Monday, February 29, 2016

Master Closet BEFORE & AFTER

I enjoy Before and After series a lot, and so I had to do this with my latest project!

I definitely can't complain about my BAG STORAGE now!



No more unused space all the way to the top



Storage boxes are definitely nicer now as well as the pants organizer

I LOVE this nook NOW!

Yup, an O-C's dream ;-)

Good-bye wire shelving forever and hello nice cabinetry and Valet rod!
Looking at this I still can't believe it sometimes that it's the same space! And if your thinking of re-doing your closet, a big 'YES' it is definitely DOABLE!!!!


VEL 

Thursday, February 25, 2016

Guide to Building your own Closet using the IKEA PAX SYSTEM- Design Details Master Closet Part 1

Thank you so very much for your positive and very sweet comments about our Master Closet Project Reveal! Validation from you guys, is truly something I appreciate, seek, and count on, so thank you.

And as I mentioned before I will go into details about the closet on different posts. And since there are a lot, I want to do a short series on it.

Today, I will be discussing the IKEA PAX system itself. And although I have mostly raves about it, there some things I need to go into further detail with you.

1) Colors


We chose and combined the  WHITE STAINED OAK cabinetry with the WHITE shelves and drawers, except for the very top shelf.

These are the 3 available finishes from IKEA
I wanted our cabinetry to look unique and custom, and you can do that more  by combining the colors. Plus, the shelves and organizers are easily seen more against a white back drop and the handles too that  I bought from Cool Knobs and Pulls...



2) Width,  Height & Depth

One of the challenges in using the PAX system was making it fit in our existing space. The Pax system came in 3 widths :

IKEA PAX WIDTHS
2 Heights:

IKEA PAX HEIGHTS
2 Depths:

IKEA PAX DEPTHS
For the size of our closet, we ended up using a total of 5 of the 29" cabinets, 2 of the 19", all in the 93" height and 22" depth, except for one cabinet, the shoe cabinet...

19" W x 93" H x 13" D
We also used 2 of the Corner cabinets which btw, can be used for both depths of cabinets but will end up not being flushed against the wall if you use it with the 22" cabinet. Here's what I mean...

Space between the wall and the corner cabinet behind to make it ....

...Almost seamless transition between cabinets
We ended up anchoring the corner cabinet differently from the rest.  And also had to remove the baseboards  on our walls to make the other cabinet flushed on the walls, to again, anchor them in. My husband used L-brackets I think to anchor the cabinets and did not use the one IKEA provided.

And again, it was not a perfect fit, at all, remember Wall E in the original Master Closet Plan ?

Just to refresh your memory

We could not fit another corner cabinet here so we ended up using the 29" and the 19" together...


The mirror door served 2 purposes really - 1) For checking my self out , normal mirror purpose and 2) creating the illusion that the Dress Cabinet was a continues space and not blocked by the shoe cabinet!

Lastly, on my hubs side, there was really not enough space for the cabinets on Wall A, so it ended up looking like this...

Not obvious really, but the arrow shows how the cabinet protrude vs. the corner cabinet
I think in the end, we were just very lucky indeed everything fell into place and looked almost seamless, unless you really do look closely. ;-)

3) Interior Organizers

There's a whole gamut of Interior Organizers you can use on the PAX  system. You can see them HERE.

 For our closet, we used only the Komplement Drawers, Glass and wood shelves, rods and valet hanger and pull-out hangers,There are wire basket drawer options too, and although you can see thru them, I just think it didn't go with the look I was going for.



4) IKEA PAX system ONLINE PLANNER

I can't say enough good things about the PAX system online planner. It is no way near perfect, but after toying with other online planners out there (well, I just tried Home Decorators program), this one is fairly easy.

You start HERE
You can play around with the angles of your space  and personalize the interior organizers by clicking on the cabinets you add (I used cabinets for hinge doors)

Here's what the page looks like
Check all the plans I made HERE
And most importantly don't forget to SAVE YOUR WORK!

