When I moved into my new house, the closet space was an immediate concern. I liked the house a ton, but it was old. For some reason, when the house was built (1924) the residents didn’t think that having ample closet space was a big deal. Thus, I was cursed with having to make do with a small closet.
The first thing I did was wonder how the people who lived in the house when it was first built made do with so little closet space. It turns out that they uysed massive wardrobes for their clothes. And, unlike today, they didn’t have lots and lots of different kinds of clothes.
I spent some time looking around at local antiques stores to try to find large wardrobes. I found some really nice pieces, but they all felt too large, dark and old for my space. I really prefer the more contemporary look that color and plastic brings. Thus, I was in a quandary.
It was important to me that I could store all of my clothes and have room to expand my wardrobe, but it simply wasn’t an available option for my room as long as I was going to invest in a wardrobe. Then I started flipping through some contemporary decorating magazines and found the perfect alternative to a wardrobe: I found a cubed storage unit that was large enough to cover and entire wall.
Each cube in the unit was a little over a foot big on all sides. It was perfect. I could have room to put all of my shirts, skirts, pants and sweater and still have room to spare for fun decorative items. Plus, I could purchase square drawers that could hold all of my socks, scarves and underwear.
I ordered the unit for the large wall in my room. When it arrived, it took several hours to put it together, but it really looks terrific. On my other wall, I had less space to play with, but I really wanted a bookshelf so that I could keep ample nighttime reading on hand.
I looked around at several home improvement stores, but all of the shelves were either a tacky plastic or they appears to be made of that cork wood that falls apart easily. I wanted something that would be solid wood and high quality, but I needed it in my price range and I just wasn’t finding it.
Finally, a friend suggested that I look for furniture at a local thrift store that she had been to several times. She bought her living room sofa there, as a matter of fact. So I did and I found a shelf that was about three feet tall and about five feet long. It was perfect.
I brought the shelf home and removed the layer of faded pink paint in my back yard. I then repainted the shelf in the same color of white trim that the wall of my room had. The new shelf perfectly fit all of my books and really fit in with my space. I love it!