Thursday, January 19, 2012

Where To Put My Shoes?

We have lived in this old house of ours for just over four years.  For the most part, we have adapted to the storage space that the house has allowed us ... except in the master bedroom.  This room is part of the 1967 addition to the house, and it was designed with classic 1967 features ...

When I scraped the loose paint off these doors during the main renovation of the house, it revealed how many colors these doors have been in the last 40+ years.  Eventually, I will take them downstairs to the workshop, and give them a nice coat of white paint ... they function just fine the way they are, so the cosmetics can wait till later.

... like the 'spacious' 1967 closet that has double bypass doors, with wasted dead-end spaces at each end beyond the doors.  To make best use of the space, I installed double closet rods ... my clothes above, his below.  This leaves NO SPACE for anything other than hanging clothes.  The smaller door you see on the left is a linen-type closet where The Husband keeps his folded clothes and a hamper. 



My folded clothes (sweatshirts, hoodies, sweaters, and pants) are in an antique armoire on the other side of the room.  My hamper is beside the armoire, out in the open.  It's a less-than-ideal situation, but it's relatively functional.

My eventual solution to the problem is to do a mini-remodel in here.  I have figured out that if I remove the wall where the closet doors are now, and carry the line of the wall behind the bedroom door across the room, the loss of 28" of floor space on the closet side of the room (which we can spare, because this is a large room) will result in two 4-1/2 x 5 foot walk-in closets!  The new wall would roughly follow the line of the carpet fringe.  I have a couple of other projects to finish before I can even think about starting on this ... I'm still trying really hard to stick to my resolution to finish things before I start something else ... even if it's something like this that will make life better.



As I was up in our room sorting laundry the other day, I had a brainstorm.  We have a cabinet from Ikea that has been used in lots of rooms in our houses over the years ... most recently in our grandson's room to hold toys.  He doesn't live with us anymore, and his toys moved with him, and I was pretty sure that the now-empty cabinet would fit into the space between the closet corner and The Husband's night table. 



I didn't even need The Husband's help to get this done.  With the doors and shelves removed, the cabinet wasn't all that heavy.   I took the feet off of it, and it was short enough to go through the doorways ... so I flipped it upside down onto a folded blanket and dragged it down the hall and into our room.  Then, I put the feet back on, flipped it upright into the space, and put the shelves and doors back into place. 

Ta Da!!!

Lousy photo, but you get the idea.


Now I'm scheming a temporary way to obscure the glass doors ... perhaps gathered fabric or frosted-glass Contact paper ... do they make such a thing?  I don't want to do anything permanent to the doors, because you never know where this cabinet will end up once the closets are finally built and we don't need it in our bedroom anymore.

This is not a perfect solution, but it will buy some time and help me get better organized by giving me a single place for my shoes to live ... and I won't have to hunt all over the house to find my shoes anymore!

22 comments:

  1. Looks great .... I vote for frosted contact paper ... we used it on a number of panes for interior doors that we have ... although I had it professionally done ... I would have messed it up ... and I love the effect!

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  2. Very clever. But I can't take my eyes off of the bed post.

    Good God woman, that's amazing. I want to sink my teeth into it.

    xo Jane

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  3. Great idea! I concur with Reena - frosted contact paper would be awfully pretty. But fabric would be, too. Good luck!

    xo
    Claudia

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  4. Home Depot sells a spray paint (I think it's Rustoleum) that is for windows, to give you the frosted look.

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  5. Great idea and I love your doors. I would try what Anne said, it works great nad you can scrape it off when you are done. Good luck, we need some major storage overhauling here too but not sure how, they used up every inch of space in our house and didn't leave much for expanding. Apparently storage was not an issue 20+ years ago. :)
    xoxo

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  6. We used the frosted spray paint on our bathroom window to provide privacy. It is pretty easy to use and can be removed by scraping or with acetone.

    Cheers!

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  7. I love that piece. They do make a frosty contact paper but it is miserable to put on and take off. Also, Home Depot has several cling type options that might work. There are some that look like stained glass but there are also some that are just frosty looking. I think you would need 4 of them to do the project. And, once you take it off you can reuse it, too.


    I also think it would be very sweet with fabric shirred on rods top and bottom. AND...that is a great idea about building the wall out and making two walk in closets. xo Diana

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  8. I think fabric would look nice. I'll be interested to see how you finish out this project:-) Emphasis on Finish, right?

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  9. Great temporary solution!!! I'm thinking seeng the shoes won't be so bad, so you are done!...you'll be able to look right away and see if what you need is there, you know there will be shoes still downstairs. No matter how careful I am, there will be a pair under the kitchen table, by the back door...

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  10. Great solution!

    We have similar storage issues in our bedroom - when we knocked out walls to expand the closet the best 'after' we could manage was only about the size of what your 'before', so auxiliary furniture is a must for us.

    I've been considering using an old china cabinet instead of an armoire. They tend to be a bit larger and easier to find, but still have conveniently sized drawers and shelves.

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  11. Oh, and I meant to say I definitely recommend vinyl static cling type frosting over adhesive contact paper. We considered it for on our front door, but decided we liked being able to see out too much.

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  12. Great idea and I'm always looking for storage ideas. I know you will redo that closet in time but this will work for now. hugs, Linda

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  13. I like the fabric idea.. but oooh, the work involved!

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  14. Hmmm, perhaps any paper would work. Wrapping paper, taped from the back? Or double-sided tape?

    Good luck! You have lots of good ideas to pick from.

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  15. Like Nana Diana said, I've seen the stained glass cling type used, and I love the way it looks. I have a sliver of long glass in my sun room that has been begging for it, for years and I think the light coming through would be very interesting. The frosted kind for your bedroom, might be a little more tame and classy. You might think the stained is a little too busy.

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  16. It's perfect there! I think they do make frosted paper you can apply to glass, temporarily.

    Kat :)

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  17. You're a gal after my own heart--I could use a couple of those just for shoes! How about using some vintage fabric? That way you can tone down the modern Ikea look and tie it into your antiques. And you can just take it down when you move it out. The spray paint is permanent, and the contact paper is a pain to get off.

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  18. I love IKEA wardrobes
    and cupboards. That
    was a great stroke of
    inspiration!

    xx Suzanne

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  19. The clingy vinyl sounds like the best idea as sticky anything is hard to remove and clean off. I'm able to move large furniture by myself using the blanket technique, too. I've also used plastic trash bags to glide across carpet. When there's a will, we WILL find a way!♥♫

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  20. Love it! I adore material on the inside of glass cabinet doors, but that is me :) Can't wait to see the finished project!

    For our mudroom, I found a vintage baby changing table. We use the lower two shelves for barn boots, garden clogs etc. The top part-where baby lays to get changed-I put a thick, comfy quilt on it! Instant kitty bed and I have it right under a window for bird watching. Happy boots. happy cats!
    Happy day to you!
    xo, misha

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  21. Morning Connie,

    Hmmmmmm...I am leaning towards a beautiful fabric, something to blend with what you have on as bedding. I agree with the lady above who said a vintage looking fabric would mask the modern lines of the Ikea piece.

    Is the bed post for pole dancing????
    ;->

    Janet xox
    http://theemptynest-janet.blogspot.com/

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  22. I definitely vote for the frosted look cling film that is for windows. We used the frosted Contact paper on our garage windows since the cling would have been so expensive for so many windows (there were about 40 panes!). I've used the cling film on windows in my home and it works well. You could probably use less than two packages for the cabinet. Great idea to use this for shoes!

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