2.20.2012

Welcome Home, Clothing: A Closet Reveal-ish

We’ve finally passed the stage of our closet renovation that forced us to store our clothing in a pile down the hall. Meet our new closet:

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Please note that Rick has more clothing than me. We’re not sure how this can possibly be. It must be my fault, because I’m the one who likes the mall. He’s just the one who follows me around at the mall and asks if he can buy a hot pretzel.

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This beast took three coats of off-the-shelf Behr paint + primer in one. I figured that since Rick basically built it by himself, it was the least I could do to live in my paint clothes for approximately two weeks, so I was exclusively in charge of the painting process. Not gonna lie: it wasn’t the most fabulous thing ever. I didn’t, for example, cry when I was done.

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The cats were, as always, quite helpful, and provided their assistance when I was done painting and ready to move my clothing from piles and drawers to the closet.

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We’ve decided (we think) to forgo putting doors in front of the shelving. This is partly because we are cheap and partly because we don’t know how and partly because it seems like a waste to cover up all of our built-in closet work. Instead, we might just get wooden hangers for more uniformity and find a magical potion that will make me keep my clothes organized so it doesn’t end up looking like this again:

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I don’t think that’s entirely possible, because there’s something about the crisp dividers in our new closet that mysteriously makes everything seem that much more organized in the first place, but I’m not willing to take any chances. Besides, would you believe how much easier it is to find your black pants when, brilliantly, all of your pants are hung together? It’s a new revelation for me. My closet of yore was a melting pot of sheer and total chaos, as you can see. Life makes so much more sense when the dresses snub the pants and the short sleeves refuse to mingle with the long sleeves. It’s like middle school, in a closet. Except middle school made little sense. Ah, well. I tried.

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So, hooray for being able to cross “build and paint the closet” off of our lengthy to-do list. Some of the remaining items on said list can happen soon (the lighting fixtures are both in the works) but others, like the floor, will have to wait until we can open the windows and fumigate the stinky paint that will be required for a durable finish. So you shouldn’t expect to see a final reveal until at least…June. June of 2013. (Kidding. I think we have better motivation than that…) :) We began this project at the end of December, so I’d say we’ve made pretty good time so far.

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How do you organize your closet? Is it segregated like middle school, or does it take on the “we-share-everything!” persona of a kindergarten classroom? Who wins the clothing contest, you or your husband? Spill. And have a fabulous Monday, while you’re at it. :)

P.S. Last week’s Honey-Do blog series was seriously so much fun. If you missed any of the posts, you can find them here, here, here, and here. And Rick would like you all to know that, for the record, he wouldn’t decorate with cords, just wall-mounted televisions. I haven’t yet figured out the difference…

***Linking this up to Serenity Now, Fingerprints on the Fridge, Chic on a Shoestring, and The Rooster and the Hen!***

The DIY Show Off

29 comments :

  1. The closet looks awesome! I love all the organization you've got going on! Question though . . . are those all of your clothes? If so, i'm impressed! I've been meaning to go through my closet for ages - I have some clothes I probably haven't worn for 2 years! Right now it's all just thrown in there helter-skelter and I just reach my hand in and grab something each morning.

    You have just motivated me to bump "clean out closet" up on our to-do list! Thanks!

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    1. I have pjs and sweats, etc. in a dresser, but yes, that is all of my "presentable" clothing. :) I had twice that a year and a half ago and did a major purge--and I've been doing small purges ever since. There's something therapeutic about getting rid of excess stuff. I've also not gone shopping for clothing as much since buying a house, AND have sort of made a rule for myself that the clothing I do buy should have more than one use, like stuff that I could wear to work and at home with a little change of accessories, and stuff that can be layered for different times of the year. So I've tried to make a more "multi-purpose" closet over the past year. :)

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  2. Oh my... I'm drooling a little. We have an awesome row of closets that I fully intent on organizing at some point. Right now it's just a pole and a shelf. We're going to need to do something about that at some point.

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  3. WOW! What a transformation...it honestly looks like a designer closet...great job on the building process. I don't think I would put doors in front of it either, but wooden hangers would give a really nice look. IKEA has them for a very reasonable $. I think I am definitely going to need to take on a project like this in the new house! What a luxury to have all my pants in one place ;)

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    1. Wow, the prices for Ikea hangers ARE reasonable! $3.99 for 8 wooden ones...I can handle that! Too bad I don't live closer to one... :(

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  4. You guys did a great job! Organization always makes me breath easier! I can't wait to tackle our new walk in closet!!

