When Janet Lee first moved into her tiny studio apartment, it was a blank box of white walls and neutral parquet floors. As a renter, she wasn't able to add any actual architectural details for visual interest, so she faked the look by bringing plenty of depth to her bland folding closet doors, creating an inexpensive and removable solution that anyone can do at home.
Filing cabinets are definitely making a comeback. You can find them at garage sales, flea markets, craigslist, and all sorts of secondhand places. I am partial to the larger catalog-style cabinets that are loaded with drawer space and this makeover definitely caught my eye!
I have an 8 year old little boy and his closet needed a serious makeover. The long list of problems was clear. Let's start with the air conditioning duct that went from the attic unit to the main floor. It had sharp edges. Kid friendly... nope. We had stained wall paper, badly painted built-ins, and cracked plaster walls. Here is how the closet looks today.
I'm sure you've seen the cool potato sack-esque storage bags circulating around the web. They're a practical storage solution for kids rooms and other spots around the house. This simple update looks fantastic and has me ready to grab the ol' paintbrush!
I have an 18 inch wide pantry and this is how it has looked lately. We moved into our house with big dreams of a future kitchen renovation but until then, we must function out of very little storage. This pantry will some day be gone so I have no desire to spend tons of time and money modifying it to awesomeness. I honestly don't think it could get there anyway. My goal was to go to the store, grab some storage solutions and bring myself home the things that will make my pantry more usable.
The inside of the Curbly House has received a whole lot of love over the last couple years, while the backyard has been ignored with a capital "I".
We partnered with Lowe's to make some small improvements to the backyard and ended up with a mini makeover that improved the area tenfold. Read on for all the details.
When we moved into the Curbly house, the yard was overgrown, neglected, and not a space anyone wanted to spend any time. These traits coupled with months of major construction (that involved lots of heavy machinery), left our yard a hot, jungle-y mess.
In the jungle, the mighty jungle.
Our house borders our alleyway, and we are fenceless, which means our entire backyard is on display as our neighbors exit and enter their homes each day. While many of them have been kind and patient as we've worked to improve our house, the eyesore that is our backyard is hard to overlook.
As much as I wish I was a person who didn't care about the look of the yard, I am, and coming up with a solution to its many problems has been quite the conundrum. I knew we needed to make some improvements to the yard for the sake of aesthetics, function, and my piece of mind.
In addition to being unsightly, a major thing we were lacking in our backyard is a proper garage. While a place to store our vehicles would be nice, we desperately needed a place to store all of our outdoor tools, bikes, strollers, and equipment. Since our future round of home improvements includes a new garage, we decided a garden shed was the ticket, because it would dramatically improve our storage situation.
We selected a modest sized (6x9 foot) cedar garden shed that we ordered directly from Lowes.com (it's the Cedarshed Rancher 6x9 model). We chose a panelized shed, which means it comes flat-packed on a pallet and you just screw it together. Delivery was $80 and they left it right in the back yard:
Next, we set to work planning out the best way to use it in our yard. We decided to place it in the southwest corner of our yard, where an old garage once sat (we discovered the old foundation as we prepared the space). We decided on this corner because it helped balance out the yard and was an easy area for us to access.
Prior to building the shed, Bruno poured a concrete slab with help from a friend and a modest cement delivery. While you can place sheds like this on a variety of foundations (wood, poured cement footings, etc.) we decided to go with a solid concrete slab, for the sake of longevity.
Brush cleared, we prepared the concrete molds and got ready to pour!
The shed arrived prefabricated, and our charge was to puzzle the pieces together with the help of a lengthy instruction manual. Assembling the shed was a great adventure, but the quality of the pieces was outstanding, making it easy to work with. All told, the shed was put together in a day. We had two people working on it at all times, which made the process of piecing it together more efficient.
Once the shed was together, we added a few plants around it (we purchased a few and transplanted several from the overgrown garden area of the yard). We then created a walkway from our house to the shed using mulch flanked with limestone leftover from a foundation wall that we removed during our addition.
The result is a back yard we're no longer afraid to look at. Have a look!
Our plantings were mostly moved from other spots in the back yard. They should fill in a little more next spring.
And here's a shot with the doors open to give you a sense for what we're able to fit inside (remember this is a 6'x9' shed):
That's three adult bikes, one child tag-along bike, two kids' bikes, a snow blower, a bike trailer, a weed whacker, and some other assorted stuff. Plus room to spare!
Since we didn't use the cedar floor system that comes with the shed, Bruno decided to re-purpose the lumber. He built this handy little tool storage locker on the alley side of the shed:
Not entirely beautiful, but it gets all those tall yard tools out of the way nicely.
We're choosing not to stain or seal our shed. The cedar will weather over time and take on a grayish/silver appearance, which we like 'cause it'll match the color of our house!
So if you're short on storage space and have room in your yard, I'd strongly recommend you look at adding a shed. It's pretty easy to do, and has a huge impact on the yard. Now I'm off to do some gardening!
Thanks to Lowe's for sponsoring this post. All opinions are mine alone.
The thing about older houses is: their quirks and charms aren't always functional. A tucked away, sloped-ceiling closet with an awkward layout just wasn't cutting it for these homeowners. So, with some hard work and a creative eye, they transformed this space into a beautiful and oh-so-functional master closet.
This closet started out like almost any other closet... with a jumble of clothing hanging on mismatched hangers, and heaps of random household items in messy piles. But with some vision and determination, it has been completely transformed into a colorful, organized craft closet with a dedicated spot for every tool.
This was your typical messy closet. Ugly storage, lots of cords, and not much organization. But once Tricia got her hands on it, the space was transformed into a functional and stunning office inside of a closet. Click through to see the unbelievable transformation.
Spruce up a plain basket with a fun, painted pattern and hand-stitched embellishments! It's an easy, inexpensive way to add a pop of personality to your home, while providing a simple solution for storing blankets and textiles.
Closet doors are often an over-looked part of the room. If you're renting, there's not much you can do to give them a custom look. Until now. These doors got a luxurious makeover with a little gold washi tape!
Four upper cabinets: that's all* the storage this small kitchen had when Molly from Almost Makes Perfect moved in. As she puts it, "I don't know who these people are that only need four cabinets, but I am not them people". See her DIY storage solution below!
I have to admit, I love the fireplace in this living room's before, but with nothing else in the room, it doesn't feel like much of a feature. Luckily, with a big DIY project and some of the owners personal items that problem is fixed in a flash. Curious to see this makeover? Click through to check it out.
I don't know about you, but I tend not to organize anything that can be hidden behind closed doors. But when it comes to a home office, organization can boost productivity and simplify daily tasks. This closet makeover is the perfect example; continue reading to see the dramatic transformation.
I've been teasing you all month long and the time has finally come for my big office makeover reveal! Are you ready for this?!? I sure hope so.