organizing my closet

I have a very small walk in closet that has hangers on both sides and a blank wall at the back of it.  In order to increase my storage I put an open bookcase with 3 shelves against the wall to hold shoes etc.  The top of the bookcase has been holding my jewelry and perfume but it's cluttered.  Embarrassing picture to follow:

This picture is small to reduce my embarrassment!

On Saturday I took my daughter to Goodwill to look at old books (she needs one for art class) and since we both love a big goodwill we were there for a while.  I kept walking past this,

It was originally $29.99 from HomeSense (tag was still on the back), heavy and in great shape.  It has hangers on the back and I offered it to my daughter to organize her desk but she wasn't interested so I got it anyway figuring I could make it work.  Oh yes, it was $7.99 at Goodwill. 

It's too heavy and big for my desk, I don't want to hang it on the wall so it sat on the floor for a couple of days. 

Today I needed files from my closet and it was all cluttered so I started pulling stuff out to clean it and as I moved this piece out I started thinking what I could do with it.  First I needed to paint it as brown (actually this is that burgundy brown) has no place in my room. 

1 coat of paint (with primer in it) made me realize painting was going to be a massive job so I dug around in my drawer and found Bella Rose Blue paper.  It was paper that I ran off on a colour copier at Staples with my fabric ( as I said before put a piece of paper behind the fabric or else black dots end up on the copy).  I love Rachel Ashwell's Bella Rose Blue, it is so exuberant (not something I usually like).  I don't want to over do it in my room, the pattern is on my bed,

and the bedside lamp.  I wanted to make this box bright so I decided to use it because it wouldn't be seen in the closet and it would bring some light into a dark spot.

Here's halfway through,

I applied the paper with a glue stick (Power Glue stick from my daughters school kit!) and I think because the paint had primer in it, a glue stick was all that was needed. 

And here it is finished,

Bright, clean, and not burgundy so I like it!

With perfume, and my favourite piece of milk glass for storage and my earring storage glass box that I picked up at a thrift store eons ago and I have always loved, it worked. 

Here it is with necklaces, boots, shoes, jackets, shirts, ......  all the stuff in my closet.

It's a start, it helps get the clutter organized and it means I can see all the things I love. It was a quick afternoon re-do that went quickly because of the paper. 

Until next time, Patricia