Day 1 of 2010

So if you read my New Years Resolution list (#4), you may have noticed that I had our Master Bedroom walk-in closet listed as one of the things I wanted to get done in 2010.  NO, we did not already renovate the closet . . . . . . but we did take care of step one on day one of 2010. 

Background info:  My family and I live with my parents in their beautiful retirement home.  My MoG and I moved in with them in November of 2003 shortly after our 1967 Fleetwood got hit by a late season hurricane and the repairs were more then we could afford or live through at the time.  So, Mom and Dad graciously offered  us a home so long as I would design the floor plan to complete their 1300+ sq. foot daylight basement and that we would do a good part of the construction.  (The move to their home has been such a wonderful blessing on both sides, but mostly because we have been able to be here to help my parents through some medical issues and surgeries, and help my mother as the family begins to deal with my father's early stages of alzheimer's.)  So, two weeks before Davey was born in May of '05, my husband and I laid the last of the flooring and we have been living in a beautiful home within a home ever since.  However, over the past two years we have discovered one of the downsides to our  beautiful basement home that only has windows on one side . . . . . moisture = mold.  Due to the high humidity of North Carolina and of a basement, we have been finding pockets of mold building up and unfortunately one of those pockets has been in our closet.  Thus the closet was at the TOP of our list after Christmas.

So for 7 hours on Friday my MoG and I took EVERYTHING out of our closet and painstakingly went through everything.  We cleaned, we made donation bags, we made move to storage bags, and take to the dump bags.

Here my MoG is scrubbing the one and only exposed concrete block wall in our small  unfinished closet within our closet.  This space was originally designed to be a gun closet for my MoG, but we have other plans for it now.

After 7 hours of work everything is back in place.  Our plans for our closet include finishing off the 2' x 4' closet with shelving and baskets for additional storage.  Painting the stacked dressers white and finishing them off with some molding, as well as changing out the hardware to some nice nickle knobs.  Finally, adding some additional shelves to my end of the closet and a painting the walls to match the bedroom.  I may even add a runner to the floor to warm of the closet while we are changing.

But a girl can't help but dream about closets like these:

Oprah's closet at Harpo studios in Chicago

Mariah Carey's SHOE closet.  LOVE the pink chair

Again LOVE the PINK wallpaper, not sure my MoG would, Ha!

I really think I need a PINK wall when I finish the closet ;-)

CAN'T HELP but drool over this closet, look at the chandelier over the island.

The builtin's are fantastic and the smoked glass is great to make the closet feel open but still hide the folded clothing, and the bench to sit and put on shoes . . . . can you say GREAT and practical design.

Reality says I can't afford a closet like these yummy ones pictured above, but I can use my design skills to make my closet fall into the category of "design form meets function".  I will do everything I can to make my wonderful walkin fit my budget and needs and hopefully the pictures I post will help to inspire others to make what they have ZING with style on their budget and still be very functional space for their needs.

So don't waste time, jump on your New Years Resolutions or Goals and start making some headway today.  Good luck!