Making Small Spaces Work

In typical homes the age of ours, the square footage is often maximized in bedrooms and living space in exchange for small closets and bathrooms, so one of the sacrifices I knew I was going to have to make when choosing our house was the serious lack of bathroom and closet space it has compared to more modern houses. And although I'll never have a luxurious walk-in closet in this house, I wanted to improve the design of our master closet in order to maximize the storage space it can offer.

The closet is actually a pretty decent size considering the age of the home, and I knew it had potential to be able to store a good amount of clothes, even as a reach-in closet. It was originally set up as one rod and shelf straight across with some random shelves on either side. The shelves and rods were really flimsy and poorly constructed, not to mention they were not efficient in maximizing storage space. 

So I did some research and came up with a design that I thought would maximize space and work best for what we needed out of a closet. I decided that rod space was my biggest priority since we have a large dresser and chest that offer plenty of storage for folded items, and I was able to come up with a design that has the total rod space actually equal to the amount of rod space that we have right now in our huge walk-in closet in Charleston! I also included a small amount of built-in shelves to the design to give us a place for bulky sweaters/sweatshirts that don't fit in drawers easily. 

I maximized the rod space by using stacked rods. The only disadvantage to this was that the clothes on the bottom rack would hang almost to the floor leaving no floor space for shoes, so I decided to utilize the side walls for shoe storage. The design also includes a few inches of full-length rod space on the very end for long dresses, etc. 

When Dad knocked out the old shelving we were surprised with some more vintage wallpaper!

The empty closet:

 First divider up!

(Sorry I don't have more pictures along the way. Although he's GREAT at construction, Dad is not so great at documenting his projects for the blog while I'm not around.)

And the painted finish!

(Ignore all the tape marking touch-up spots.)

I love my new closet and I am so thankful for all my Dad's hard work in making it happen! This type of closet makeover using one of the manufactured closet systems like IKEA would have cost hundreds and hundreds of dollars. We are so thankful for Handy Randy!!! 

Time to Catch Up!

Well I fell victim to the stresses of licensing board exams that come with 4th year of dental school and this poor little blog sure did get neglected! Dental licensing boards are something I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. It was the most pressured, anxiety-filled situation I have ever experienced. But I am now finally on the other side with official passing status.. Woo-Hoo! Just a few more signatures and a walk across the stage before I'm an official D.M.D! 

So now, with my full undivided attention back to the project site, it's time to give you a little update on what's been happening over at Project B in my absence!

Remember this project list? 

We are getting things checked off little by little, although it seems things somehow keep getting added as well. But with a move-in date looming in the near future we are working on this list full speed ahead to try to get this place in move-in condition! 

Here are some of the things that have been happening lately:

1. B Street experienced it's first (to us) major snow and looked beautiful! 

2. My Dad has been hard at work on some major building projects around the house. Here are a few sneak peeks of what he's been working on:

3. We went to the "Southern Home and Garden Show" hoping to get some ideas on our upcoming projects. It's really kind of sad how excited we got about this show. It's a huge convention center full of vendors such as flooring specialists, granite companies, patio services, electricians, and even some delicious food samples that we may or may not have made lunch out of. :) We left with tons of great ideas and some free consults. We also were able to make a decision on the granite company we want to use for our kitchen counters and decided on a slab color (I think.) We even scored a free upgraded fancy edging on the granite just for attending the home show.. score! 

4. My brother-in-law, Robbie, spent a few afternoons helping us with some electrical work and we are forever grateful! I've learned that electrical work is not cheap but also not something to try to "DIY" if you don't know what you're doing. (Apparently the risk of fires and electrocution are just not something you leave to chance.. ) Robbie works in Athletic Facilities department at Clemson and knows a thing or two about electrical work so he offered to help us out! We were able to re-wire some things, add a few light switches, and even install some brand new can lights which I am pretty much obsessed with. (Blog post to come.) We also started getting a lot of our fixtures hung back up after we took everything down for the ceiling work back at the beginning of this project. Something about having light fixtures hung has made the house start feeling a little more like home rather than a construction site! 

So that's what's been happening at Project B the past few weeks! We are working hard at getting some of these last few projects finalized and we have a few more big projects left including hardwood floors and some kitchen work that we plan on doing before move-in. Check back soon!