DIY shiny wall covering

I had every intention of posting this on Saturday but my body thought it would be more fun to get food poisoning instead. It definitely wasn't fun. I'm better now but it probably wasn't my favorite holiday weekend to date, lol.

Anyway! On to the DIY! My new bedroom was missing a key component that most bedrooms have -- four walls. One of the walls in my room is a half-wall with an opening into our front entryway. It's blocked off and concealed with a set of bookshelves from the front, but on my end I just see the back of the shelves, a kind of ugly that paint doesn't sufficiently hide. I have a white curtain hanging behind them but it still looks pretty makeshift. So I came up with this quick, easy (and most importantly, cheap!) project to hide the weird wall and make my closet oh-so-glam in the process! :D



All you need are door curtains from the party supply store and command strips. How many you need of each depends on the wall you're covering, but for me it was five curtains and 20 strips (four per curtain.) The total project came in under $40 and the most effort involved was just moving my clothes out of the way while I worked and then moving them back again!



All you have to do is attach the command strips to the top of the curtain and adhere them to the top of the wall. In my case, since I was trying to hide a half-wall, I attached them to the ceiling since there is no wall in the area where the bookcases are standing. You can't even tell that it isn't one complete wall now!

This next step is really only necessary if you have cats since the shiny door curtains just SCREAM "come play with me" to felines. After you attach the curtains to the ceiling, cut off the excess so that it isn't dangling to the floor. So just make sure the ends are safely out of reach. And make sure there aren't any stray pieces laying around after you've chopped off the hem.

It's definitely a bold (possibly a little bit gaudy?) statement wall but I kind of love it! It started out as a cheap solution to an ugly problem but turned into one of my favorite projects in my new room! :)

room tour part 4: my closet

Almost done! I have a couple photos that didn't really fit into any of the 4 themes I picked so I'll throw those up tomorrow, and then the room tour shall finally come to a close :)

I'm a little excited about finally posting the closet pictures though! I am SO happy with how the room turned out. Unlike my bedroom which has kind of evolved into what it looks like over the course of a few years, I planned my closet out before I started. Since I converted my bedroom closet into my office (see: room tour part 1) I didn't have anywhere to put my clothes. I was storing them on a shower curtain rod in my bathtub for a while (I have a separate shower and don't use the tub) but no matter how clean your bathroom is, it's just not fun to keep your clothes in there. Right? Just me?

Anyway, I ended up sectioning off a little room downstairs for my clothes. I have no idea why, but I decided to theme it like a mid-century beauty parlor. I neglected to take pictures but I even have vintage hair style magazines on my bench like it's a waiting room. I always go a little overboard when I get an idea in my head lol ;D



I keep my hats (and flamingo sunglasses, of course) piled up on a lamp that I never turn on because it's being used for hat storage now. The girl with the yellow bow was a recent etsy find. I saw a similar vase at an antique store in Alexandria, VA a couple months ago and I've been skimming etsy listings for its twin ever since.



Hi there brooch collection! I've found quite a few new-to-me enamel floral brooches at flea markets this year. They're always so pricey on etsy but tend to be like $1-2 at the flea market. yay!



I may have taken this picture just to get a shot of my cat-pocket-coat in here somewhere ;) I keep all of my pajamas rolled up in the shoe storage shelf, and keep my luggage on top. Also look at all of the pretty lady ties! I love Flapper Girl :)



My favorite BAIT Footwear shoes!  Also in the mirror you can kind of make out my really pretty scalloped mint rug! Somehow I didn't get a single shot of it in any other photo. It's just SO pretty though! You can see the whole thing on UO here.



A few of my favorite dresses on silly hangers :) I saw the mod one on Danielle's blog a long time ago and proceeded to stalk etsy and ebay for something similar ever since. It's so fun isn't it? The cat hanger is from urban outfitters (they also have a lot of other cool ones like dogs, foxes and skeletons, too)



Aside from my cats, I'd say these are probably the cutest things in my home! They're vintage Avon bottles from their Small World collection. If you search for "avon small world" on etsy or ebay there are usually a few bottles (and sometimes complete sets) available. The display is temporary (it's a cabinet divider from Ikea) until I can come up with something to showcase them a little better. I just love them so much!



