Master Bedroom Closet Expansion

You have no idea how excited I am to FINALLY have more closet space in our modest master bedroom from the 60's. The idea to figure out a way to carve more valuable closet space has been 15-years in the making. It took selling a piece of furniture and staring at the empty void for inspiration to strike. Today I'm sharing our Master Bedroom Closet Expansion and how we carved a small and narrow piece of real estate from our master bedroom to build a second closet.

As I mentioned above, our home was built in the 60's and the rooms are a modest size by today's standards. Especially lacking in homes of this era is adequate closet space. Our master had one closet with the traditional single rod running from end to end and one shelf above it. In dire need to maximize this space, we installed a double rod system a few years ago. It helped maximize the space but with two people sharing the closet, our clothing was squished like sardines.

Pictured below is the one and only closet...

As Mr. Frugalista's wardrobe has expanded for his job and mine for...ahem...we won't discuss that, using a small closet was no longer an option.

After giving the small bedroom hutch (pictured below) a Small Armoire Makeover too pretty for a bedroom and selling it, I kept pondering how we could convert the small 12-inch narrow space into another closet.

A few weekends ago I presented Mr. Frugalista with a scaled drawing of an idea that I had. Hearing the desperation in my voice construction immediately began.

A Master Bedroom Closet Expansion Using A 12-Inch Narrow Space 

Day One - Framing and Drywalling the new closet

By the end of Day One, we had this...

Day Two - Prepping the drywall for paint

By the end of Day Two, the drywall was taped, patched, sanded and ready for a fresh coat of paint.

Day Three - Paint, Trim, and New Closet Doors

By noon the closet had two coats of fresh paint. If you are wondering about the color it is Wedgewood Gray by Benjamin Moore HC-146.

Trim matching the existing closet was installed by mid afternoon.

Because of the narrow footprint of the closet and wanting to use all 12 valuable inches of depth, installing bi-fold doors was not an option. We did purchase bi-fold doors, that matched the ones on the existing closet, but instead of folding in the center we joined the doors together.

How we did that was by joining them together with the hinges that came with the bi-folds (and then stopping them from folding by installing metal brackets in four places across the joints (see picture below). The doors were hung with regular door hinges onto the frame.

Day Four - Installing shelves

Metal shelving uprights were installed on the back wall of the closet so the shelves could be adjustable. Sheets of 12" x 8" white melamine were used for the shelves. They were cut to fit the width of the closet and then ripped on the table saw to 10-inches deep.

Day Five - Organizing Day

Despite the shelves being only 10-inches deep, they are perfect for housing pants, t-shirts, sweaters, purses, and shoes in plastic shoe boxes. I'm thrilled with how much room is now in our existing closet for hanging clothing and how much space is available for folded clothing in the new closet. You can see in the photo below, there's room for more!

Day Six - Clothing Shopping

Now that there are empty hangers and shelves in both closets this is going to happen...

But first, with coffee in hand, I want to admire the little project that could but only took 15 years. One would never know there was only one closet in our master bedroom.

If you found our Master Bedroom Closet Expansion helpful, please share it with a friend and/or save it on Pinterest.

Considering we were on a roll, I gave Mr. Frugalista another scaled drawing of an idea I had for this room. He liked my idea and you can find it here on our Custom Built-In Window Seat and Bookcase post.

You will find this project shared at these fabulous Link Parties.

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Hot Beverage Caddy

I just love the interesting trinkets you can find while treasure diving at thrift stores.  During a recent visit I found this wood caddy for under $5.00 and thought it would make a perfect Hot Beverage Caddy for our kitchen coffee station.

I suspect it was a junior high student's Shop Class project and it made me feel sad that their hard work got tossed into the donation bin.  I'm menopausal, it doesn't take much to pull at my heartstrings!

Someone's got to appreciate the novice workmanship of this student and so I decided to be the one to rescue it and give it some rustic personality and charm.

I like having easy access to our hot beverages during the winter months and so this little caddy is perfect for our Coffee Station. Thank you whoever you are!

The How To's...

1. I painted the entire caddy with Graphite chalk paint.
2. I applied self-adhesive letters to spell out the words Coffee, Tea, Hot Chocolate in French.
3. I gave the entire caddy (except the inside) a whitewash of  Pure White.
4. Once the paint was dry to the touch I carefully removed the letters using a small craft knife.
5. Next I went over to the Graphics Fairy website and found this cute tea time graphic and printed it in black and white on my laser printer.
6. Carefully I cut around the graphic as close as possible.
7. Using Modge Podge Photo Transfer Medium (shown later in this post) and a sponge brush I applied a good coat over top the image.
8. I placed the image photo side onto the caddy and rubbed over it with a squeegee from the Modge Podge Tool Kit (it's a handy tool worth investing in and shown later in this post) but you could also use a brayer roller (shown later in this post) or good old fashion credit card (for obvious reasons, not shown later in this post).
9. After it was dry I dampened a white cloth and gently rubbed away the layers of paper until the image was clear.  Sometimes its best if you do a layer at a time and let the paper dry in between but that would require P A T I E N C E and that word just isn't a part of my vocabulary!
10. Once the last layer of paper was removed and the graphic was completely dry I went over the entire caddy with fine sandpaper to distress it.
11. I applied a coat of clear wax and gave it a good buffing (shown later in this post is my new favorite tool for buffing).

Handy Dandy Tools I Like To Use...

Modge Podge Photo Transfer Medium and Squeegee

Brayer Roller

This is my all time favorite new tool for buffing clear wax over chalk paint.  It cost me under $10.00 in the Shoe Department at Wal-Mart. They have a couple of brands available - both with horse hair bristles.

So next time you see something on the thrift store shelves that looks like a student made it in shop class, rescue it!

