Where Are They Now - Hit and Miss Projects

When I check out other blogs and they showcase fabulous projects, I sometimes wonder if it was a quick fix or something that will last.  I thought it would be fun to revisit a few of my past projects to let you know how they have held up.

Transforming a Closet With Contact Paper

Back in March, 2012, I transformed my husband's white melamine closet using faux wood grain contact paper.

The closet took many hours to complete and I made sure each piece of contact paper was placed perfectly without any air bubbles.

The whole makeover cost around $100 which included other accessories and baskets for the closet.  More than two years later the closet looks as good as the day I installed the contact paper.  I definitely had feared that it wouldn't hold up...but it has.  I would still give this project an A+.

Painted Door and Stairs

I painted our garage entrance stairs and door back in September 2013...less than a year ago.  I loved how it transformed our garage entry way.  It looked so much better than the entry before.

Unfortunately, the door and stairs haven't held up as well as I would have hoped.  First mistake was using a flat paint.  I should have used semi gloss, but I was using paint I already had on hand.

Our garage entry is the entry we use day in and day out and clearly the stairs must not be that deep that the risers get kicked and thereby have these scuff marks.  The "K" fell off within the first few weeks and I have already touched up the doors and stairs with more paint a few weeks ago, which has also not held up so much.  I'd give this project a B-.  I still love that I did it, just wish it was holding up better.

Have a great day.

-Judy

Getting Organized

It's a new year and for me that usually means it's time to start re-organizing.  Over the year closets tend to get overfilled and messy.  With colder weather and being home a bit more, it gives me time to focus on cleaning out these messy closets.

 The guest room closet seems to be one of the biggest offenders.  I think that's where I throw anything that doesn't seem to have a home.  

 I found this unopened storage bag when I emptied out the closet which helped me move some of the things that aren't used very often up into the attic.

 After two bags of garbage and items being relocated, the closet looks so much better.

 After the guest room closet I moved on to my closet in the master bedroom

 I filled three bags with items for Goodwill and reorganized everything in the closet, trying to keep only those things I will actually wear.  

How about you?  Have you been organizing closets?

-Judy

How to Maximize Drawer Space

My kids went back to school today.  It was a great summer, and even though it was two weeks longer than usual for my kids, it still seemed to fly by.  For the past week or so I have been going room by room and getting it organized for back to school.  This is the time of year my kids dread for multiple reasons, including having to try on all of their clothes so that I can figure out exactly what still fits them and what they may need.

Here is the before shot of one of my daughter's drawers.  The problem with this system is that I have the clothing folded and piled neatly, until my daughter wants to wear something that isn't on top.  Then the neatly, folded piles turn into this disaster. 

I can't just blame the children.  Here is a before shot of my husband's drawer.  What a mess!

Here is another one of my husband's drawers.  At least the piles look neat, but it's a constant battle to keep neat, plus he tends to just wear what's on top.  

So I decided to revamp everyone's drawers.

I took those same t-shirts and modified the folding and voila...instant space and easy access to all of the clothing.  So, first things first...how to fold the t-shirts:

1.  Lay the t-shirt out

2. Flip over and fold in both arms

3. Fold in half 

4.  Fold in half again

It will almost double your drawer capacity.

Plus with better visibility, you will wear more of your clothing.  

I know with me I tend to wear what I see.
I'm excited to see how this new system holds up.
So far, so good.

How about you?

How organized are your drawers?

-Judy

Craft Closet Ideas

Since the basement is about to undergo a major renovation (you can read all about it here), I have been brainstorming different ways of better utilizing space.   One space that I would like to consider using in a different way is my kids toy closet.  

This was the toy closet before we emptied it this weekend, and the plan was that this would be the toy closet after the renovation.

  There are other closets in the basement where the toys could relocate (plus I plan on editing what goes back into the room).  After emptying the toy closet, I started to dream of what else it could become.

Image

I would love a craft/sewing closet.  For years I have wanted a craft/sewing room, but have always found it difficult to justify changing an entire room for this purpose.  How great would it be if I could have all of my craft and sewing supplies together, rather than in multiple closets and drawers throughout the house.  There is already a bare bulb in the closet which I could easily switch out for a chandelier.  I already have a fixture that has been screaming for a makeover, that I know would be perfect.

