Friday, October 29, 2010

Closet organization project

As a homeowner, I'm continually getting ideas for how to customize and optimize the spaces in my house.  There is a square "closet" in my bedroom, that is about 3'x3'.  Since I don't use that closet to store clothes (I have a whole other room for that!), it is more of a storage closet for files and other miscellaneous things.  Regardless, with the odd shape, it was starting to look more like a dumping ground for clutter, so I decided to be handy and build some shelves (Friday night).

The closet really wasn't usable as it was.  Especially since I wasn't hanging clothes in it.

I wanted the shelves to form an "L" across the back and right side (You can't see it, but there is a 12" space between the door opening and the wall), so I would need to customize them myself.

So I took a trip to Lowes, bought the wood and had them cut it. Lesson learned: don't stand directly in the line of the big saw, because if the blade is turned the wrong way, the board WILL fly across the isle.  No one was injured, but it was quite comical and the poor guy who was cutting the wood was pretty new and obviously embarrassed.

After the wood was cut I went home and set it all up in my garage/glorified shed (Finally a use for that space!), and painted the boards black.  Several hours and several coats later, I finished.  I let them dry overnight and brought them inside the next day.

Unable to find the power drill at my parents house, I was resigned to just screw the brackets in with a screwdriver.  Not terrible, but I will admit that my thumb throbbed for a couple of days after.  And, because I was determined to finish this project myself, I probably looked really funny in the small square closet trying to hold up the board, hold the bracket, and check the level all at the same time, but I completed the project.  Hooray!

And after a quick trip to IKEA, to get some baskets to make the clutter even less visible, it is finally done. 

I have a strong tendency to decide I'm going to tackle a project, assume it will be really easy and quick, and then realize part way through that the project is actually going to take me several days/an entire weekend.  I should probably stop doing that, but I can't seem to help myself.

Regardless, yay for clean and organized closets!  I wonder what project will be next...

2 comments:

Heather Seymour said...

Good job! Very impressive. :) Was it cheaper to buy the wood out of the warehouse and having them cut it rather than buy the pre-cut shelves? Probably, huh? I wish I would've thought of that a year ago...

Megs said...

I'm not sure. I just knew that I wanted it to go from wall to wall in an "L" shape. I figured it would be unlikely to find a 12" deep shelf in the exact length that I needed, so I just bought the wood. Lowes cut it for free (I think up to 2 cuts per board, and I know Home Depot does the same). I ended up buying 4, 4'x12" boards (I did this initially because I thought I would have to cut them myself and I knew anything bigger wouldn't fit in my car). Had I been smarter and a little more savvy at the time, I would have known about them cutting them for me and I could have bought the longer boards for a little less and only have gotten two of them. I actually bought the boards Friday night, came home and had my roommate tell me that they cut them for you, and returned Saturday morning to get them cut. Regardless, I think the boards were $6.50 (ish) each. So not a bad deal.