5) Adding Yummy Details

Aside from the handles I added on the drawers...

Swirled Agate Knob from Anthropologie

....you can easily customize the cabinets with wallpaper or Gift wrapper (for backing and lining)


I used 3 kinds of gold and white wrapping paper
... I even used Washi tape!
Like the gold foil tape I added to my shoe shelves
... and even painting them if you don't like the colors available!

6) Lighting

One of the reasons why I think our closet looks so good (pardon my boastfulness), is because of lighting! I mean think of it, how many of our closets have great lighting other than those ceiling lights out there.

Ikea has thought of this and we chose the Striberg lighting for our cabinets which comes in 5 lengths.
Striberg Lighting can be mounted this way too
We opted to mount the lighting directly unto the cabinetry
This photo was taken with just the Striberg Lighting ON in the closet
Here are other Lighting options to consider from IKEA
And since we wanted to use the space above the cabinet badly for seasonal clothing and more of my bags (yikes!), we did not add any of the other lighting options above!

Hew! That's a lot of details right? I hope it helps anyone planning on re-doing their closets!

Anyway, join me next time on this Closet Saga as I tackle one of my favorite things to do - ORGANIZATION!


Have a Great Weekend!

How we got here...
The Master Closet Reveal




VEL


 Would love to hear your thoughts! Please share away...


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Sunday, February 21, 2016

Master Closet Reveal - The Best Valentine's Gift EVER

We're finally ready to show to you the fruit of our labor! I will let the pictures do most of the talking and will go into details later on on different posts....

Our Master Closet Suite

The same angle BEFORE
Let's start with MY SIDE of the Closet shall we?

My Small Jewelry Vanity

Chose this Capiz Scalloped Chandelier from Serena & Lily
among the Lighting Options I was contemplating on HERE

Used a Brass Floral Wall Decor for my Long necklaces a friend of mine gave me
Finally, the Purse Display I've always wanted
Pull out shelves for my special bags

Pull out shelf for my clutches, wallets and scarves

The drawers on the bottom all contain my other bags too!
Will share them with you later on

A space for everything - Love the IKEA PAX system, truly!
Pull-out-shelves too for my folded sweaters
Lots of drawers is always a big PLUS! I'm in love with the these Amber Gold Bar pulls
Something pretty atop my small dresser

A place for all my dresses and travel bags 
Long mirror hides more goodness for moi...

...my shoes!
Now on to HIS SIDE of the closet...

Neat and organized

Just like my side, a place for everything, though obviously, I added this small show shelf for some of his dress shoes

I rolled up his ties and ended up with room for so much more!
Ample storage all the way of the ceiling was also realized with this closet and I LOVE IT!
I would like to give a big 'THANK YOU' to my husband who did most of the hard work in building all this! I also need to thank my Father-in-law who helped him do this too. All the after-work effort truly paid off hon, this is truly your 'best Valentines gift' yet!

There is so much to share about our closet and ways on how you can organize yours, so I hope you come back and check out the details on a later post!Of course the main star of this project is the IKEA PAX SYSTEM itself. And though IKEA in no way sponsored this post, I am happy to give them a huge shout out as well! Our closet doesn't only look good, it's very, very functional and organized, I'm sure you will be able to get some ideas from it.

I am truly, truly inlove with this new space. It is not fully done yet (and you'll see why later on too), but already, it has made life so much easier for us (yup, no more searching endlessly for things I cannot find, for me or for him ;-)). I feel too that it also exudes a little bit more luxury in my life when I do dress up!

Well, I hope you enjoyed this closet project of ours. I placed all the LINKS of all the posts regarding the closet at the bottom, so check it out if you missed any. And like I said, expect more DETAILS in the coming days ahead! I hope you won't get 'closet overload' from me!

Smiling for 2 reasons - what's behind me and what's
in front of me!!!

How we got here...


Have a Great Week!


VEL