Closet for a Princess

 OK well, apparently that was post 498, hahaha. I had two draft posts lurking from 2022, which I just found, affecting the overall post count. That's a little disappointing, but oh well. I definitely have at least two more posts up my sleeve (and hopefully many more), and I don't plan to update the last one with "actually I lied."

A year and a few months late, let's get into it on the room formerly known as the nursery. Here it is, in its green glory after we moved the Stuva wardrobe out.

Did we have to paint these walls, where the closets were going to be installed? D insisted that we did not, because they would be hidden by the build-in closets. However, I had to make sure the green was gone EVERYWHERE. It should come as no surprise that it took quite a bit of primer to get rid of that bright green.

Obviously the rest of the room needed to be painted as well. I took a moment of silence before painting over this mural (with a LOT of primer--even more than the green:

All gone (my babies are growing up!):

The room's recipient also wanted normal white ceilings, much to my dismay (the clouds were always something I wanted as a kid, but clearly not something my own kids wanted--oh well). So here is Sherwin Williams premium ceiling paint tinted Pure White (she allowed me to keep the clouds on the tiny ceiling in the dormer, so they're not gone entirely):

We bought many paint samples from Samplize, which we figured would be a huge upgrade from buying tiny bits of paint and slapping it on the wall. It was great until we pulled some of the hallway paint off removing the stickers...(note that we could not test the stickers in the green room, since the greenish glow would definitely affect the way the colors looked):

She went with Appleblossom, the least "pink" pink (the second up from the bottom) at our recommendation, since we learned our lesson on the green...the brightest color is probably not the best choice.

For a while, the room looked like this, partially painted just enough to start the closet installation.

After a little math work we saw that we could easily fit two Ikea Pax side by side and a have a bit of space behind the door. But....that would require jamming the right Pax against the right wall. Which has a dormer ceiling. So we figured with some sawing, it could forced in. 

The first step was remove the baseboard trim so the Pax could go as flush as possible to the back wall. 

D didn't want the Pax wardrobe totally flush against the  side wall because he was concerned it would be hard (or maybe impossible?) to open the wall-side door enough. Plus it would help to have something solid to attach the side of the wardrobe to, rather than drywall. Especially as he would need to install it in a ... non-standard way because of the extra sawing. 

So D held up the right-side board against the lowest part of the dormer and scratched a line onto the board. Then took it to the track saw and cut the edge. Which fortunately did not shatter as he cut it.  

He used some shims to wedge it all in tight. 

He did the same for the ceiling board - and also had to wedge in a scrap piece of 2x4 to hold it up.

The doors were VERY annoying as they were about an inch too tall to just fit as is. So I had to cut them all a little bit shorter. Then do a very sloppy job covering the top edge up with some leftover mat board, wood glue, and nails. 

Because we used the the 93in PAX doors with the 79in cabinet to line up near the top, D also had to cut a new set of hinge holes:

Getting sort of close!

But there were still a lot of little things to do. Spackling in gaps and installing some new trim (with pine wood quarter round) primed, then painted in semi-gloss Benjamin Moore Simply White. Which some random blog posts claimed was a good match for Ikea white. Which it sort of is (the top is the PAX door, the bottom is the painted trim).

Scrap pieces of the door and sides were used to fill in the top right triangle. Here it is, finished:

Of course we have some features on the inside like some internal PAX drawers, shelves, and bar as well as this custom this hair clip and bow board:

The left side required another scrap piece to close the top of the side (due to the shorter PAX unit and the taller PAX door, pictured above). We primed and painted it with the pink wall paint. 

You'll also see another addition to the left of the closet. Yup, this lucky kid got custom shelving too. It was a small amount of space to the side that didn't fit any ready-made furniture, but seemed perfect for displaying LEGOs (especially since the cats wouldn't find it easy to climb). We started with our favorite shelf base, the Container Store's elfa, which we've used in the living room, office closet, and linen closet. And like in the living room, we opted for our own shelving instead of using the elfa's line. 

D designed and cut a shape with a CNC that would make the most of the space available, with rounded corners so no one poked their eye out. 

The height is adjustable so we can set it to the height of whatever item she wants to display.

We have one more big project in the room and then can show the whole thing off!

A High Bar for 500

 Dear reader,

Believe it or not--and honestly *I* don't even believe it--this is the 500th post to this blog. I did not think, when we bought this house back in September 2009 (with our first post technically before closing, in August of that year), that we'd be going this long. There have been long gaps of inactivity and I'm still not caught up with everything we accomplished in 2024 during the almost year-long set of projects that began with the new addition and ended with upgrades to pretty much every bedroom in the house, but here we are, nearing the end of 2025 with 16 years of posts and, apparently, at number 500.

