July 17, 2009
This week’s project is the master bedroom closet. When your “workplace” is your home, there are always things you can find to keep up “continuous improvement”. One of the places I am always most critical of is the master bedroom closet.
It has changed over the years from a single shelf with no hanger bar just the rungs where nothing would slide more than a couple inches – a bar was added soon after moving in. The first improvement was the raising of the closet length shelf to add another shelf with a hanger bar so both my and my husband’s clothes would fit. Shortly after the new long shelf was the addition of 2 uprights with about eight 2-foot shelves to hold clothing that would normally fit in a dresser – I didn’t want dressers in the bedroom anymore. The shelving was installed in an awkward corner of the closet that clothes hung up just seemed lost.
For this closet redesign, I wanted to be more efficient in the design and allow the natural light in the room to let us see the clothes we use most. I made my list of things needed: two 2′ shelves, two 2′ rods with hooks, 4 shelf supports, one 3′ rod, wire basket rack system, and baskets. I couldn’t just go out and buy the 2′ shelves or 3′ rod needed due to size and availability in the local stores, so I had to modify shelves and a rod I had – fun, fun, fun – and lots of work!
I replaced the wood shelving in the awkward corner with 2 wire shelves to match the existing shelving and added hanging bars to the two shelves.
The 4′ hanger bar was cut down to 3′ to allow a wire rack system that supports up to ten 4″ deep drawers.
For the new rack with wire baskets, I decided to use 8 drawers since I needed 6 that are 4″ deep and 2 that are 7″ deep to support our necessary items. I am very happy with this design and it is as close to what I have always imagined this closet would look like. It is not my ideal closet, but it works quite well now. The only thing it is missing is a light. One day I will install one of those.
May 31, 2007
The carpet in our guest room was in bad condition which used to be an office among other uses. Instead of installing new carpet, my preference was to install laminate flooring. We wanted a more durable and practical flooring option and something inexpensive too.
After some research, it was decided to go with flooring called Span from IKEA. SPAN is a locking, floating floor that needs the NIVÅ floor liner underneath for sound absorption and leveling. (Note: As of late 2009, SPAN no longer exists at Ikea. However, the equivalent flooring is now called SLÄTTEN and it’s $0.03/sq ft cheaper than SPAN used to be. Also, NIVÅ used to be a pressed wood fiber type of floor liner but is now polyethylene but says it achieves the same purpose.)
The clearing out the old carpet was a mess but cutting the carpet and padding into strips allowed me to carry it outside by myself. I geared up with safety glasses, face mask, mini-crowbar, hammer, Exacto knife, and RoboGrip pliers. It took me a whole day to clear out all of the carpet and padding. I cleaned up some spots that seeped through the carpet on the sub-flooring, swept, and then the floor was ready for new flooring. The entire clean up process took a couple of days.
Installation of the flooring wasn’t without its ups and downs. No more than 15 minutes into installation, I squished the palm of my hand between a hammer and the block used to push the wood plank into place. I am usually careful, but a little bit of my skin went over the edge right before the hammer hit. I was then out of commission and my dad and husband worked on the flooring instead. It really was a nice bonding experience for them. I did get to help out with keeping them organized and removing items they no longer needed like packaging.
The entire installation process took about 3 days including laying the floor liner, flooring, and cutting and installing trim. I was able to help out with trim. We even tackled the closet. Laying flooring in there may have been a little tricky, but it looks great. My dad made it look easy!