Image

The Container Store has their 30% off sale going on until next Tuesday.  

This would be a perfect time for me to set up an awesome craft/sewing closet like this.

Image

There are bits and pieces of all of these inspiration photos that I would love to use in my closet.

Any transformation will have to begin with a fabulous backdrop, like the beautiful wallpaper used here by Remodelaholic.

Image

Image

My friend Ange, from the Blooming Hydrangea created this closet office from a closet who's before photo looks a lot like my before photo. I have always loved the stencil she did on the back wall.

Now I'm really starting to get excited about this project.

What do you think - good idea for a craft/sewing closet?

Don't forget to stop back tonight for my Winter Blues Wednesday party.

The party opens at 8pm EST.  Hope to see you then.

-Judy

Reorganizing a Closet

Kids grow quickly.  My daughter has grown several inches over the past few months.  

She told me that on one side of her closet her shirts were hanging too low and interfering with the tennis skirts hanging below (I had already started emptying the closet before realizing this would be a bigger project than expected).  I thought I could just raise the top hanging bar, however, with the shelf and support bracket on the back wall, it wasn't going to be that easy.

This side of her closet has a three drawer unit from The Container Store.  It's worked great, but in order for me to lower the hanging bar with the skirts, I would have to remove the drawers. 

I lowered the bar for the skirts, but now I needed a solution to fit everything that was in that three drawer unit.  

So I ran out to The Container Store yesterday and bought a wider, shorter drawer unit (they are having their annual 30% off sale right now).  This actually fits the space much better and it allowed me to lower the hanging bar to maximize the hanging space in the closet.  (Yes, my daughter owns many, many tennis skirts...but she does play six days a week so it's her main wardrobe).  

Since it's wider, it actually fits even more than the other unit.

A couple of aqua, lightweight baskets from Home Goods for pretty storage on the shelf above, and this reorganization project is complete.  I just love an organized closet.  How about you?

-Judy

Making Room and the Switch

We have some major issues going on in our finished basement right now, which I will get into more detail about in the next few weeks.  As part of this issue, we needed to find space to fit a commercial grade dehumidifier.  The best spot for it would be in an unfinished closet we have in the basement that currently housed a super large filing cabinet for my business files (I am an attorney).  

Here's the thing...this file cabinet weighs a ton.  We spent a few days over the Christmas break going through the files and clearing out all of the super old files.  Then we moved the other files to long term filing boxes.  We figured we would throw out the file cabinet, although we had no idea how we were going to get it up the stairs.

Then my husband came up with the idea to move the filing cabinet into our storage room in the basement.  As you can see the storage room was in need of some purging anyhow, so this would be a perfect opportunity.  We would take the long dresser you see in here and move it into the closet where the file cabinet was, which would still leave room for the new dehumidifier.

We put the file cabinet on the furniture moving slides and slid it out of the closet and across the room and into the storage closet.  

It's unfinished space, but I figured I would make it look a bit better and painted the walls with left over paint from the ceiling in my office, in Restoration Hardware Silver Sage.  

Then using the same flooring that we used in the closet we recently finished,
we laid a new vinyl wood floor.

The new floor went down in no time.

Then we added the dresser.  I am very excited to get this space set up as an area where I can keep all of my craft and sewing supplies.

We plan on building a shelf above this dresser for the humidifier to sit on.  I'll know better in the next week or so how much space (if any) above the dresser will be available to me to use (because, trust me, I have so many ideas spinning in my head as to how I want to use the space).

image

Maybe something like this...

image

or something like this (I love the storage they added to the inside of the door)...

image

or something like this.
No matter what, I look forward to really organizing all of my craft/sewing supplies.

One final photo - we cleaned up the storage cabinet as well in the process and found an even better home for this super large file cabinet.

Don't forget to stop back tonight for my Winter Blues Wednesday party.

The party opens at 8pm EST.  Hope to see you then.

-Judy