So it was a lot of pressure figuring out what to say! There's still plenty to write about, what with still being behind. But it felt like this post had to be different somehow. Rather than go into excruciating detail about one of the few big projects remaining to be shared, I wanted to cut to the good part and share a few amazing "after" pictures, leaving most of the in-between for later. Both are sort of an ode to D (ew, I know, emotion, gross) as he's combined his knack for fixing things with his newish hobby of carpentry into something that has transformed our house--and would have cost quite a bit of money if we had hired someone else to do it. Without further ado...

For the room that used to be the nursery, started with this:

Here it is, a quick "in-between" picture without the IKEA Stuva units, just so you can appreciate and compare the full space itself:

to THIS! Built-in closets and customs shelving, all by D (with a little help from his brother on the trim):

Our growing kid now has her own actual closet, instead of just some free-standing drawers...Again, much more to come on the "how D did it" later.

And the second big reveal, since it feels like 500 warrants more than just one, is for our entryway.

Our "before" picture actually comes from before we enclosed the sunroom, but besides that door in the background and the swapped out rug, this is pretty much what this space looked like until the beginning of 2025:

to...

ready?

It's a dramatic shift so I feel like I have to build some suspense...

...

...

...

THIS:

D designed and built a custom slat wall and matching storage bench. 

I told you it was pretty impressive. 

Here's the view from the other side where you can see the cool way it casts shadows on the ceiling, the built-in two-level hooks, and our pretty new loveseat (details later):

In looking back on these 16 years of homeownership, I would say we have upped our game (really, D has upped his game--I'm just here to cut in and edge on the painting and provide input on color and design). 

Here's to 500 more posts (or, at least, a few upcoming posts that go into more details on these two projects)!

Closets with a view

Time for a tour of the "closet" hallway of our bedroom--we really don't know what to call this space. As a reminder, it's behind the wallpapered wall that our bed is on. The whole section is made up of IKEA PAX units built into the wall. There are four in total: three along the main wall (seen here) and then a fourth on the side (where I'm standing to take this picture).

We put a slim sofa table along the opposite wall (Yamazaki Home). It was smaller than we imagined it to be, but it works pretty well and is low enough that we can hang relatively long things from the hooks we installed along the top of the wall. Plus of course I have my original IKEA step stool (no longer available, sadly) to help me reach the higher shelves in the closet. All of it is in the light wood we're sticking to in our bedroom.

A lot of thought went into choosing the blinds for the two windows in here after, all the drama the last time we bought and installed blinds. In that effort, the trade-off between terrible and cheap-looking ones vs. those that cost a small fortune was....not ideal. This time, we found options that were pricy but not overly so (and ordered swatches and then waited for a sale), and we're quite happy with the outcome.
 

They are Bali Blinds roller shades in the black-out fabric named Silver Fox. Funny enough, that was the color I picked without any swatches in hand, and it remained my favorite after seeing about a dozen little squares. It looks sort of like a linen or slub cotton and does a good job of blocking light. The west side of the house doesn't get a ton during the morning, of course, but every bit helps when trying to sleep in on weekends.

Both pieces of furniture tucked in under the window are ones we bought down from upstairs (my jewelry chest and a dresser). I would love to replace that dresser with one that looks very similar but has more functional drawers--these are cheap and hard to open. I've been on the lookout for another maple or birch piece with similar height. The mirror was one I bought for the guest room a few years ago. I think at some point we will replace it with one that rests on the wall and takes up less space, but this fits the decor for now and I'm glad we've been able to make-do with so few new furniture purchases (for cost reasons as well as sustainability). The kids have been using the hallway area with the mirror at the end as a runway for trying out new fashion!

Here's a glimpse inside the PAX closets for an idea of how we're using all the organizational features in the system. We're using the hanging bar, stationary selves, pull-out drawers with both opaque and clear fronts, the pull-out shoe shelf and the pants bar (hard to see, but it's on the right above my shoes). They do certainly make it easy to cram a lot of things in there. And yes, for the record, I have PAX units and D has just one. But he's making it work.

And of course it's all by the light of this cute little chandelier (and some can lights, but that's boring). I had to add a little glamor

Next time, the bathrooms, which look remarkably like they did last July because, well, they're bathrooms and don't require much furnishing. But I'll show them off anyway before moving on to the projects we've been keeping busy with in the rest of the house.

