Under the stairs closet {revisited}

We have a closet under our stairs.  And it is a thorn in my side.  Seriously.

Don’t get me wrong, it is great space and provides great storage.  BUT {you knew there would be a but, didn’t you}, it’s just an odd space.  It’s deep, but not very wide at all.  And it houses our humongo water heater in the back {one day when we win the lottery, we’ll upgrade to a Rinnai tankless water heater}. 

Back in January, I decided to take the reigns on this space and give a good clean out.  You can see that makeover in this post.

But, that didn’t last for long and our needs have changed.  So the closet needs to change.

Right when we got back from our trip out west, I thought it would be a great time to clean out the closet again and reassess it’s function {what on Earth was I thinking?!?}.

      

Before, this closet had 3 white shelves that housed extra kitchen stuff {crock pot, electric kettle, fish grilling rack, panini press, etc}, all my craft supplies {organized in those $1 clear shoe boxes}, and my ribbon cart.  Oh….and the stupid dog cage.  We also had a clear shoe organizer on the back of the door since we can’t keep our shoes laying around anymore {Emily loves to chew on the rubber on the bottom of shoes.  She’s disgusting}.

This space drove me nuts, Everything was blocked by the dog cage.  If I ever wanted to get to my craft stuff, I had to scoot the dog cage out, go in, get out my boxes, put the dog cage back in.  Lordy!  It was just not functioning that well.  Not to mention, it was UGLY!  And since the dogs stay in there a lot, the door was open most of the time and this is the first thing  you see when you walk in the front door.  Not working for me AT ALL!

So, I cleared everything out.

Then, while Emily was napping, I had the bright idea to use some leftover paint from our half bath to paint the inside of the closet.

  

I just love that color blue! 

But the water heater still bothered me!!  While I was in TJ Maxx one day, I saw a really cute vinyl tablecloth for $5!  I thought the blue in it matched the blue on the wall perfectly and I figured I could sew a little curtain to go in front of the water heater.  So I did.

So much better already!  It was looking so pretty that I really didn’t want to “junk” it up by putting all that stuff back in there.  So I got rid of a lot of the stuff I don’t need or don’t use anymore {I even sold one of my stainless canister sets on Craigslist!  Gotta love Mr. Craig and his list!}

As much as I didn’t want to “junk” it up, I still needed it to be functional.  Our home doesn’t have a ton of storage.  In fact, there are no other storage type “closets” except for this one.  So I really had to make the best use of this space.

So….back in went 2 of the shelves and the dog cage.  The 2 shelves hold those extra kitchen appliances, bottles that Emily doesn’t use anymore, reusable Publix bags {not pictured}, and our picnic basket {also not pictured}.

But, at least I feel better about it being “prettier”.  I even added some artwork I found from Eighteen 25!

And I got rid of the clear shoe holder and upgraded to a nice Michael Graves Designs one from Target.  I had a 20% off coupon for it!

So, I feel better about the space.  It’s still not exactly how I want it to be, but I’m really trying to work with what I have on hand with a lot of the different projects I have going on around the house.  I think it’s a definite upgrade! 

Have you “spruced” up any of your spaces lately?

xoxo,

Amy

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Misc:  Best DIY Project @ Beneath My Heart