This closet is right inside my front door, which is right inside my living room. My house is small. And I probably shouldn't be 'doing away' with closet space but I really wanted to add a little bit of 'personality' to the entry.
"Before" -- it was just an ugly, plain closet. I removed the carpet, the molding where the bar was hung, the door and the door hardware. After lots of patching and sanding and wood filling, I had a clean slate to work with.
I found this cool, retro-looking wallpaper and put it up, painting the rest of the walls the same creamy, white color that's in the wallpaper.
I don't have a wall switch here so it was proving to be quite a task to find a pendant light to work in here. SO, after lots of thinking and thinking at all hours of the night, I decide to spray paint the outlet part (yeah, I missed a spot - it's dark in here with the light off!) and then I INVERTED a small lampshade and screwed the bulb in which holds the shade in place. I found a replacement chain and 'fob' at the hardware store and added that.
I didn't have the energy or ambition to BUILD a cute bench in here so after looking around I remembered I had my kids' old TOY BOX down in the basement! Perfect . . . except it didn't FIT!! I was so bummed! But I'm like a dog with a bone when I get an idea SO, I literally
took the toy box apart,
removed the molding on the floor of the closet,
sawed off some of the edges of the box (that don't show any way once it's in place!),
painted, distressed and waxed it then
reassembled it INSIDE the closet. It was exhausting to say the least . . . but SO worth it! The nice thing is the lid opens and we can store boots, shoes, etc. in there as well. I bought 3" foam and covered it for the seat cushion and added the burlap pillow I had made earlier for another project.
I decided to add two shelves (all of these supplies were super cheap discards from my local ReStore. The wire baskets were a real steal at Big Lots -- Just 8.00 each. These are perfect for holding seasonal things like gloves, hats, etc.
These are super old cupboard doors from a 100+ year old house that a friend gave me. The only thing I did to these was patch a few holes and painted the knobs rusty orange. I love the cracked, worn look so I didn't want to paint them at all. I purchased the vintage, wire coat hooks from a seller on Ebay -- I definitely wanted something old for these doors.
Did I mention that at first this was going to be a small "office" space for me?? I painted a cute, little desk and chair and made the bulletin board. It was such a cute, little space. But then I found out I was going to be working from home and had to create a large office space in my basement. I couldn't see the need for this little 'nook' now so that's when I decided it would be more functional for us as a little 'mud room'/closet!
I love creating little 'surprises' in my home . . . things that are unexpected, especially in a 1950's ranch home that wasn't built with a lot of 'personality'! What are some ways you've created little (or big) surprises in your home?
Happy-soon-to-be-spring!
On
any given week (depending on how busy I am!) I love to participate in Linky
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