The Happyish Homestead

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

My One And Only Linen Closet

Hi.

I know, I know.

It’s been three weeks.

My mom has made me pretty aware of that fact.

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So, in light of the new year, I’ve been working on purging and organizing.

Or maybe it’s nesting?

Anyway, as you might suspect, a house built in 1875 comes with a lot of things, but large or multiple closets is not one of them.

I have one large closet upstairs.

Which is mandatory.

Because our bathroom is this size.

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So it became the catchall for toys and bathroom stuff……and toys.

And it was yucky.

Dark and dingy.

And there’s like this gross particle board stuff happening.

So I took it all down.

And found 67 layers of wallpaper.

And quite a bit of soot.

{Thanks to an inspection when we first purchased the house we know there was a flue fire at some point.}

{But, no money or hidden treasures.}

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And underneath it all was the original rough hewn boards.

And, wait for it, a bead board ceiling!

I painted all the trim and ceiling white.

{After one dear friend came and helped take the wallpaper off the ceiling.  I mean, who wallpapers over wood?!}

I also decided to white wash the walls.

That way the grain of the wood would still show through but the orange of it was gone.

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I also re-did these canisters my friend picked up for me from IKEA.

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I painted them with some chalk board paint, Bryce drilled a hole in the top, and put on some drawer pulls.

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Painted trim, white washed walls, striped floor.

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With blue shelves.

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Stocked.

I know it looks pretty clutter-y, but all of the stuff was stashed in various rooms in various drawers.

And now it’s all in one tidy place.

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I had an extra ladder piece that I outfitted with some quilts.  They were on the bottom shelf in hall way where the books are and they were just neglected.

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One last thing.

That’s a vintage Kirby vacuum that I picked up at a garage sale this last summer for $10.

The belt broke and for Christmas Bryce replaced in for me.

And, guys,

it has a carpet shampoo attachment!

So, yeah, it’s pretty awesome.

The instruction manual has a nice looking lady in pearls and a dress carefully dumping the dirt onto some newspapers on her living room floor.

And I’m  wearing a stained shirt, huffing and puffing, encouraging yelling at Bennett to stay back while I empty the dirt on my living room floor using some papers I dug out of the recycling.

Yup, we’re kindred spirits.

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And one of the best parts?  I spent $2.50 on the whole thing.

{I also realized that I may or may not have a hand-embroidered-pillow-case-collecting-problem.  The struggle is real, people.} 

Katie

3 comments:

  1. I think it looks great...always cool to actually complete a project. I always start the year out with big plans to purge and reorganize, which is great but unfortunately never last long enough

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  2. I've been meaning to look at it. And your little baby girl is really going to appreciate all the work you did to prepare for her coming. I love the painted floor.

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