Closet, Before and After

For those of you who don't know me, I have teeny, tiny closets in my house. It was built in the 50's, so that is pretty typical. When we were looking at the house , I didn't really (I know, what was I thinking?) look at the closets CLOSELY. I didn't see that the master bedroom closet was painted a combination of peachy-pink and lavender. Or that it had contact paper that was supposed to look like wood randomly splattered all over the place. I am not kidding, it was a DISASTER. So I put "redo the closet" on my mental to-do list and then did nothing about it. For a year and a half. It was messy, disorganized, and I couldn't find anything. It really bugged me but I didn't have a lot of time to devote to the project. Until....last spring when I got laid off. (Yeah, that was fun) . So now I had A LOT of time, and I just couldn't take it anymore. I spent several hours just peeling off that stupid contact paper and cleaned off the walls and the closet looked like this:




Pretty, isn't it? So then I bought a can of OOPS paint for $1.00 and some other paint supplies and got busy. (Ok, so I will admit that when I bought the paint I thought it was white. But it is really a light gray-ish blue. Yes, I am an interior designer, I should know better. Did I mention that the paint was $1.00??) I WAS just going to paint the walls, and leave the trim as it was. Then I decided that painting the trim white with leftover paint I already had would look WAY better. Once I took down the existing hooks I decided I need to get brand new ones in a brushed nickel. Not to mention the attic door needed a new handle and a heavy duty magnetic catch instead of the klugey thing that was on there. I also had an AHA! moment and at the same time went "DUH" when I looked at the bottom of the closet. There were sort of built in racks for shoes that I wasn't using because I really didn't know what they were. Probably because they were made for someone who wears a size 6 shoe and I have an 8 1/2. (Ok, yes, this closet is ONLY for my stuff, it is just not big enough to share. My husband has his own closet in one of the extra bedrooms. And it's bigger.) So I revamped the shoe shelves, and was able to stack my shoes (in these) very nicely at the bottom of the closet! All in all, it took me about 4 days to completely finish the closet redo. No, it's not perfect, but it looks 100% better than where it started. Here are the after pics:











I decided that this would be the fall/winter closet and the closet in the guest bedroom will be the spring/summer closet. You might be wondering if it still looks like this, now that it is winter and I have been using it. For the most part, it does. The shoes get a bit disorganized, but the boxes stay nice and neat and there are no clothes lying on the floor. It feels SO much better every time I open the door. I can actually find stuff and I think it looks and feels bigger. I think it's PRETTY, too. What do YOU think?