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DIY Blog To Watch In 2014 Award

I am so excited and honored to have been chosen as one of the Best DIY/Home Improvement Blogs to Watch in 2014 Award!

Congratulations to the winners and the finalists of the Best DIY/Home Improvement Blogs to Watch in 2014 Award! There is an unexplainable thrill of purchasing a house or renting an apartment.  An empty space, a blank page for you to decorate, create, and make your own.  It’s an exciting time that can help you turn a new house into your home, a chance for you to put your personality on display.  This feeling is not only in new houses either.  Maybe you want to rejuvenate an existing space or finally fill that blank wall in the dining room.  If you’re you’ve been in either or both of these positions before, you know about how expensive it can be to buy all new furniture and décor, and sometimes you don’t want to have that same bookshelf as the last house.

Well, here at CenterCityTeam we feel your excitement and we think you could use a few new ideas to get the house looking fresh!  We’ve received numerous submissions and sought out the best and most relevant websites in the DIY and Home Improvement communities for our clients and readers.  Our goal is to provide a comprehensive list, nominated by readers and staff, which will help our clients and partners glean the best DIY/Home Improvement information and advice on the web.  We’ve made the award for “Blogs to Watch” because we want to give our readers site’s that have made a visible commitment to excellence in 2014!

CenterCityTeam is a group of top Real Estate Agents who have served the Philadelphia community with honesty, integrity, and superior customer service since 2005. The CenterCityTeam real estate agents have received every top agent award that Prudential Fox & Roach offers and have been recognized as elite Real Estate Agents by Philadelphia Magazine. The CenterCityTeam founder Frank L. DeFazio, eats sleeps and breathes Philadelphia real estate and giving the sophisticated buyer or seller of real estate elite service is his passion.

We asked each of our winners to answer a few questions, below are their responses: (Posted after winners are announced)

-          How would you describe your blog to readers of our site?

-          What is your favorite room in your house? Why?

-          How do you stay current and come up with cool projects for your readers?

To see the Winners and their answer to the questions above visit:

www.centercityteam.com/diy-blogs-to-watch-in-2014

Thank you so much to the folks at Center City Real Estate for choosing The Interior Frugalista for this award!

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Queen Anne Headboard {thrifty find}

I fell in love with this Queen Anne headboard when I saw it at our local thrift store. I could see her potential for a pretty makeover.

Here she is before the makeover. Like what happens far too often, I get so excited to dive into my projects that I forget to take a BEFORE picture! You can sort of see her in the background in the picture below waiting patiently in line for her makeover...

Here's a close-up of her shabby chicness (is that a word?) goodness...

I painted her with Annie Sloan Chalkpaint™ in Provençe. I dry brushed Pure White over the trim details and sanded away some of the paint to reveal the pretty color underneath. After a coat of clear wax I gave it a coat of dark wax.  I just love how the dark wax deepens the color of the Provençe!

You can really see the beautiful sheen of the pure wax in this photo.

It can accommodate a Full/Double or Queen size bed frame.  

I wish I could keep her because she'd look amazing in our Guest Room but unfortunately the room is too small for a double bed.

Those of you who follow my blog have probably noticed I've been doing a lot of projects these days in Provençe. It's become my new favorite color. However, needing to expand my repertoire, my next project will be a different color - I promise!

THIS PROJECT WAS FEATURED AT:

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Kids Chalkboard Table {thrift makeover}

Oh my I had so much fun with this little makeover!

What I would have done with one of these when my kids were little. It's tempting not to keep it for grandchildren but I simply don't have any room to store it until then. Oh well, good excuse to makeover another one down the road.

You may remember seeing this table in my Queen Anne Table post and some of you said you were curious what I was going to do with it.  It was a battered well used kids table in need of some TLC.  You can see the little hands of it's former owner had loads of fun adding graffiti.

Then a wonderful friend pulled these from her storage shed and I was thrilled to receive them.

After some painted goodness, how cute are they now!  A perfect compliment to the table.

As soon as I saw the table at the thrift store I was inspired by the graffiti and knew I wanted to turn it into a fun chalkboard table. Now little hands are encouraged to have loads of fun creating art on it.

I'm having a tough time letting this one go.  I hope it brings many hours of fun to the little people who get her. Sadly it won't be my future grandchildren.

Thank you so much to the following for featuring this project:

                 

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Picture Frame Transformed Into A Tray

Let's start the week off with another thrift store find. Mr. Frugalista discovered this ornate picture frame on the thrift store shelf and when he brought it over to me I immediately had a vision of the picture frame transformed into a tray. Then I saw the price tag...sigh...more than I would normally spend. But I had thrift store fever and on a high from all the treasures we found, so before I came to my senses I had the cashier ring it up.

A fresh week...a clean slate...oh my what shall I create!

Someone took a lot of time creating that needlepoint. It's cute, a little stained, but no thank you. The oval double matt is a keeper for a future project and perhaps the needlepoint too. I knew with a little chalk paint the lovely details in the frame would pop.  

As I mentioned above, I kept the anti-glare glass and slipped a sheet of pretty scrapbook paper underneath. Can't get much easier than that.

The frame is painted with two coats of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in the color Provençe. Once dry I applied clear wax followed by dark wax making sure it rested in all the lovely details and wiped the excess with a lint-free rag. 

The cabinet pulls are ones that I had on hand but were white. I spray painted them in flat black and then rubbed Onyx bronzer to pick up the brown tones in the paper.

Here is a close up of the dark waxed details of the frame...

I think this scrapbook paper is so pretty and works so well with the Provençe.

It would look lovely on a bedroom dresser.

It was a hard decision parting with it but I was happy to see it sold as a surprise birthday gift from one sister to another.

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