The Closet Big Reveal

At long last, time for the culminating closet post. You've been very patient as I've struggled to find time to blog (and I'm only getting to it today thanks to a sick day; such is the life of a parent). So to review, we left off with the space painted and ready to go, literally about 6 months after I'd started taking apart the old shelving and begun to spackle and years since we'd wanted to do something with that unorganized black hole of a linen closet. Back in 2016, we paid to have a professional organizer from the Container Store come and give us advice. After a bunch of back and forth (and some successes in other rooms like our kitchen and office), we had the start of a plan for the upstairs linen closet. But we weren't convinced or ready to pull the trigger, so it sat for, well, apparently 2.5 years.

The idea was that instead of using a system mounted to the wall in such a narrow space impeded by ducts, we opt instead for something on wheel that could be entirely wheeled out when needed, to access the things in the back. If you could look from the ceiling, it looked something like this (the gray areas are the vent ducts, the white with Xs in them are the modular shelves):

If you could stand at the ducts on the right and look at the left wall, it would be something like this. Notice that they are all on wheels so that they can be totally pulled out of the closet?

The system, called InterMetro, came in all heights (the poles could even be custom cut) and several widths and depths. We altered the plans a bit when it finally came time to buy, choosing to use two sets of shelves instead of one, so that wheeling them out would be easier. We ended up with a 24'' and a 36'' set of shelves, both at the narrower 14'' depth. They are 72'' high, plus the 3'' or so of the wheels, and just clear the door to be rolled out in the hallway.

Assembly wasn't too bad except for a couple key points. The first was that these stickers, on each and every pole (of which there were 8) were incredibly sticky and took an enormous amount of elbow grease and Goo-gone to remove. Not cool, Container Store. For the prices we paid for this, they could have used something that didn't leave a disgusting residue.

The second thing was that the clips that lock the shelves into place at their desired heights are not nearly as secure as advertised. Once everything was in place, I don't think they will shimmy. But because the locking mechanism could wiggle as you wedge the shelf into place, the shelves are all just slightly off from level. Again, I think, given the price, that the Container Store could have done better.

There was also the added stress of deciding it would be "no big deal" to assemble one of them downstairs while our littlest napped and then carry it up. It turned out that it was exactly just too big to clear the turn into the stairwell and make it up. We got a nice nick in the wall on the stairs thanks to that stunt. Oops.

You'll notice that we also used metal ventilation taping to close off the gap on the right between the duct and the wall, in an effort to mask the fact that there was no way I was able to paint behind there.

The icing on the cake for this simple shelving solution was returning to an old favorite, elfa, for the door. We've used the elfa system in our office closet and living room and the ingenious door storage is something we probably ought to add everywhere. It's now the home to all the medicines and first aid things we've kept in our downstairs closet, sorted by type (cold, pain, topical creams, bandages, etc.). This frees up a ton of space in our downstairs closet to put the kids bathtubs away.

In all, we really couldn't be happier. We now have a place for our linens, pillows, and out-of-season blankets, the content of our medicine cabinet, and some other various things (my yarn stash! extra toothpaste, floss, and toilet paper that used to send us running to the basement!).

It took 3 years, but at least it's lovely to behold now.

Finally Painted and Ready

With more than enough paint finally at hand (the original quart plus one gallon), it was time to get down to business. Fortunately, despite the prominent "NOT RETURNABLE" on the can, Home Depot took back the incorrect color and gave us our money back. Still though, whoever thought having Foxglove and Foxgloves should be fired...

As I mentioned last time, this was my first time getting to roll the paint. And not just roll. This was a one-woman job. I cut in and then rolled each wall, hoping to get the paint in place relatively promptly to avoid any weird blending lines. D was here for moral support and picture taking. The children were here for complaining that they wanted to help and then not wanting to actually help (they did paint a bit, but only in the space that eventually was going to be rolled over, to their dismay). You can see their handiwork along the side walls in the second picture:

And within a few hours, it was done! It involved some contortionist moves in the corner near the ductwork, but ultimately, a pretty rewarding and quick job.

But of course, it is never *that* quick. I still had to do the trim and the door, a boring necessity to make it all look white and new. Despite my annoyance at painting glossy trim, I did get a brief thrill when I realized that this may be the last odd custard color left in the house that was so prevalent when we bought it. Begone, yellow!

Next up, with D's help, was to replace this exposed CFL light. Part of me wanted style, the same out-of-place flair that we applied to our bedroom closet. The rest of me just wanted a covered lightbulb so that I didn't risk shattering it and spilling all kinds of hazardous materials all over our sheets and towels.

