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Friday, February 25, 2011

My new happy place

When we bought this house, we temporarily moved into the bonus room and did major construction on the upstairs bedrooms. We demolished the master retreat, ripped out the master bedroom fireplace, tore down the walls and closet in the small kid’s bedroom, and built what we somewhat jokingly call “the twin palace.” It’s an extra-big kids’ room that easily fits both girls and a walk-in closet that runs the entire length of the room. We had the closet tricked out by our new fave contractors: Closets by Design. They designed, delivered, and installed the whole closet for a bit more than it would have cost us at Home Depot (plus TubaDad would have had to do all the labor if we had gone the Home Depot route). And let me tell you, it was worth EVERY SINGLE PENNY.

First, it’s just beautiful. Seriously, that closet is my new happy place. There is a place for everything and it’s all in plain sight. And second (this one makes me weep and squeal), the girls can fold, hang, and put away their OWN LAUNDRY now because that closet is just so awesome. Oh man, I can hear angels singing as I type that. Ahhhhhhh. I just pull their clothes out of the dryer (or off the drying rack), hand them a basket, and they do the rest.DSC_2771LR

We’re only using the bottom half of the closet right now, so there’s plenty of room to grow with the girls later. There are hanging baskets for swimsuits, pajamas, and tights. There are drawers for socks, underwear, shorts, and leotards:DSC_2775LR

There are two jewelry drawers (which right now are filled with precious plastics, heh):DSC_2782LR

There’s a tilt-out hamper with removable bag, and there are curved corner shelves for shoes:DSC_2783LR

And there are hanging racks (adjusted down really low right now) for everything else:DSC_2776LR

Everything is sturdy, solidly attached to the walls (when you have fearless climbers like Ro and Ree, you worry about this stuff), and easily adjustable for the future. Oh, and I bought a couple of rolling library stools (here are the White ones, and here are the Stainless Steel ones), which are just the ticket.

I might just go sneak into the closet right now and meditate a little. I can feel the smile starting already...

26 comments:

  1. LOOK AT THAT CLOSET!! That would be my new happy place too:)

    It is going to make picking Fashion Friday outfits a breeze with that kind of organization. They will get a full view of eveything before they make their final choices!

    Have a great week~

    xo,

    Lisa

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  2. Anonymous2/28/2011

    Neato!

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  3. Anonymous2/28/2011

    Gorgeous! Can't wait to see the whole room! So would you say it's just a little more than Home Depot or a lot more than Home Depot - would love to redo our closets. Thanks.

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  4. It was about a third more than HD, and the HD costs were just for pieces in boxes. We would have had to decide what in the world we wanted, design everything, go get it all, and then spend a huge amount of time to install it all. The Closets by Design lady took about 40 minutes to sketch out ideas for the space (which we ended up using almost exactly), and then it took two installers about 4 hours to install. No idea how many weekends it would have taken us...

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  5. Oh, and I should mention that you need to negotiate with the closet company.

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  6. Oh that is heaven! I would love that for my little one, right now she's taking up two closets on her own! Very smart move having someone install for you.

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  7. LOL! My favorite corner of my house is also the closet I just built for my soon-to-be daughter! I just want to live in it!

    It was a nasty old thing that I completely gutted, painted, then added a minute version of what you had installed, but I went the Home Depot route and doing it myself because it was a much smaller closet. I just put pictures on my blog, too!!! We must be sharing closet vibes or something.

    BTW, I leave for China on March 25.

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  8. That jewelry drawer is just precious!

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  9. oh i love your happy place... i want that happy place too!!!! my girls' closets are from 1972 (literally) and are always a mess becuase there is just no room for things--sighhhh someday... LOVED the jewelry drawer!!!!! i need to show this to my hubby!

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  10. we are major closet organizer people. We have NO dressers. Which is good, because only one of our bedrooms will fit a queen bed :)

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  11. What a closet! That is a happy place. When do you get one even better in your room? Think I'd figure out a way to put a chair in a corner...make a nice reading space.

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  12. They hang their own clothes?! That's it...I'm way to easy on my girls. Their racks are plenty low enough for them to hang. It sounds like a new chore just got invented! YEAH!

    Loving the closet, by the way. Congrats!

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  13. Anonymous3/01/2011

    AWESOME! And "precious plastics" made me giggle. xo

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  14. I am so jealous! We're finally in our new place and the closets are definitely sub-par. Still getting used to how small rooms are here compared to WA. I just don't know if I want to spend on a custom closet for a rental house.

    I'll bet the girls are tickled with their new digs. :)

    -Heather

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  15. Anonymous3/01/2011

    Hi M3 - thanks for the answer about Closets by Design vs. HD. Just wondering if you also checked out California Closets through Costco? Thanks, Cindy

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  16. That is so cool. So glad it made life easier for them to help out with the laundry.

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  17. Can I come live in that closet?? Wow, I just love it!

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  18. OH MY! I am speechless! That is about the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. I'm sure you can appreciate how much I can appreciate that closet.

    Am percolating with ideas now!

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  19. Wow! That's amazing and so fun!! Love, love, love how you can see everything and that the girls have taken to putting their own clothes away. I hadn't realized how methodical I was in putting toys away until I watched Hannah do the same. Such great things to teach our daughters.

    Great job and such a fun space!!

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  20. Hi, so this is COMPLETELY off topic, and I thought about searching your archives, but have no idea where to start...
    A while back, you bought a fabric bracelet-type thing to help stop one of the girls from thumbsucking... how did that work out for you? I found one on Etsy that I'm interested in, but wanted to get your opinion on it. Thanks!
    Kim

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  21. Hey Kim, we used the thumb-guard found here on etsy and it worked like a charm. We all loved that thing. You can see what I wrote about it here.

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  22. K: Congrats!!!!

    Mer: Yep, the "no dressers" thing is so wonderful. We all just love having every single piece of clothing right in the closet, and no big pieces of furniture out in the bedroom.

    Jennifer: We did a little bit of fixing in our closet at the same time, but it's not anywhere as spectacular as the twin closet. Still, the Closets by Design folks attacked ours too: added a massive island with shelves on both sides and a 6-drawer dresser to hold socks and stuff inside our closet, and as many hanging racks as we could fit. It's as good as it can get now...

    Cindy: We didn't check out the Costco ones, sorry! We did look at the closet options at Container Store and another big storables company (can't remember the name offhand) but hated the big metal racks that everything hung off of. It seemed rickety, completely non-twinproof, and kind of ugly to us. We far preferred the built-in look.

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  23. NICE! I will have to check out a set up like that for the closets in our new house. It could be just what we need.

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  24. Super! Thanks for the link!

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  25. Hey, guess what is happening in my closet right this very minute? Woo Hoo! So glad you shared your closet and your designer with us!

    Hmmm... wondering if this means I get to have a new wardrobe too.

    :)

    Donna

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  26. We're having a little girl. Can I please have your hand-me-downs? : )

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