My Closet Makeover

I’m finally back!  Nothing against the blog, but work has gotten me extremely busy and it has been hard to find time to write something for the blog.  But, I got a day off from work and finally found time to get something together…

My closet.

Closet Makeover

My closet is atrocious.  For more than one reason.

1. I have too many clothes and shoes. I need to go through them and get rid of some of my things.

2. I don’t have that much floor space because of all the shoes on my floor.

3. Even though I have the most clothes out of all of my roommates, I have the smallest closet.  That would be thanks to having the wonderful water heater in my closet.  Yeah…

Closet Makeover

So I took time go through my clothes.  I organize my shirts by color, so I took out the shirts by color and went through a process of getting rid of them.  My criteria to keep a shirt was: do I like it, is it long enough (I’m tall), does it still fit, and is it still fashionable.  I tried each shirt on unless I knew for a fact that it still fit.  I also went through dresses, skirts, and tank tops the same way.

Closet Makeover

I then went through the tee shirts that I own.  Now, I am proud to say that I have a very large black tee shirt collection, but I got rid of a few that I know don’t fit or that I don’t wear.  I also had some smocks that I had for work before we got new shirts that I was able to get rid of.

Now, the prized possession of my clothing, shoes.

A Mess in my Room

A Mess in my Room

Before I started, I took all the shoes out of my closet and off of my shoe hanger.  When I brought them out into my hallway to put on my staircase, I made quite a mess…thankfully I don’t have a downstairs roommate as of the moment, so it’s okay to make a mess.

A Mess in the Hallway

A Mess in the Hallway

But here are all my shoes.  All 60 pairs of them.

Closet Makeover

So I went through them and was able to take my shoes collection down from 60 pairs to 43.  Honestly, I am pretty proud of myself.  It is hard for me to get rid of shoes.

I still have a lot of shoes

I still have a lot of shoes

So, here is everything that I am getting rid of.

Closet Makeover

Closet Makeover

And here is what my closet looks like now!

Closet Makeover

Closet Makeover

Closet Makeover

There is actually space that I can walk on the floor and put new clothes in the closet.  I have my work shirts separated from my tee shirts so they don’t get lost, and I am able to add new things if needed. What a difference!

Have you gone through your closet and what kind of stuff you have gotten rid of?!

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sparkle

Extreme Makeover- Lauren’s Room Edition

Happy Spring everyone! I hope the weather is cooperating wherever you are today! Ours is so beautiful! I have to enjoy it now, because I know this summer is going to be very hot!

Last summer, Lauren was getting ready to move out to an apartment to go to college in another town.  This was a very difficult time for me. We always spent lots of time together and I knew this wouldn’t happen as often. I was excited for her and knew this was what was supposed to happen in life, but it was still a hard time as a mom. So to help myself in the process, I planned how I was going to redecorate her bedroom.  I knew I still wanted to keep it for her, because she would still be home quite a bit, but I couldn’t go any longer with this….pink!

Pink room

Sorry for the cat-it was the only picture I could find of the pink walls! Remember, this was before I was blogging!

Her room was soooo full of stuff! We went through every item in her drawers, closet, shelves, everything! The room she was moving into was furnished, so I would still have the furniture, but everything else was taken down or removed. Lauren was sad to see the pink go, but I just had to have something a little more soothing. I knew I was moving my scrapbooking stuff in here and there was no way I was going to be able to work with that pink staring at me all the time!

Laurens Room

Tada!

The first step was to primer and paint all the trim. The trim was the same as the hallway, which you can see here. This included all the baseboards, door and door frame, closet door and frame, and the windows and frames. I spent two weekends just on the trim! Finally, I could do the walls. I used Concepts paint from Orchard Supply, semi-gloss in Simply White. Ahhh! Love the simplicity!

Laurens Room 4

The bed

The full-size bed was my mom’s sisters bed from when she was a girl. My cousin had it for awhile and repainted it, but now it is ours. I could use another paint job, but I kind of like the chipped look. I purchased the white comforter, green pillowcase and little white and green pillow from thrift stores. The pink boho bedspread was Lauren’s from before but she got a new one for Christmas.

