Closet Redo: The Home Stretch

I'm a bad wife -- I put my husband to work on Father's Day. (I made it up to him with the dinner he requested.) Saturday we built the tower. It's made with sanded plywood, MDF and wood veneer tape. I ran into some slight issues when I trimmed the veneer tape. In cutting off the excess, I bit into the wood in a few places -- oops! So I sanded those places smooth, and I'm calling this "technique" unintentional antiquing. Instead of a new-looking piece of furniture, this one has dings on the edges, just like if it was an older piece! Woo! (Lemons to lemonade, people... besides, it's in the closet, not the front hall.) I stained it and let it dry overnight, and this morning we moved it upstairs.
 
I scrubbed the scuffed paint in the back of the closet with a Magic Eraser. He suggested I might want to repaint the walls in there since everything was out, but I wasn't keen on that. The Magic Eraser worked as advertized and the scuffs and smudges are gone, and I didn't have to paint (huzzah!).

Blank slate, before I cleaned the walls.

I removed the strip of baseboard so the tower fits more snugly into the space and flush to the wall. We got it in the closet, put up the cleat to support the shelf, and went to put up the closet rod... and discovered that I miscalculated. The rods I got are too long. *sigh* He had to cut them down so I can still use them, because I'd really rather have metal than wooden rods. Since I already miscalculated once, we got the first rod up, hung stuff on it, measured measured measure, then hung the second rod. Once this closet is finished, I can look at the other one, and see about redesigning it, as well.

Baseboard removed

The edge of plywood isn't pretty, but veneer tape fixes that! Looking just at the edges, there's no difference
between the the plywood and the MDF shelves, because it's all got the veneer on it.

 I am just stupid-excited about this. I am not a girlie-girl. I don't have a massive shoe and purse collection. But for some reason, this project is just firing up both those Xs, and making me want to Squeee! with girlie anticipation. Maybe it will inspire me to embrace style and femininity in a way I haven't before. (But I'm not holding my breath...)

For the organization part, I put my hat boxes to the top shelf, which is high enough for me to need a step stool to reach. Since I don't wear my hats that often, not a big deal. I had a couple of baskets already, just the right size, that I used for socks, which are now mostly in laundry baskets because my sock drawer is full. (I have tons of socks!) I bought clear plastic shoe boxes to keep what shoes I do have dust free.

Both baskets contain socks. The shelf above the basket is purses
and hair things. The very top shelf is mainly hats.

Shoes!

Years ago, I made the handiest thing ever for organizing my barrettes, but it's too long and the material has yellowed, so I made new ones.

Just a strip of corduroy with a large split ring at the top --
the texture of the material grips the barrettes and holds them in place!

I used robe hooks to hang the new barrette strips. They fit neatly there in an otherwise unusable space; that wall they're on is only about 8 inches wide.

There's one more space in this closet that I'm customizing...

I'm going to add shelves to that awkward space below the barrettes and the jewelry board. Those shelves will hold my Orphanware™ pieces, and organize more jewelry. The space will be stylishly designed to both hold and display the pieces, making them an attractive feature that's more than just utilitarian.

So there it is! My nearly-completed closet redo! I'm so pleased with how it turned out, and plan to put even more thought into the other closet, and measure more meticulously. This was an excellent learning exercise.

UPDATE: Here's the rest of what I did with the closet.

    





















The shelves are supported by (and glued to) small cleats nailed to the drywall. Each shelf is a little narrower at the pointed end, so that the shelves sort of "fan out" as they go down the wall. I did this because I wanted the bottom shelves to be a little more visible and not be completely obscured by the shelves above. They're white so the focus is on the Orphanware™ and jewelry, not the shelves. It's a dark corner, having shelves anything but white would have been really dark and distracting. Penelope was my able assistant while I worked on this. I am insanely pleased with how it all turned out.

Orphanware™ - The Tutorial

Back in February, I posted about my glass and china project. More recently, I figured out a way to eliminate the scads of jewelry boxes I have and incorporating the sparkle of glass and the delicacy of china to both decorate and organize an awkward space in one of my closets. I can't claim that I came up with the idea on my own, I was inspired by something I saw at Martha Stewart online.

I suppose I've been putting way too much thought into it, as usual, but I've been trying to find the "just right" piece to go with the orphaned saucers and small plates. I really like my adaptation of using glass pieces with the saucers; it allows the beauty of the china to show (and is sparkly!). I've also been playing with stacking the pieces to make tiers, something I've seen on Etsy from quite a few sellers. Call it upcycling or repurposing, or whatever crafty buzzword you like, it's easy to do, inexpensive, and personal. If you do it yourself, you get exactly what you want, with pieces you found. I'm calling these sets Orphanware™* because I'm using single pieces from what was once a set (usually), even the glassware in many cases were single pieces. I don't like to take one piece from a pile, in case someone else comes along later, wanting to buy a set of the same pattern, but that's me.