We agreed that I could finally get something similar to the crystal chandelier I had wanted in the dining room. Because why not? We found a cute one at Target and considered whether or not we could add the pull chain just as we had done in the bedroom. When it arrived though, I realized that even though it was a flush mount, it would occupy too much real estate near the ceiling where we wanted to put some tall shelves. No problem. We used this as an excuse to upgrade our guest bedroom light (that we inherited from the previous owners) and put that light in the closet. Here's the original ceiling light. Not bad, but pretty blah:

 Here's the new crystal one in its place:

And here's our closet! It's not quite as swanky as I wanted, but it's much safer now that there are no exposed bulbs and this swap let us put the crystal light where we can appreciate it more.

Last in the closet series, a post where I'll finally tell you what we ended up doing with this space, now that it was painted and ready for use.

The Rules of Painting

Continuing on our closet adventure, we reach the fun part. After months of taking down hardware,  spackling, sanding, and caulking, it was time to paint! Painting, while not the most enjoyable activity, is for me one of my favorite home improvements because the drama is immediate. The whole space changes within just a day or two.

Step one, not pictured, was to paint the ceiling. After not painting for several years, I forgot our painter rule #1: use good tools. I started out using no tools at all. As I started gathering up our painting tools, scattered around our basement since our last paint job almost three years ago, I realized that our paint roller tray was covered in rust. Probably not a good thing to ix paint in. I also couldn't find any stirrers or paint can openers, even though I knew we had many lying around. So we sent a runner to the store and ended up with a paint tray that came with rollers and brushes. I should know better. I do know better. But it was so temping to just open the kit and go. So rather than use my much better Purdy brushes and rollers, I used the cheap ones that came in the kit. Big mistake.

It probably isn't noticeable to anyone but me, but the ceiling (my first foray into painting for years) looks too textured now, because the roller nap was cheap and a bad fit for our smooth ceiling. But hey, it's a ceiling and it is now white rather than light yellow. And after I pulled yet another brush bristle off the edges where I was cutting in, I finally remembered to seek out our good brushes and dump that one in the craft bin for the kids.

Another fun side note about this project--this is literally the first time I've ever used a paint roller. Yes it's true. After painting an apartment and then a whole house, this is--to my knowledge--the only time I haven't been just the "cutting in" person. D has always done the rolling (see examples here, here, and here.) Since this has always been "my" project, I did it all. And so, ladies and gentleman, after about 15 years of painting, I felt the reward of rolling. (Seriously, it's so much more fun. I'm not being sarcastic here at all. All that painful cutting in for such small payoff and then roll and BAM, new look.) So first, the ceiling. A lot less fun and a lot less payoff than the walls, but it was a start (moving from vaguely yellow to slightly-too-bumpy white--not quite the drama I was looking for).

Then it was on to the REAL painting. I already knew that I wanted a color, despite this being a closet (I have a history here--see my lovely aqua walk-in bedroom closet). I thought I would go for a super light, almost-white purple. Here were the swatches we selected from Home Depot.

Do you have a favorite? Here's where we broke painter rule #2: don't let a kindergartner pick your color. I would probably have picked the one on the lower right or any of the pale ones along the left. But those were too light for my kid, who'd come to the store with me with promises that she could select the color with minimal parental veto. So she chose Foxglove, on the back right. It was on the same scale as the one I preferred just below it--just one notch darker. Her sad little face when I tried to convince her to go lighter made me relent. Foxglove it was.

Then I broke painter rule #3: buy all the paint you need. I somehow believed that one quart would be enough for such a small closet, especially when I saw how expensive the paint base was. And so we came home with one quart of paint. I thought I was ready to go. Then we did some math for square feet of wall space vs. what the can said it could cover. Suddenly we weren't sure. And I definitely did not want to run the risk of having to buy a second can when halfway complete, given that dye lots aren't always consistent and I might not be able to just start on a second can seamlessly.

So armed with a picture of the first can, Grandma went to the store to buy a second can before we started (that way we could mix the paint before beginning, to even out any color inconsistency). What did the paint department employee send her home with? Take a good look and see if you can spot the problem:

Apparently Behr paint comes in Foxglove and Foxgloves. Both valid colors for their Marquee line, both purplish (i.e. not particularly noticeable if you're not paying attention) and both very different. In addition, Foxglove (no "s") had a one-coat guarantee but Foxgloves (with the "s") did not. We discovered this difference, of course, roller and brush in hand, dressed in paint clothes and ready to go. *Big sigh.* It was off to the store again.

To be continued...