For a couple years we have been working with an amazing family of five. We’ve worked in their kids closets, laundry room, mudroom, pantry and kitchen. But one of the biggest projects was this large room just off the primary bedroom…

The room is just as large, if not larger, than their bedroom space. And it has a fireplace. Not sure if this room was originally designed to be a sitting room or an office. It’s location seems to be a sitting room but the cabinets spoke “office” to me, at least the way I saw it…

As you can see in the photos, she had already started to use this space as an extension of her closet. There’s a shared closet on the other side of the primary bathroom, but it’s a small size for two people.

In this space, she had placed items like accessories, hats, and purses and had also created a little vanity area near the natural light. Therefore, she had a lot of beauty and skincare products here too. She travels frequently so there is a rolling rack for clothing she may pack, all of the luggage and toiletry bags.

The fireplace was and still isn’t being used. You can see that alone takes up a fair amount of wall space. And the section of cabinets you see below on the right, these held home items and first aid products…

The room really needed to be more functional and have a defined purpose. Her dream was to transform it into her own walk-in closet, with a space for a vanity area and a desk.

She showed me this space way back when I first consulted with them two years ago. A project of this scale really takes time and every detail should be considered…as well as receiving multiple quotes from vendors. And wow, did we talk to a lot of people. Her contractor as well. We went back and forth about keeping the fireplace or safely removing it. We also talked about the addition of an island or a combo of an island / seating area.

I will tell you, this closet is still not completely done. We are about 75% there. I’m not sharing it as totally completed yet because it’s an example in how getting it right requires taking your time. Thinking through every detail. And clearly, maybe budgeting out part of the project too.

To begin with, let’s talk about which product / company she chose for the custom closet. She chose to work with The Container Store and have a new Preston custom closet designed and installed. TCS offers more than Elfa. They do offer custom built-in closets. You can see their custom spaces here.

Check out this side of the closet now!…

( Preston Closet )

I was floored when I saw this side of the closet. Stunning!!! On this side, she has hanging sections and drawers for folded items. There’s cabinet space on top for out of season clothing. She has a beautiful vanity area with plenty of drawer and shelf space for her essentials. And the built-in lighting??…it’s a dream!

The glass shelves?! Gorgeous! She also has one velvet lined drawer for jewelry.

This was a dream to organize for her!…

On the opposite wall, it’s still a work in progress. She now has a desk in the small nook to the left of the fireplace, so that was accomplished…

I organized her rolling rack to function as a temporary shoe wall and purposely blocked ooff the fireplace, in an effort to make the best use of that available space…while still giving her room to walk around completely.

At this point, once we got her organized during this session, we decided the contractor should close off the fireplace (safely) and add a full wall here – that way we can turn this section into a shoe wall. I’d love to see cabinets or drawers below and open shelves above to display all of her shoes. Closing off the fireplace is going to take time so that it’s done safely behind the walls, etc.

Again, spaces like this take time. And they are best accomplished in phases. Am really looking forward to wrapping up the shoe wall for her. It’s going to be beautiful! And I’ll definitely share the final final with you once it’s all said and done.

I wanted to take a moment to mention that my new digital course is still available for purchase! It’s available through May 14th and would make a great Mother’s Day or Father’s Day gift…or a gift to yourself if you have a large garage project you have plans to work on in the coming months. You can find it here until May 14!

Speaking of, I hope you have a wonderful Mother’s Day Weekend!!!

Back soon with more you guys!

xo,

Sam