Laurens Room 2

I ordered the curtains from Zulily and the blue pillowcases are from Walmart. Lauren found the pink and white dog fabric awhile ago and I made it into a large bolster pillow. I wanted to keep a little bit of pink for Lauren so she would still feel at home (although she still complains about the pink walls being gone!)

Laurens Room 7

Old changing table

There was actually a larger dresser in here, but my other daughter, Haley, wanted it, so this was the changing table from when the girls were babies. It was brown and I repainted it white and added new handles. The smaller size was a better fit too.

Laurens Room 10

Love this little detail

I really like how this turned out! My younger daughter used this box to store her American Girl shoes and accessories in. It was a bright blue and had yellow stars for knobs. I painted it navy blue with white drawers and found these compass knobs at Hobby Lobby. I loved how it went with the maps that I hung above the bed.

Laurens Room 8

Compass knobs

I added this metal tree from Hobby Lobby, the little wooden box, a blue bottle and a little girl with her blankie, because my girls had blankies too.

Laurens Room 9

Some little extras

Laurens Room 11

Sitting spot

Opposite the dresser is a little sitting spot.  I added an old chair from my grandpa, a Target ottoman found at Goodwill, Lauren’s old nightstand and a polka-dot basket from HomeGoods. The blanket I got for Christmas, the pink dog from Target and the whale pillow I made from a t-shirt soften up the chair.

Laurens Room 14

The wall hangings include a metal star, a pink framed chalkboard with a giant ‘L’ and a great print from one of my favorite bloggers, Karianne at Thistlewood Farms. You can find your own print here.

Laurens Room 15

You are a Rockstar!

I think all of us need to hear these words once in awhile!

Across the room, next to the door, are some bookshelves we installed when Lauren was younger.  I left them painted green, for now, and just restyled them. I added some old suitcases that I keep fabric in, and some other odds and ends.

Laurens Room 16

Laurens Room 18

Some of Lauren’s favorite things.

On this side are a couple of pictures of best friends, her Harry Potter books and James Herriot books, a small tea set from Holland and a Disneyland snowglobe. I also added a replica golf cart to remind her of her golfing days!

Laurens Room 17

Old pink bead lamp

Isn’t this lamp awesome! It used to hang in a hair dresser shop. I got it from a yard sale and it was full of sticky hairspray.  I took some cleaning to get it to look good, but I love how funky it is!

Laurens Room 26

Star light, star bright

I also added these hanging stars above the shelves.  Lauren decoupaged the middle one with lots of pieces from an old book. It took her a long time, but it looks great!

The last piece of space is filled up with this old teacher desk. Haley and I picked this up from a Freecycle ad.

Laurens Room 23

Old school desk

As soon as I saw the color, I knew I had to have it! I touched it up a bit, but not much. It sat on my porch for almost 2 years before I finally got to use it.  I knew I wanted it for crafts and scrapbooking because it has such a large work surface.  The drawers are really deep and I can keep my paper and other scrapbooking supplies in them.

Laurens Room 20

Ribbon!

I use this plant stand for a ribbon holder. It’s so nice to be able to see what I have available.  I also have a couple of jars of buttons.

Laurens Room 21

More ribbon!

The blue jars on top are filled with the small scraps of ribbon. I won these jars from a blogger and I love them!  I had to find a way to show them off!

Laurens Room 25

Odds and ends

These are just some extra little pieces. The basket holds miscellaneous stuff. I painted the little drawers sitting in the back and was going to add words to the front, but I didn’t have enough sticker letters and then couldn’t find the same ones in the store. So, it’s still sitting there from before Christmas! I will get to it sometime!

Laurens Room 19

I hung this bulletin board above the desk and added some of my favorite people and things so that I can be inspired each time I look at it-my girls, my parents, a couple of my pets and funny card and an inspirational saying.

Laurens Room 27

I hope you enjoyed this little tour! I had fun decorating and it helped fill my time. I enjoy making it look nice for when Lauren comes home and stays for a bit. I think this room has become a beauty after its makeover!

Sunshine and Blessings