This is my favorite of the 60's hair photos! I scanned a bunch of them last year and uploaded them here if anyone wants to download some :)



My dresser is from -- wait for it -- Ikea. Of course. I painted the frame mint green to match the room. I've had the pink heels since I was little. When my dad's mom passed away my parents gave them to me along with some of her jewelry. I used to stuff tissues in the front and walk around in them with the necklaces on. I'm so glad they withstood my childhood antics because they're one of my most prized possessions now.



I kind of like sunglasses. A lot. And belts.
ps. mint green heart shaped sunglasses. I just about DIED when I found them.



In my house we actually refer to this as "Chloe's room" because she has literally lived in here since it was completed. She even gives me this look like "um, excuse me.. this is MY room!" whenever I step inside. But of course, she was nowhere to be found when I took these pictures. She's such an elusive cat.

Hubble, however, always eager to be the center of attention, hung around the whole time and promptly posed for this picture. But even without the lure of a camera, an open drawer in my closet is like a Hubble magnet!

my top five closet storage solutions

I just realized that I never got around to sharing my closet/dressing room here! I've taken some photos where you can spot some of it in the background, but I never did a full-out tour post like I intended. Anyway, it occurred to me that some of my organization methods might be somewhat useful so I thought I'd share some storage tips first, then do the whole closet tour shebang next week! :)



1. Use household items to organize. You don't need a fancy jewelry box to house your collections -- you can display your accessories using containers you already have laying around the house! I used a plastic french fry basket from the dollar store, a mason jar and an old melamine chips-and-dip tray to house my brooches and bracelets! And to keep my lipsticks organized I used nail polish remover caps and a jar lid (DIY post here!) It's amazing how instantly a run-of-the-mill item can be transformed into a useful storage container with the help of a little spray paint! ;)





2. At-a-glance storage. Whenever possible, try to store things so that you can see everything at a glance. If you stack your sweaters on top of each other, you'll constantly be rifling through your drawer and messing things up whenever you get dressed. Storing my cardigans side-by-side (and in rainbow order!) helps things stay neat and tidy. It's also a huge time saver!

For smaller items like tights, using a drawer organizer really comes in handy. I use a soft organizer from IKEA so that none of my tights will snag, and I roll them up side by side so I can see all of the colors at a glance.



3. Roll up pajamas in a shoe organizer. I have a weakness for flannel pajama sets (especially if they have cute animals on them) but I never really knew where to put them. I like keeping sweaters, jeans and unmentionables in my dressers so that leaves little room for big bulky pj's! I came up with this solution and it works SO well! I roll up the pajama set and stuff it into a shoe organizer slot. This makes it so easy to grab a top+bottom set in a pinch, and it doesn't take up much room!





1. Closet dividers to store belts and sunglasses. Earlier this year I purchased two closet dividers (or doublers) hoping to use them to hang up shirts and skirts, but they just didn't work out for me. Luckily, they were absolutely *perfect* for another purpose! I needed somewhere to store my (embarrassingly large) belt collection, and this totally fit the bill. I hung the divider from the ceiling using cup hooks, and then used S hooks to hang the belts. Since the dividers that I purchased came in three separate pieces (the two sides and the one middle rung) I was able to take the middle rung from the 2nd set and add another row for my sunglasses! (These are the dividers that I purchased)



5. Stagger your shoes. Finally, keeping shoes staggered (one shoe with the front facing forward and one with the heel facing forward) saves a lot of room! It isn't quite as pretty as having them all facing you, but you can fit a lot more shoes in a small space this way! :)

everything in its place

dress - c/o romwe

belt - forever21? not sure..

tights - we love colors

shoes - c/o blowfish

As much as I LOVE my bedroom/studio/office setup, there is one major drawback... no closet space. And for someone who collects dresses like they're going out of style, that's posed a bit of a problem for the last 3 years. For a while I stored my clothes in my bathtub, then in the upstairs hallway, and then in plastic buckets in our den. But finally (finally!!!) I'm getting a real walk-in closet :D

Years ago my dad converted our living room into his office since he works from home, and on Saturday he cleared out 5' of space for me to use as my closet! We partitioned the space using cedar planks, and then on Sunday we went to IKEA for clothes racks, dressers and other closet do-dads. I painted the walls pink and mint green and I'm decorating it with 60's beauty parlor accessories. It's coming together so well, I can't wait to take pictures to share!!

ps. Since I've been working on the closet all weekend I've been a little neglectful of my inbox/tweets again.. promise I'll get back to you asap if you're waiting on a reply! :)

pss. Is this the best dress ever or what? I want to marry the collar! You can get $20 off this one or the navy version with code -20USD!