Office Closet Reno: Part III

Posted on April 17, 2011

I’m back again… this time with a large, much needed glass of chardonnay in my hand, paint on my toes, and wood shavings in my hair.

It’s been a long weekend.

But I’m glad this phase of the office closet reno is over.

Bear with me on the lack of in progress pictures… everything that could go wrong, did, and I was at the point of just trying to get it done to remember to document it correctly.

Let’s rewind one week ago, when the closet looked like this after phase one:

I had completed my built-in wall pockets and was ready to move onto the more difficult task of built in shelves.
I knew I wanted to build it basically the same way—three pieces of wood affixed to the wall which would support one long shelf.
So I went to Home Depot (I know, I said I would only go to Lowe’s from now on, but Lowe’s doesn’t have large pieces of MDF! Get with the program, guys)… The crappy part was that I had to buy an entire sheet of it (which was $30 and like 4’x6′ or something), but since it all couldn’t fit in our little car, we couldn’t take the rest of it home with us. Let’s call this bummer of the weekend #1. Anyway, after making my closet measurements and having them cut them for me, this is what I had to work with:
I was actually missing two of those small pieces on the top right which were my side supports, because the guy forgot to cut them (shall we say bummer #2?), but luckily there were scraps left over long enough for me to use our miter saw and make the cuts. Disaster averted.
I proceeded to give them them all a few coats of white semi-gloss paint, and we hauled them into the office to start putting it all together.
I know we’re missing a couple steps here but this is the next picture I shot:
This is the first stage of the bottom shelf. We tried to drill into the studs. Our studfinder is a little confused though, and it told us it was in different places every time. So we had to just trust our instincts. Does this count as bummer #3? Pretty sure the right support is not in a stud at all. But it seems quite solid, and Brad said it was OK, so I will trust him until it crashes on me.
Anyway, here’s the next picture I remembered to take:
Alright, making some progress here. The shelf top was a good fit pretty close to the wall on both sides. You aren’t going to get an exact fit (unless your house was built by people who really care about your welfare and any future projects you may do, which does not describe the people that built ours)… so our walls definitely had some wonkiness beacuse this closet is far from a perfect rectangle.
We used our nail gun to attach the top to all sides, and began to repeat the process for the top shelf…
There’s Brad doing the muscle work for me (thanks sweetie), but about 5 minutes after this picture was taken he quit on me.
It was bummer #4… the shelf was too big to squeeze into the closet. It was not the shelf’s fault, it was actually cut identical to the bottom shelf (which was actually a little too short)… it was, of course, the closet walls that were not straight.
So after a lot of pulling and tugging and @*&#!%-ing, we were left with this wall carnage:
…which was found on both sides of the closet, and a lot worse in person.
I hope your Saturday night was better than ours.
But Sunday was a fresh start, so I headed off t
o Garden Ridge, World Market, and Lowe’s for some finishing pieces.
Can I go off on a tangent for a quick sec? If you do not live by a Garden Ridge, I am sorry. My life was Garden Ridge-less until I moved to Florida last September, and it has changed me. I am a believer. This place is 3 acres of pure heaven. Just look at this aisle of baskets….
This is the stuff dreams are made of, people. And it gets better. These baskets are CHEAP. Price cheap, not quality. Check out these gems I found:
Don’t you just love these woven baskets? In all sizes and colors, and check out the price tag.
Here’s another one of my favs…
This basket is perfect for magazines, blankets, even throw pillow storage beside a couch (it’s a LOT larger than it looks in person). Love.
Anyway, I picked up a few baskets here for my top shelf storage, and a teal storage box from World Market (which I got for free with a $10 Birthday coupon!)
I also stopped by Lowe’s to get some thin strips cut for the fronts of the shelves. I’m not a big fan of seeing the supports so I wanted to attach front pieces to make the shelves look more substantial and solid.
Back at home, our closet was now looking like this:
Almost ready for the final step!

Brad painted the pieces, and once dry, we went to attach them and….. ready for bummer #5? They were a full half inch too short. I specifically told the guy 63 7/16″ long… he somehow didn’t pay attention to the 7/16″ part, which I had repeated at least 3 times… and cut them to exactly 63″. How does this happen? Lowe’s, if you’re reading this, you just lost points with me.

So, I just added a lot of caulk and spackle and it worked out ok in the end. Not the ideal way to go, but I’d rather not drive all the way back to the hardware store for the 4th time in one weekend.

At the last minute, I decided to give our old black trash can a quick facelift with my favorite spraypaint brand:
(after pics in just a sec…)
While I was putting on the finishing touches, there was some major pond action in the backyard. The alligator came out to socialize, Brad threw half a carton of eggs at him (and apparently eggs aren’t a gator food group?), and he also discovered a ginormous “4 or 5 foot” turtle:

So, that’s the latest from the pond. Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

First let’s recap to 2 weeks ago:

And now to the official after shots of Stage III:

And that’s how it’s looking this very minute. So glad I got that out of the way, and that the space is now super efficient. This isn’t the end of the transformation… I still need to add some organizational apparatus to the blank walls in the back and right side. When I find that perfect thing, you’ll all be the first to know!

I also need to decide if I’m going to re-attach the white bi-fold doors or add curtains. What do you all think? I don’t want it to get too busy with too many patterns and colors, but the doors are kind of pointless since the closet will never be closed. Or maybe just leave it as is? I’m interested to hear your thoughts!

Alright, time to finish this third glass of wine and relax my achy body for the remaining two hours of consciousness I have for the weekend… thanks for reading 🙂


13 thoughts on “Office Closet Reno: Part III”

  1. Everything you've done so far looks great! My sewing closet is in need of a make-over and we have a lot of the same plans as you, seeing these pictures may give me the motivation I need! 🙂

  3. Everything looks awesome! I think some cute curtains would look awesome – perhaps in a solid colour or with a very subtle pattern so as not to look too busy? I would much prefer the look of curtains here than closet doors! 🙂

  5. I am totally doing this in my spare room. The door always gets in the way. Those shelves are great…adding it to my list. Sorry you had way too many bummers this weekend.

  7. I feel your pain: Lowes screwed up measurements for wood for our closet as well! And of course you don't notice it until you're all ready to put the wood in and don't exactly feel like making the drive back to point out their mistake. What's up Lowes?!

  8. I'm kind of obsessed with your blog now. Everything looks soooooo good … and looks like so much work! What did you end up doing with the closet? I think it looks great as it is, no doors or curtains needed!

  9. Thanks Katie! We actually just ended up putting the doors back on because they were sitting in the hallway and Brad was getting sick of them! So it was either that or trash them… I still might do the curtain thing someday though 🙂

  12. I know I am late to this ball game but re: the door/curtain thing – I am in the process of re-vamping some bi-fold doors with wallpaper and perforated metal. So just because the doors are super ugly at the moment doesn't mean someone as creative as you can't make them BEEEooootiful! It's a win/win – they're not on the floor driving your husband crazy but they look good in the room. Just a thought, the rest of the space looks great!

  13. I like it as it is. Because it adds interest and open feeling to the room. And that green color is gorgeous.

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