This project has a bit of a backstory and may encourage pack rat tendencies (sorry in advance!). Okay, so in December, I was working in a clientโs closet and realized that her clothes were so heavy they were pulling her shelves off of the wall. Luckily, Jarod is a handyman with design experience so I could help him replace the closet and transform it into a more efficient (and strong) space. You can see how bad it was pulling away from the wall, bowing, and needed to be completely replaced. We even realized when we pulled everything down that whoever put it up didnโt tie into the studs!!
Here is the design we put together. She had a ton of maxi dresses and shoes, so we made space for all of it (and made sure to add supports while tying into studs). It was a ton of fun (and stress at times) pulling out the old and putting in the new. Especially when we put all the clothes in and saw our color-coded closet completely finished! But the best part was that we had a lot of shelving that could be reused in smaller portions. It was too bent to be reused in this closet, but could turn into smaller shelves down the roadโฆ so we kept all that we could.
Fast forward a few months and now we are down the road! Jarod and I were talking about small things we could do to upgrade spaces in the house. We like to keep things inexpensive if possible and thought about projects we could do to reuse the closet shelving. The first priority was upgrading this utility closet. Since I moved into this house, this closet has been a very temporary mess of a space. Jarod made L-shaped shelves out of the extra wood so I could move all my cleaning supplies into one space. This leaves space for tall items like the vacuum and keeps supplies from being stuck in the back of a really deep shelf. The best part is, we only had to buy the brackets to hold the shelves up!
The next project we decided on is my vanity. I have had this beautiful antique vanity since I moved here, but it didnโt have enough light for me in my bedroom. Since itโs such a nice piece, I didnโt want to attach any lights to it. But I also didnโt want to attach anything to the wall that would make it hard to relocate the vanity. Our solution was to build one out of the closet shelving. I measured out the heights and widths I needed for a stool I already had and Jarod cut and assembled the pieces. We already had a mirror so Jarod hung that for me and I got some LED lights to put around it. These arenโt the permanent fix, but they work for now and look at my vanity!! Itโs so cute! The total cost was only about $20!
The moral of this story is: one manโs trash is another manโs treasure. It would have been easy for us to get rid of this shelving since it wasnโt able to be used in long stretches. Instead, we kept it and have already saved a lot of money on projects at the house. This isnโt to encourage you to keep everythingโฆ but some things can really save money and become something useful and beautiful. What โtrashโ have you reused lately? ๐ As always, if you take any fun pictures or videos, tag me on Instagram @SmileMakePeopleWonder and use the hashtag #DandelionSmiles. Donโt forget to subscribe so you wonโt miss out on the next exciting idea.
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