internet, it's been a while!

Not too many projects have been undertaken for the past few months here at the Sow's Ear.  We just enjoyed the last fruits of our garden (we had so many green tomatoes when we finally ripped out our vines -- couldn't give them all away or find new recipes fast enough) and turned our attention to other things.

I realized that I would have a good chunk of time over the Thanksgiving holiday and decided to tackle a remodel of our bedroom closet.  When we moved in, this closet had two barely-functioning, barely-hanging-on clothing rods, hung at a strange angle to get around the HVAC ducts.  We took those down (by pulling just a little; it was far too easy), stacked our shoes up inside (invariably I always wanted to wear the pair on the bottom), shut the door and forgot about it for a couple of years.  I have finally gotten tired of all the stacks of shoe boxes and decided to make some shelves.

So, the weekend before Thanksgiving, we cleaned out the closet (thanks, Mr MJ!).

Then we pulled out some drywall from the corner that was eating up space, covering two small HVAC ducts and lots of wood framing.

The wood framing is well attached and sturdy; I think I will use it as shelf supports.  But, I will have to cover up the large hole in the floor.