Small Space Living- Living Room Closet

I know, a living room closet sounds strange, but if you live in a small space it totally makes sense. Our apartment is so small that basically the office, kitchen, pantry, living room, craft room are all in the same place. With such limited space I've had to get creative with storage and decor.

moving day! august 2011

Last week I showed you my biggest trick when I went through the bedroom closet- purging. Today I went to go drop off my massive box of donations at the Goodwill and of course go look through the lovely aisles of treasures. Don't worry, I actually had a to-get list to keep me from buying back a bunch of stuff to replace what i had just purged.

I'll come back to Goodwill in a minute, but lets go back to over a year ago when we first moved into this apartment. I LOVE this little home. It's so perfect for two newlyweds! It's just not easy on the storage.

Technically the apartment only has one closet-the walkin in the bedroom- but with that all full of clothes and linens we needed somewhere else to store things.

The above pic is from the day we moved in. See the back wall in that picture? There is a small space, about the width of a desk, between the fireplace and the outer wall. The spot was meant for a table and a desk-but I envisioned more storage. At first I just piled things in that corner while we moved in and i contemplated what in the world to do with that spot. Fill it with book shelves? No, I didn't want to SEE all my stuff-gotta make it cute! Install closet doors? no that takes up too much space.

you can see the space on the right of this picture. it's the perfect size for a closet.

Then it hit me. A quick trip to Target, a pretty tension rod and two long curtains later I had a lovely closet.

We hide a midsized fridge in this closet and store all kinds of things. The pile started to look something like this...

Every time I needed something out of the pile I either had to completely take apart the tower or risk death by landslide. So i decided it was time to build or buy a shelf to organize all that stuff.
I was at the Goodwill the other day (surprise surprise) and spotted a shelf that seemed perfect. I went home and grabbed my measuring tape and went back later in the day to see if it would fit. IT DID! and it had just been marked down to $20! (Apparently they mark down furniture Friday mornings to keep inventory moving.) I was so excited I bought it up and (with a little help from my neighbor) muscled it into the closet to surprise the hubby with!

My next project is actually organizing the closet so I know where everything is, maybe add some cute baskets, bu at least I don't risk being buried alive anymore!

Do you need more storage space? Look around. There might be a perfect little nook to curtain off and make into a sweet little closet.

Stay tuned for more Small Space Living Ideas, but until then check out past week's posts.

Purging

I thrift a lot. I'm a sucker for great deals-clearance signs draw me in like a magnet. I also love change, at least changing my decor, and I do it every month if not more often. So I am frequently bringing new things into my home to fit my lastest decorating craze.

The problem is, I have a very small home and things fill up fast. I don't have very many walls to work with so when I want to change one thing everything changes...does that make sense?

For instance, my wall above the dinning table is the biggest wall in the apartment and for the last year it has been a slowly evolving gallery wall (I love that style!)...

 and although I still love how it looked I got bored and wanted more color and texture on the wall- so I added burlap and took most of the frames down. So now I have a BUNCH of frames I'm not using, just storing under the bed. : /

Besides frames and prettys for my shelf and mantle...

See more autumn decoration HERE

...I also love finding good deals on clothes! So the clutter and stuff start piling up everywhere and it's a pain to take care of and a stress to find places to store it. So my Small Space Living tip this week is:

 Purge it!

Yes, that's right, get rid of stuff. Grab a box or a couple of bags and pick a closet. I chose to work on my bedroom closet. It is a small walk-in closet and it stores everything from clothes to cleaning supplies-and it gets cluttered fast what with dirty laundry that missed the hamper, tossed in shoes and thrift store finds. Because it was laundry day (and most of our clothes were heading for the washer) it was the perfect day to clean out and organize this mess...

 ick, I can't believe I'm showing you all this. So embarrassing!

There wasn't really a good place to start, so I just sat down in the middle of it with my "goodwill," "hand-me-down" and "sell" bags handy and went to it.

Tip: if you haven't used it or worn in in the last year, get rid of it! Someone else will love it and use it more! Besides-you live in a small space remember? You don't have room to keep things you don't use!

Now my closet is clean, organized and happy. I even vacuumed in there for good measure.

The closet is a great place to hang posters that don't match the decor but you cant get rig of.