There are probably tons of tutorials on the net for this, but I haven't seen them, so I'm doing my own since I have a bunch I'm about to start gluing anyway.

FIRST, gather your pieces. I don't recommend raiding your stash of family heirlooms, but hit the thrift stores - Goodwill, The Salvation Army, and Habitat for Humanity's ReStore are all excellent places for finding pieces, and you can also check The Thrift Shopper for other stores in your area. The nice thing is, many of these stores are charity organizations and by shopping there you're also doing some good in your neighborhood. Prices can vary widely, but plan on paying 50¢ to $1 for saucers and small plates, maybe $2-3 for glass particularly if it's lead crystal and the people pricing recognize it. If you're buying saucers, try to find glass pieces that fit inside the well for the cup (there may be a correct term for that, but I don't know it). Saucers are nice because you don't have to worry about centering anything like you might on a bread and butter plate. I also tried to find glassware that was compatible with the design on the plate. (Perhaps you're less obsessive than I...)

SECOND, soak 'em. Those price stickers are a pain in the butt. The best way to get them off, without leaving a bunch of glue behind, is to soak them in the sink in hot soapy water. Leave them in long enough and you'll probably find they slip off on their own. After they've soaked and you've gotten all the stickers off, wash your pieces carefully. Some of them may be antique or at least vintage, so scrubbing them isn't a good idea. They will need to be completely dry before you start gluing.

THIRD, assembly. I use E-6000 adhesive. It's industrial strength (literally) and stinky, but it works great. For some reason, the tube comes with warnings, but not directions, so save the cardboard that the tube was carded on. If you, like I, threw away the card, the link above has all the instructions you need. If you've never used it before, here's a word of caution, squeeze the tube veeeeerrrrry carefully. It keeps coming out of the metal tube even after you stop squeezing. Once glued, set the pieces aside, out of the way, where you won't be tempted to mess with them. Leave them be for at least 24 hours. If you're making tiered pieces, don't apply your second tier until the adhesive on the first one has cured.

So that's the basic process. Simple, eh? Here's the photos from this latest batch of Orphanware™

This saucer has light blue flowers, and the candle holder accents that.

Because the wire looped around the bottom, I had to use quite a bit of glue to make it enough to adhere to the plate. What's there in the photo wasn't enough - I had to add more. The glue in the center isn't functional, it's to scrape off the excess glue that kept coming out of the tube.

When you have something that's larger than the well in your saucer (or no well at all), you have to eyeball it, or get all anal and measure. It helps if there's a design to follow.

If what you're gluing is transparent, you can also look down inside to see if you're centered.

With no well, it can be tricky to get everything centered. This still needs adjusting.

This saucer has a design in the center of the well, and is too pretty to cover. The candlestick is the perfect way to use the dish, raise it up and make a small pedestalled dish.

The easiest way to do that, including making tiers, is to flip it over. Much easier to get it centered that way.

An example of both a well-fitting piece inside the saucer well, and the glassware complementing the china.

A saucer, a very small brass vase, and a butter plate, soon to be a tiered set.

I like to rotate the piece I'm gluing, to try and distribute the adhesive evenly. This will probably put glue where you don't want it, but once cured, the adhesive can be scraped away.

I did what I suggested you NOT do: I didn't wait for the first two pieces to cure before adding the third. (I'm impatient. Don't be me. Really.)

One reason not to be me, it's much harder to get things centered when you're craning your neck to see the bottom. Also, that brass vase wasn't completely level on top. I had to position the butter plate where I wanted it, tipping slightly forward. (Tipping to the side accents the fact that it's not a perfect vertical line.)

One of the hazards of gluing clear glass on an edge - you're bound to make a bit of a mess with the glue, smearing it inside, where you won't be able to scrape it off once the top piece is glued on.

One more example of pieces fitting well. The top of that candlestick fit perfectly into the bottom of the bowl. Also, the finish of both is a warm white, almost a bone color. Together, it nearly looks like they were always that way.

Other than jewelry or makeup organizers, what else can you do with these? Candy dishes, desk organizers, saucers on pedestals make cute individual cupcake plates... you could even take one plate/bowl combo and put some Easter grass in it with a decorated egg and make individual place settings for Easter brunch. My mom uses the one I have her to organize sweetener packets, and it's way cuter than the things sold for that purpose. This is so very easy to do, and the cost is so small, there's no reason for you not to play with this idea on your own.

* Yes, I am being facetious with the ™ on Orphanware. Because I can. Because it's silly.