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  5. No joke I seriously just thought the title was "welcome home darlings". I liked that you called your clothes darlings. Now I am disappoint... a bit :) Looks awesome though! I think I like it open best too! It's like a clothing mecca, whereas if you put doors on it it'd be less awe inspiring. Or something.

    My Rob has seriously 7 t-shirts, 1 sweater, 1 pullover, 1 jacket, 2 hoodies, and 2 long sleeve shirts. That's it. He came over here from England 2 years ago with a small carryon suitcase and that's all. He's never really added any new clothes since then and he thinks it's just wasteful to get more when they're still in good shape! I don't mind, it means I get to hog the whole closet :)

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  6. Looks great, and I am totally jealous of all your space! My poor husband buys his work shirts by the bag at Walmart, so they don't demand much closet space. My shoes, however....

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  7. Very nice job! I think the accomplishment and beauty of organization and whiteness was worth a tear or two. ;-)

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  8. Well done you 2! I think the little nooks do make you want to stay organized. We have a nice walk in and I love keeping my things organized now. Now get to the mall and buy some clothes!!

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    1. hahaha I am highly entertained by the idea that I don't have a lot of clothing--it seems like plenty to me! I definitely don't wear the same clothes all the time, either. BUT--it is true that I haven't gone shopping for clothes in a while. Maybe this week...? ;)

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  9. It looks so great! With it all out in the open like that, it kinda reminds me of a shop where everything is within reach. I imagine it will feel like you get to go shopping every morning (albeit in your own closet). Enjoy!

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  10. Ooooooh...aaaaaah. It looks great! I am seriously jealous.

    When you figure out that whole keep the closet organized thing let me know. Mine is a horrendous mess, perhaps even worse than your before.

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  11. It's so pretty. I want to pet it. I am so glad you survived painting it though because I can only imagine how horrible that must have been.

    My closet is a total middle school. I'm winning on the clothes but not by much. I've been throwing a lot out lately. Less is more.

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  12. You guys did a great job! So fresh and organized.

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  13. Wow, it looks FANTASTIC! It must have been super annoying to paint all the little shoe cubicle things. Eek! For the record, IKEA has wooden hangers for decent prices if you end up going that route - I think that would look great and it is much easier than doors. :-)

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  14. Love the shoe storage you built in. Shoes are a weakness for me and the shoe bags I use for storage are completely full-and ugly to boot!

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  15. It looks awesome Erin!!!!! Painting five thousand coats on something can be such a tedious job - not ever my favorite either, but it turned out beautiful. So when we organized our closet I told my husband he had more clothes than me - which he took offense to and argued. So to end the disagreement he counted every item that he had and that I had. Turns out he was right, I had more - whoops. Then he used this story as an illustration in a sermon one night. He said he is hardly ever right so I guess he had to tell the world.

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    1. haha that's funny! Maybe I DO have more than Rick and it just looks like less because I'm smaller? Hmm...

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  16. When you find that closet organization potion, would you mind sending some my way? I'll even pay shipping. :)

    The closet looks great! Makes me want to tear into mine.

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  17. Great job! This so makes me want to tackle our walk-in. I need more hours in a day!

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  18. I hope you don't mind but I tagged you in a little question and answer game. Please don't feel like you have to do it, but I thought it was kinda fun. :-)

    http://www.lifeonmarsblog.net/2012/02/tag-youre-it.html

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  19. wow what an improvement. great job!

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  20. WOW. Amazing!! Can I please live in your closet? Andy's in the process of doing a million coats of paint on our bookshelves too and he's so frustrated with it. I recommend pregnancy for getting out of that job.

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  21. Amazing job!! Painting that could not have been fun. We are not in our master bedroom yet (still renovating) so we there is no closet organization right now. We are using two guestroom closets right now. I can't wait until we an tackle the real closet.

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  22. Wow it looks amazing! Good job. I'd love a closet like this.

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  23. That is quite the change! That was a big project you guys took on. I'm sure it was crazy living during the in-between stages! :)

    Found through Serenity Now, btw!

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  24. dude I'm way behind in my H&H readings. I love this!! And it looks so organized. Way to go Erin!

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  25. Drinking some serious Hater-ade over here. Love the crisp white and tidy look

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