One Room Challenge Week 6 // Craft Closet Organization
It has been a long couple of weeks in the world and being home with a baby who doesn’t nap while you try to work a job, run a business does not allow for much time for projects. It’s that moment in the ORC that you feel simultaneously so close to the finish line, yet you have 1000 tiny little things to do. That’s where I’m at anyway. Just want to note that these are not the best images, but I wanted to capture something to share this week.
If this is your first time stopping by, I am participating in my 5th One Room Challenge. I have tackled my garage turned studio at my old house, my mom’s kitchen, my sunroom and my basement living room. This time around I am giving my basement studio a major upgrade! I showed all the befores and the plans in week 1, talked about how I completely transformed the space with paint in week 2, shared my DIY peg board organization for week 3 and in week 4 I shared the oversized art piece I made. Today I am talking about the scariest part of this project, the closet!
The closets were bad, terrible! The first thing I did was take everything out and paint it all in my signature color, Polar Bear by Behr. I added an additional shelf to each closet and removed the clothes bar on the left side, but decided to keep on the right, on the occasion that I need to hang something in there. Once painted, I had to begin the painful process of organizing. I didn’t have the budget or the energy to build out any custom storage, but I needed something to corral all my supplies. I am a designer and a maker so these closets house a lot of stuff. Since I didn’t have the motivation to do anything custom, I turned to my favorite friend, the storage box. I used the Ikea Kuggis system, that I also used in the play area of the basement. Luckily I made a trip to Ikea in the winter, and picked up a bunch of boxes, but at that point I had not mapped out my organization system, so I still need more. Because of Covid, I was not able to get my hands on them yet, but the OCD in me can not wait to make this uniform and perfect!
I don’t think I’m exaggerating to say that I lost sleep over what I wanted the labels to look like and how to make them. I considered so many different techniques, and in the end the easiest option one out, I ordered some printable vinyl. I love the way the minimal design turned out. My one gripe is that the color printed out quite a bit different than it looked on the screen.
The last part of this project was updating the louvered doors. I debated keeping them wood, as the floor turned out lighter than I had planned and I wanted to keep a little warmth and contrast. Ultimately I decided they were a little too contrasty, so I decided to turn them into paneled doors and paint them Revere Pewter by Benjamin Moore. I thought I took photos of the process of this, but it turns out I forgot. I used 1/4” plywood and had them cut it to the width at Home Depot, then I used my circular saw to cut to length. Originally I planned to cut out the slats and attach the panels to the back of the doors, and I did that one door, but the removal of the slats left large holes where they were inserted. Again, I am sorry there isn’t a photo of that. So plan B was to glue the panels to the front of the door. That is what I did. After I cut the slats out of the first door and it was a flop, I used Liquid Nails to glue the panels right on top of the slats. Then I caulked the edges, then sanded and painted. I am so happy I decided to give these doors an update. They look so fresh and I think it matches the industrial vibe much better than the wood. Now just imagine them with the pretty hardware that hasn’t arrived yet.
Don’t forget to check out the other guest participants here.
