Closet Chronicles: A Journey from Mess to Masterpiece
There is a closet off our entryway that has always been an awkward space that I could not figure out. It is large and the builder didn’t really do anything to make it functional. I have re-done this room multiple times and it just never felt right. You may have seen THIS post where I most recently updated the closet and I think I finally got it! However, I wanted to take you through the evolution of this closet, because it’s been a fun journey!
The basic builder grade closet.
When we moved in, this closet was very basic. White walls, a few shallow shelves and LOTS of open empty space. We used it as storage for a while. It was the catch all and got neglected and forgotten about. It was a mess most of the time, and I tried to avoid it because it was such a confusing space for me. Enter, the first update to this closet.
Update #1: Just a Bandaid
For this update, I just tried to give the room some character. I organized my kids toys in bins on the existing shelves. I got these plastic drawers that fit well under the shelves to hold more things. This closet felt like a cold sterile box, and I wanted to change that. So I added a wall treatment on all the walls and a floating shelf with some decorations.
My favorite part of this closet, was the wall treatment! I stenciled all of the walls with SHARPIE! This wall treatment is simple, but it can be time consuming depending on how much space you are doing it on. I got THIS stencil and then just filled in all the walls with it. Instead of using paint, I used a SHARPIE! About half way through I found a different type of Sharpie that worked much better. It was a Sharpie Paint Pen. It was so much faster, and looked just as good!
I found this darling artwork to put on the floating shelf and called it done! It worked well, until it did’t anymore. So I decided to update it again.
Closet Update #2: The real update (or so I thought)
By this time, I realized that the shelves were not working for me. You could still see the mess, it was unorganized, and it was not working. So I decided to do some built in drawers and cabinets with a countertop. Check out THIS post to see how I completed the built ins. It took some time and figuring, but it worked great and I love how it turned out!
I still really liked the Sharpie walls. It worked well. But did not go with my new vision for this space. I had found these peel and stick tiles and I wanted to try them out. For the record, I was very excited about this. I thought it looked great, and that it looked perfect! However, after some time, I realized that for my space, the tiles did not really work well.
There were a few things that may have played into this…
- This closet gets really hot or cold. Which is not good for this type of tile. It needs to be in a more temperature controlled space.
- I have texture on the walls, so there was not a flat, even surface for them to apply too.
- I had cute little 2 year old fingers helping me, and she may have touched the backs of some of them, making them a little less sticky.
But overall, this was a great overhaul of the space and I loved it! However, because the tiles did not really work well, that lead me to want to redo it the third and final time.
Update #3: I Finally Got It – So far! 😉
You can read about the full update HERE. But the short version is that I was sick of this room feeling like a forgotten space. A place all great ideas went to die. haha. I wanted a place for my kids do do all their art projects. A place to store their artwork and do all the crafting their little hearts desired. So I decided it was time to make this room have a really purpose, instead of just an unclear, space that was just a catch all.
I kept the cabinets and organized them. Of course, I took the peel and stick tiles down (which was a huge ordeal itself, you have to check out this post to hear how that went down). Then, I re-painted the whole room, and did a fun stencil as a “backsplash”. I filled the drawers with art supplies, and hung frames for my kids to hang their masterpieces. It was perfect! And the cherry on top? I replaced the standard door with a barn door! Best decision ever!
Now this space feels intentional. It feels like its part of my home and not an after thought. Does it stay perfectly clean and organized? No! Its a kids space, but it actually gets used, and that is all I wanted! Will I change this room again? Probably. But that is ok. Because this works well in this phase of life, but that does not mean it always has to be this way. Life is evolving, so our home should too.
This is my reminder to you. Just because you do something in your home, does not mean you have to love it forever. This is YOUR home. Make sure you love it while you live there! And remember, its ok to change your mind.
What space in your home do you want to change? I would love to hear about it! Until then…
Follow along for more DIY’s and fun at…
