Friday, January 27, 2012

Tiny Walk-In Closet, part II

First the bad news:  project Not complete.

Second the good news: there will be a "Tiny Walk-In Closet, part III"!

Here is what we got immediately after the paint dried:

The right side of the closet is SS shirts high and dresses and pants low

I actually did manage to hang all my clothes in my new tiny walk-in closet.  After all, it was exactly the same pipe, just cut into thirds.

The left side of the closet is LS shirts and sweaters/jackets with shelves below.

I haven't really needed the utility step stool to reach the high stuff, for some reason.  So the build-your-own-beautiful-step-stool project I had in mind just got bumped down on the priority list.

(I forgot to mention...we bought nothing for this project except screws and that leftover paint.  To hold the ends of the rods...


...we cut a big sideways "C" into pieces of scrap wood to cradle the rod ends. It required a free-handed jigsaw...the process reminded me a lot of sewing, actually.)

(I do wish there were something useful I could do with that blank back wall...)

"How is this not finished?" you ask.

Well...


First, there's this problem on the right-hand side of the closet.  The longer shirts hang down into the lower rod (we considered a shelf between the two layers, but at the time considered it "unnecessary"). 

Then there's the problem of not having any storage bins for the 4 new shelves I have on the left-hand side of the closet (no pics, sorry).  I had wanted to get these
 from IKEA, but there isn't one within easy reach...so I can wait till our next Pittsburgh run, or buy the stupidly expensive ones from Target or Lowes, or make something myself from wood or cardboard.  Feel free to make suggestions.

Then there's the problem of having no light in the closet unless I drag over the floor lamp (the room's only source of illumination so far).  There is an outlet inside the closet underneath the lowest shelf...and after we finished the closet, we discovered it doesn't work.  I had cut notches in the back of each shelf to run a cord for a hanging lamp, which I think will now be useless.


Oh, and I still had too much stuff in there.  And that's with already having got rid of some!

Someone told me once (or I read somewhere) that by eliminating all the random hangars in your closet and springing for the more uniform look of identical hangars, you achieve stress-of-the-eye relief, even if you do nothing else to the mess. 


Dave already owned a ton of wooden hangars, so this part was easy and pretty painless (not counting the gouges I got trying to manhandle this pile of hangars around the house. Did you know Goodwill accepts donations of hangars? They do.).


And then, as expected, I ditched these two big bags of clothes as well.  We carted all this off to donate (with some other things not pictured) on the same day I pulled it out of the closet; extra points for us!

So...I had hoped to have a proper "before and after" series for y'all...but I don't.  Not yet.  This is all I got.

But you gotta admit, considering everything, Dave and I got a pretty decent amount done in the last 13 days.  I'll be at work for the next 2 weeks which means,

I'm back to dreaming again.



Hope to find something to write about in the interim, but there is not much for me to do so far from home except read and surf the internet.  Maybe I'll write a story...would you like to hear a story?  Maybe I'll write you a story.

PS. Has anyone not been on Pinterest yet?  You must.  I will invite you, if you need an invitation (otherwise you go on a pretty long waiting list).  I am a pinning fiend when I am bored, and I pin some very interesting, I may say "inspiring", things.  You probably would too, if you were on it as many hours a day as I am.

3 comments:

  1. Great post! The big blank, white wall needs a mirror! Or else one of those posters that says, "You look lovely today." The closet looks really good! Nice job :). Maybe if Daniel and I are ever able to visit, he can check/troubleshoot your outlet. I almost ordered the bins for Lucy's room from Ikea, because I was lazy (or was it busy with work?). I ended up trekking up there to pick them up b/c of the cost of shipping, but they were cheaper online than in the store... so it probably would have been about the same cost if I'd just ordered them. Hope work goes well the next two weeks! I think you should write a story.

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  2. I think Kimie's idea of a mirror is a great idea. The 1st thing that popped into my head was a shoe rack. Or a rack to hang accessories of any kinds (i.e. belts, purses, etc.).

    You two are making great progress. Your home is going to look so different (I'm sure it already does), by the next time we visit.

    If you decide to check out IKEA when here. You may want to check out Garden Ridge. If I remember from my last visit, they have a large selection of bins.

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  3. You are both totally right. I'm thinking a mirror with a column of hooks down the left side (probably not the right...don't want to block access to those dresses I wear all the time!), and maybe a pretty canvas or framed quote up high. The light fixture we ordered just shipped yesterday (rrrrrgh), so it'll be a little while till the "afters". Thanks for the feedback! I will definitely check Garden Ridge.

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