COAT CLOSET MAKEOVER

Hello Friends!!!

This week's posting is about the tweak of our coat closet.

I did not have a before pic, so borrowed it.

There was nothing wrong with the closet. It was just plain boring. The coats were hung and the back packs and lunch bags on the floor.

When I told suggested that we {always address "we" when its your idea} do something inside the closet, he had the face that read "inside a coat closet? who is gonna look in?". But he knew that I already had some plan and he better just go along with me.

When he did not say anything, I added further that I will just paint and add some hooks for the bags.

My plan was to paint horizontal stripes on the wall....it was all over the Blogland. Stripes on the walls looked doable and loved the look. I had to try in a smaller space first, so coat closet it is.....

Few week before my plan, I had been to Lowe's to pick something, I walked past the "oops" bin in the paint aisle. I never find anything that I would want but that day there was just one 1 Quart of dark grey paint. I was not sure if I wanted it. Then saw the price: $2.50. SOLD. Will find something to do, if nothing then its just $2.50. 

Friday evening, I went and picked a gallon of white paint as my base color.

Saturday noon, I cleared the closet and started to paint it white. I did not bother to tape anywhere inside at this time.

Yes, I recruited Sanjan to paint the whole closet white. Talk about cheap labor.

Forgot to mention, I removed the switch plate too and covered it with tape.

He painted for exactly 3.28 mins. And he was done !!!

It took me an hour to paint 2 coats of white paint.
I decided that I did not want to paint above the shelf. So I measured the height from bottom of the shelf to the base of the floor. I added the base board too. It was 70.5" tall. And I wanted the top and bottom stripe to be white. So after some calculation (I might have taken help of someone at home at that time) I went with 6.5" thickness of each stripes, there would be 6 white and 5 grey stripes.

I used my leveler to mark off every 6.5" inches starting from the bottom of the shelf to the floor. I drew a small line with pencil on each wall, one on each side.

Start taping the wall with blue painter’s tape and connect your pencil markings to create taped off stripes. To keep each stripe 6.5" wide, alternate the sides on which the tape is placed. Since my base coat was white, I taped on the "inside" of each line where the white stripes would be, making sure that there would be 6.5" of wall space for each grey stripe. Once you are done taping, you will notice that one stripe is wider than the other. You need to paint the wider stripe. Once you remove the tape both areas will have the same width.

Make sure to press the tape firmly to the wall to seal it and to avoid bleeding of the paint.

Using a small roller I applied two even and thin coats of grey paint between the tape which was wider. Try to use as dry roller as possible to avoid the paint to bleed between the tapes.

Yes, accidents did happen. Since it was still taped, I painted over the accidents with my base coat.

This happens when you do not roll off the extra paint from the roller. But it was easy to paint over with the white paint.

Now was the fun part!!!! I was waiting to see the result.

Pull the tape off from every stripe as soon as the second coat is done. The paint will still be wet but if you wait for it to dry, the paint will start peeling and you will see uneven lines. 

Yes, Not all the stripes came even and crisp. The reasons was not sealing the tape firmly and using too much paint on the roller. I tried my best to touch up using a small paint brush.

I had picked these 2 hooks from Lowes for .66 cents each on clearance. On the left side of the closet, I screwed them, one for lunch bags and below for the backpacks. Now the guys had no reason to keep their bags on the floor. (The green lunch bag is mine from World Market).

I painted the wooden closet rod white. It did give a nice finish. We sorted and kept only few jackets. And couple of extra hangers for guest.

 

On the shelf, I had these two boxes from Ikea. One box has all the cables for the Camera, Camcorder, etc. The other one has blank CD/DVD's and empty cases.

Mr. Tweaks wanted to add couple more shelves below the coats but I was against it. I know who says no to extra storage space. But I did not need that storage as of then and we could always add if need be.

There was no space to hang my handbag. So as a temporary solution, I added these 3M removal hooks on the inside of the door. Will update when I change to something permanent.

It took 4 hours to complete this project.

Supplies:
Base paint.
Accent paint. It can be lighter or darker to the base color.
Small paint roller
Paint tray
Paint Brush
Painter's tape
Leveler

Cost breakdown for our closet:
White paint: $26 (I bought one gallon since I could use for any project in future. I used less than half a gallon)
Grey paint: $2.50 (Oops bin, used only half of the quart)
Big paint roller and Tray:$0 (I had them)
Small roller and tray : $3 (Walmart)
Paint brush: $0 (I had it)
Blue tape: $5 (Walmart)
Hooks :$1.32 (.66 cents Lowes)
Leveler:$0 (I had it)
TOTAL: $37.82

To compare the before and after. So you can avoid scrolling your mouse up.
Please feel free to post your comments.
I will be happy to answer any questions.

Thanks for visiting.
Reshma

Linking at: www.serenitynowblog.com
http://www.remodelaholic.com/2014/03/great-bathroom-makeovers/#