I thought I’d drop in to share a silly little update that made me feel oh so much better when it comes to maintaining our home. Older homes are definitely short on storage and because of that, we decided to add a closet. But let me back up a moment because there’s a reason things sometimes happen in stages in making a house, a home. This one has been an adventure for sure. Creating storage in the home!
Sometimes when I see our basement, I have to pinch myself to remember that once upon a time, it looked like this. We’ve come such a long way with the entire thing.
In the beginning, the corner of our basement on the other side of these doors, looked like this. We went tankless when it comes to hot water heaters, amongst other things, and this little corner it served as our laundry corner for years. We weren’t even able to finish this garage into a basement for the first eighteen months that we lived here {yay codes!} and this is where I did my laundry… giant spiders and all. It was a dark time. #champagneprobs
Now, I’m THRILLED that it looks like this. Because when your home is short on storage, you build some. When you’re finally able to get around to it, that is.
After we completed our addition last year, we no longer had a need for this corner as a laundry area. I promise once upon a time, it was cute. But then things were moved. So everything {even our fridge} was relocated upstairs. And this little corner was a little chaotic. It looked like this for a while. Keeping it real, it was a total catch-all. We had ordered our doors, but that’s where it stopped… since we had bigger things to attend to.
Our actual completed laundry room + butler’s pantry will be shared oh so soon. But in the meantime, it’s the little things… like a new closet in the house and an more space, that are making me swoon. One day you’re young and cute and loving life and the next you’re super excited about an actual laundry room and closet combo that are kind of rocking your world after waiting so long. {Listen, we’re still just thrilled to have a tub.}
Since we’d recently redone all the floors in the house, this was the last remaining dark finish left, before we completed the closet. We didn’t have them finito last year, because we knew we wanted a closet here, we just weren’t prepared to tackle it yet with everything else we had going on. It was so satisfying to see all this finally go. Below, is the view of our new addition to the left of the kitchen. Check out a pretty cohesive home tour here if you’re curious, but you can see a sneak peek of our laundry space here.
I often joke that my office feels like a mini cave… so here’s the view from the other side, facing out. It’s just so nice that now, instead of seeing chaos I spy a succinctly soothing space with places for my eye to rest. I’m even in love with the stairs.
I loved going with double doors to make closet easily accessible with all things door swing. It looks like it’s always been here. You’d never know it was a scary corner before! My fave are the simple doorknobs to give it a little character.
To keep things easy, we slid our old bookshelf right inside. There, it holds ALL THE THINGS that were plaguing my office floor.
This is probably the least glamorous closet of all time, but I’m thrilled to have my office back {as you’ll see below}. I’d struggled to find a spot for client samples, camera gear, a few styling elements, and cleaning supplies in the past. But now… here we are. It’s kind of a hidden catch all… and I kind of think every house needs one. ESPECIALLY if you work from home like us.
{If you’re curious, these corners of the home are also the most difficult to photograph. But I’m so grateful to have it, we thought we’d share.} We used rolling bins so things can be easily moved to access the rest of the closet, and organizing pouches on the rest of the walls, so that the entire thing is easily accessed as needed. We have our water access behind the first wall, and it just made sense to keep it accessible.
But this way, everything is up and out of the way. Before when you walked in, it was all things laundry with all our larger cleaning supplies. Our friends always use our side entrance, and it always pained me that chaos was the first thing they spied when walking in. So while we knew we had plans for the future, we’d lived like this for a really long time. I hated the feeling of visual clutter when it came to our essentials. This helps everything so much.
As you may remember, here is my study / office before. We’d added built ins for much needed storage, to hold art supplies, samples and more. Basically, all the things. The electrical was located here, as well as the entrance to the crawlspace. We remedied both by moving them over, and building around them. We now have a main entrance to the crawlspace from the outside. It was freaking me out until I got used to the whole thing.
It feels so fresh and clean now! And it’s going to stay that way sohelpmejehoshaphat.
But here’s a shot I took of said office, before completing the closet. It was overwhelmed with samples. I know this is a hazard of the job but I didn’t even know what I had to pull from because chaos. This closet finally gave me a space for that. I feel like I can breathe again, and I’m not constantly apologizing for the state of this space when guests arrive. I can also work here easily now. My little cave is definitely more inviting and simplified now.
I do still love my desk, so when we decided on the parameters of this space, it made sense to build around it. The tower-like shelves on each side have been perfect to corral things for so long… but it just wasn’t enough for all those larger pieces.
And here’s the bookshelf after a quick refresh. I didn’t spend much time styling, as you can probably tell… it’s high functioning down here which is honestly all that matters at the moment. So between this space and the pool room {the makeshift studio where I take on my favorite stained glass projects + paintings} our house works hard for both of us working at home.
Since I removed the secondary bookshelf to be functional in our closet, I loved finding a space for one of my favorite pieces ever. I have a few of those from our first home that I will never part with. This piece now holds two of my paintings, and a model home our oldest built in his architecture class last year. Can you tell I’m proud? I just thought the piece was so cool and I knew it belonged in said office. This area will now be a rotating space for all things art display on a whim, I’m sure.
Here’s one more view of my office… with the lights off, I think you can tell what I mean by cave. At least it’s cute? Still LOVING all my Kichler lights down here, by the way. They really add so much warmth.
Here’s a glimpse at that wall to the left of the barn doors downstairs, now that the fridge is relocated upstairs. You may notice our old table from our entryway upstairs, as well. It’s perfect to hold all the things, right next to the hall tree.
See the original tour of this side of the room, here.
Oh, and this is still one of my fave flea market finds. The other side holds favorite art from them.
So our basement FINALLY feels complete, and so nicely cleaned up after waiting years to finish it off! The closet just really finished everything. Can’t wait to share the new laundry room with you guys. It has been a slow burn in between clients {and more on that coming soon, as well} and real life. A true testament to creating space in your home, if you don’t already have it… I love that we were able to finish this off. Bye 1976 storage. Hello 2023.
Rigby and Fitz were happy to watch while I finished off this little shoot… though at the end, Fitz was pretty bored. This view into the kitchen area makes me happy.
Thank you so much for dropping by today. What are some ways you’ve created storage in your home? We’d love to hear. Have an inspired day!
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