Easy Closet Makeover

When we were first married, we lived with Rob's grandparents in the upstairs of their farmhouse. I think the entire family would agree that one of of the worst features of their house is the lack of an entryway. The door opens right into the "one-butt" kitchen (as its 92 year old owner is fond of saying). There is no room for shoes, coats, or any other item it may be nice to have handy.

So, when we bought our house, I was pretty excited about the mudroom and to not to have to store all outerwear and my shoe collection (quite large because I buy almost all at $10 or less...) in the bedroom closet or somewhere equally inconvenient. I thought it was serving us pretty well until this past fall when I pulled out all our winter gear and started the annual purging/reorganizing. To make things easier, I had the curtains down. I began to realize how they were kind of a nuisance, though, admittedly not as bad as the dumb sliding closet doors I removed the first weekend we were here. (The whole idea of those doors is so silly. Half of the closet is always hidden!) Obviously doors, and curtains, hide messiness though so I needed a plan. With so many different surfaces, I decided it just might work to paint it all black. So I did.

I learned painting with black paint is harder than it seems. Painting closet shelves and rods is hard too. It was definitely worth it though! The collection of old wooden crates helps too of course. :-) I'm pretty much in love with the little tags I created after not being able to find any kind of free printable that was just right.