Making the MOST of a small Master Closet {our home}

One of the features I was not the biggest fan of on the floorplan of our new home was the master closet... which is REALLY important when you LOVE to shop like I do!  Not only was it small, but since it faces the fron of the house it has two huge windows.  We knew this would be the FIRST project to tackle before we moved in, which meant it had to be done really quick.

The first step was to have the builders leave out the MDF shelving and rod system so we would not have to demo and destroy the walls.  Thankfully, the builders agreed to leave it out in the master closet and redistribute the materials and labor into the two secondary bedroom closets in a custom layout that I provided... so SWEET!

Secondly, we had to deal with the windows.  We agreed that the closet would never be functional for us with the windows exposed, so we decided to buy blinds (that remain closed all the time) and then find a system to hide the windows so no one could ever tell from the inside or out.  We bought custom blinds for all the other windows in the house, but we couldn't wait in the master closet, so we just bought some from Home Depot and they blend just find with all the rest.

We decided to use IKEA's PAX Storage system since we could buy it right off the shelf to fit our short time frame and the sizings worked really well with the size of our closet... and it was affordable!  We chose white to keep it light since it is a tight space and tried to maximize every inch of the space.  IKEA has an online planner system that you can use with the PAX system which was awesome for drafting ideas and coming to a final decision.  It only took two trips to IKEA to buy everything ... and lots of hours to install it since it does come in pieces.  The end product was well worth it and we'd do it again in a heart beat.

Secondary closets with custom buildouts per our request.... much better storage for the kids!

Out of focus picture, but hopefully shows how long and thin the closet layout is.

We loved the optional drawers and particularly the roll-out pants heangers.... of course I have WAY to many pants and need an additional drawer just to fit all of mine.  NOTE:  I did get rid of ALOT of clothes to make it all fit :)  It was still a downsize overall.

LOVE that now I can display my shoes and I actually wear them now that I can see them and don't have to climb a ladder to get to them.

We found some extra space on Paul's end of the closet to put clothes hampers.  The one downfall of the system was it did not have any built-in options for a clothes hamper.

Reed's Baby Birth Print

I was lucky enough to have the ability to take a whole week away from work and spend a long vacation in Los Angeles for the birth of my precious nephew Reed!  While there, I wanted to help decorate the baby room and started looking on Pinterest and Etsy for inspiration.  I came across theses and decided it would be perfect. 

 http://www.etsy.com/listing/87515824/personalized-boys-nursery-art-print-car?ref=sr_gallery_34&ga_search_query=baby+birth+print&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_ship_to=ZZ&ga_min=0&ga_max=0&ga_search_type=all

 http://www.etsy.com/listing/97200298/custom-birth-announcement-11x14-nursery?ref=sr_gallery_19&ga_search_query=baby+birth+print&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_ship_to=ZZ&ga_min=0&ga_max=0&ga_search_type=all

With earthquakes being so frequent, literally no pictures are on the walls in my sister's house and particularly not near where the kids frequent... so I needed something light weight and kid-friendly should an earthquake occur and this idea fit the need.

I purchased all the supplies from Michael's:

Canvas Board 18" x 24"

Paint (see photo below)

Paint Brushes (variety of sizes based on stencils)

Stencils (variety, I used 5 different packs which ended up being the most costly items)

I had also bought these mdf letters of his name for another project and ended up tracing them for his name because the font was so cute and fit perfect across the canvas.

I traced everything out before painting anything.  There really wasn't much opportunity to mess up, so I wanted to figure it all out before I painted anything.

Simple acrylic craft paint worked great and these were on sale for $0.29 a piece!

The stencils can get expensive and you are limited to what you can find at the craft store.  I ended up having to go back to find a package with large numbers... check the package carefully to make sure it has more than just letters.

LOTS and LOTS of time painting!

Final product... now it just needs to be hung on the wall!