Updating the craft room closet

Last weekend the sun came out for the first time in ages. The college students in town put on their swimsuits and binge drank to celebrate. Your Professors, on the other hand, enthusiastically set to work cleaning and updating our homes.

My weekend task was to deal with the craft room closet. This space was quite literally the first thing that I made a mess of upon arriving. Anything the movers didn't know what to do with I shoved in the closet. Then, as the months went by, I just shoved more and more things in the closet, since it was already beyond hope. 

By the end of winter it looked like this. You can see that there isn't really much in it (although I didn't photograph the piles of junk on the floor) because the space just wasn't well designed for what I need. 

I started by taking everything out an assessing the situation. Three hanging rods, two shelves, a dozen mismatched hooks, and three colors of paint (fun fact, this closet has been both pink and mint green in it's past). Since this is a craft room and not a bedroom, it was clear to me that what I really needed was shelving. 

To the lumber store I went in my little tiny Echo and asked the young man in the lumber yard to help me put my 8' board lengths in through the window. "I'll just hold them with one hand while I drive," I assured him. "I'm not going far." He mumbled something under his breath and wandered off. I drove home cautiously. 

At home, I unboxed the fancy miter saw my parents got me for Christmas and set it up in my basement. To make the 2 shelves I cut 6 lengths of 1x4 and 2 lengths of 1x10 and 2 lengths of 1x8. I screwed the 1x4 in place in the closet. 

The whole closet was already in need of paint, so I gave all of the trim and the new shelf joists a coat of high gloss white. I realized I never finished painting the closet floor, so I gave it a little touch up job, and pulled out the gallon of Antique White I've been using to hide a multitude of sins in this house to give the rest of the closet a once over. Then, I spent my evenings after work painting various pieces of shelving (1x8 and 1x10) in high gloss to match. 

I picked up a new chain pull for the overhead light so that it could be switched on (there wasn't one when I moved in, which is mind blowing because if you recall, this room was a chocolate brown cave-- so I can only assume that the girl living in this room was a mess at all times...) I replaced the hodge podge of various hooks and clips that had been mounted over the years with two matching coat hooks spaced perfectly for my ironing board (thanks pinterest) and put it all back together. 

I was able to put about twice as much stuff back in the closet as I initially took out and it still looks better than it did. 

Closet organization for the win. Who needs to binge drink in the sun anyway?