Our Under $100 Closet System - IKEA Hack

Just before the baby was born last September I was in a panic to get a closet system in his room. (You can read all about that, here.) After that, the baby's closet was the nicest closet in the whole house and sometimes I would go in there, stand in the one room in the house that was organized, and bask in it's glory.

We bought our home as a foreclosure. That meant we had no appliances, no bathroom mirrors and absolutely, completely, empty closets. No rods for hanging, no shelves in the pantry, NADA! (I totally just said "Nada" in James Spader's voice from Pretty in Pink in my head)

That might not seem too overwhelming at first but there are 9 closets in this house and by the time we got done putting in all the appliances we normally take for granted and hanging mirrors so we could see to brush our teeth, the closets seemed really unimportant. Which is a shame because in the end they are so essential in the War on Clutter, especially in our oldest son's room. But we were tired so the only treatment our closets got was two of those triangle brackets that oh-so-handily hold a rod and a shelf at the same time. They are also efficient at taking up so much space that you can't put as many clothes on the rod as you should be to and you can only fit so many of them in a closet at a time. Then, you wind up with this...

Wow. That's actually really embarrassing. Now you know two things: 1) Someone besides the baby needs a closet system and 2) I need to wash clothes.

Here's the thing, the baby's closet system set us back $700. At the time my desperation, and possibly my hormones, clouded my judgement. But this time there was no way I was spending that much - especially since he has two closets.

I'd read some where on the web about someone using EasyClosets.com to design their closet and then using the plan/measurements to do it themselves. Bingo! (Actually, EasyClosets.com is a very affordable option and had we bought the baby's closet system from them we'd have probably saved some money!) But did we really have time for a DIY; to cut every piece of wood, pre-drill every hole and basically start from scratch? The answer is no for alot of reasons. Namely that I have way too many projects I want to do to spend an eternity on two closets and also because we'd probably never finish it. That's when I met Billy...

IKEA

Tall, white and Swedish. The man of my dreams...in terms of a semi-diy closet system. And he's cheap, too. We got four of these, two for each closet. Add some closet rods, some white shelving board and brackets, a small tweak to make Billy a little taller (see below) and you have a closet system for under 100 bucks per closet!

First we added a small mdf panel to the bottoms of each bookshelf to make the notch, already in the back of the bookshelf, fit over our molding.

Phew! Much better! Man, I love Billy!

Stay tuned for the Big Boy Room Makeover these closets go with. Coming Soon!

Cute Little Monsters ~ Day 23

You guys! I'm exhausted! The only day this weekend we got to be bed before 2 or 3 am was last night and I think I was comatose by 9 pm. You'd think after that and the 6 hour trip home I'd be rested but not so much. I think it must've been the shopping trip to IKEA that took it all out of me. But it was worth it!

Tomorrow is the week before Halloween and I've got some fun things in store so I'm going to need my rest. So, I leave you with a few pics of the cutest little monsters I know.

Child's Artwork Gallery Wall

I've been meaning to do this forever. I have saved every single piece of artwork my, almost, 8 year old has done since before preschool. There isn't a wall in the whole house that could hold it all at this point. It has gotten so out of hand I had no idea where to start.

He recently drew a collection of ninjas and a bad guy. That, coupled with my very first trip to an IKEA store, more on that monumental occasion later, sparked an idea. What better place to start than with the here and now. I vowed to get started as soon as I got home. My attic can only hold so much art and I'm too sentimental to throw any of it away.

I got four sets of these inexpensive, 3.99 for a set of 2, NYTTJA picture frames. I don't know about you, but I thought the NYTTJA frames just screamed NINJA pictures.

I used the clear plexiglass to trace around the picture. Then cut it out.

I placed each one in a frame and then laid them out on the floor until I had the pattern I wanted.

I put them on a wall in the hall just outside his bedroom using 3M Command Adhesive Strips. They make it super easy to rearrange or remove later. Plus, I like the look of the frames flush to the wall.

I feel like such a better Momma now!