Purses neatly hung-I got ride of a few!

things are neatly hung and folded. I added boxes and baskets to my hanging organizer (that use to be overly stuffed with who  knows what!) to hold hats, gloves and laundry supplies

Another tip: hang your clothes in the order you wear them. Mark a hanger with tape and hang the cloths you just wore (and washed) in the on the right side of the hanger, after a year the clothes you haven't worn at all will be on the left. Easy to spot, grab and donate!

 

I ended up with a LARGE box full of donations for the Goodwill-purses, shirts, old Christmas stuff, old decorations, etc. A bag full of goodies (clothes and fancys) for my younger sisters, and a small pile of things to sell at Plato's Closet (a great clothing shop where you can sell your lightly used clothing and buy name-brand-used clothing for cheap!)

Next on the chopping block-our living room closet, under the bed, and the kitchen cabinets.

But to see more of this Small Space Living series, click on the menu bar above or go HERE.

How to make a Sunburst Mirror

I wanted to make a sunburst mirror but I wanted to make it cheap and do something with scrapbook paper (because I love it and I have a lot of paper). This project cost me about $4.

Here's what you need:
- a round mirror. In my case I used a shinny platter I found at a thrift store.
-Scrapbook paper in whatever colors you want, the amount will depend on how big your mirror is. i used 8 pieces.
-hot glue
-blue painters tape
-pop can tab (to hang it with.

Now make enough of those pieces to fit around your mirror.

Here I just laid it out trying to decide on which papers I wanted where.

Another tip, the pieces sorta fit together, you can kinda see how they are tucked inside each other in this pic, this helps make it a bit more sturdy.

Now that you have it like you like it, use your blue tape to secure the pieces together.

Then get out your hot glue and go crazy! I picked up my paper and applied glue directly to the mirror and then laid them down on to the hot glue. After that I went back and added glue to weaker spots.
I glued my papers to the front of the mirror but you could do it on the back-just play around (before you glue) and see what you like.

Remove your blue tape and flip it over- now you need to hang it!

 Pop a pop can tab off a soda can and  place it on the back of your mirror and glue one side of it like this:

Now it's finished and ready to hang!

If you wanted to make a more traditional sunburst mirror look- buy metallic or sparkly scrapbook paper all in the same color- i may have to make one of those too! :)

Their Junk is My Treasure

Today my sweet friend Katt and I drove around Salem with Iced Dutch Bros drinks in hand and eyes peeled for garage sale signs. We had so much fun chatting and laughing and finding AMAZING DEALS together.

Katt was specifically looking for a table, chairs and a shelf for her townhouse. We found her an oak table and three chairs for $10 in fantastic condition! And a solid book self in need of paint or a cute curtain for $5! BAM! She got a bunch of other cute stuff too: shirt, pottery barn like vase, candle holder, art work, etc.

I didn't really have anything specific in mind but went out with a smaller amount of cash in hand and remembering the tinyness of our apartment to keep my self in check!

Here's what I got today (a few are from yesterday):

Books: $2.50 (the yellow Little House books were free! Mom use to read them to us. Some are missing and they have been well loved but that make me like them more)
Teal/green cabinet: $10 the most expensive item, i haggled her down from $15.
Mosaic Candle holders: a dollar a piece
Two Candle sticks: $3
Owl Figures: $1
Blue Sign: $2. Sticker on the back said $19 from craft warehouse! Bwahhahahahaha
fishing weight: $1
Tin bucket: $1
Red cast iron Christmas tree stand: $3!!!
below: chandelier: $5!

Oh, and if you're wondering about that fabulous old window in the back ground, I got that for $6 a few weeks ago at a recycling center!

I can't wait to play with all my treasures and show you all what I did with them!

So maybe you are wondering what my "thrifting tricks are..."

-First, have an idea or list in your head of things you want or like to collect and what you would pay for it

-have a reasonable idea of what can fit into your home and before you buy have an idea of what you are going to do with it! 

-Haggle, within reason of course. The seller does want to make some dough and so would you!

-Go often. when I'm looking for something in particular I stop buy the nearby Goodwill once or twice a week.

-BE PATIENT! if it's more than what you wanted to pay for it,DON'T buy it! Wait for a better deal to come along. I waited about a year before I found my Papasan chair in good condition and in my praice range. Of course every once and a while something perfect comes around just when you want it, like my brand new espresso machine I found at the Goodwill for $15!

-The whole point of thrifting and going garage sale-ing is to SAVE money! So don't go out and buy worthless stuff that'll end up in your garage sale next summer or spend more than you budgeted!

Feel free to comment below with any questions!

Happy Hunting!