54 IKEA Dombas Armoire Hack

Last week when I revealed my bro's recently updated apartment, I made a promise to share how we managed to make his armoire totally rock.

We knew we wanted to find an armoire that boasted enough storage for all of this clothing, linens and other personal belongings, since his apartment didn't have any closets.  My first instinct was to check out IKEA since they boast a large selection of armoires and have reasonable prices.

During our trip to the store, we took our time looking at all of the potential options, and both agreed that we really liked the Hemnes PAX.

However, we weren't all that excited about the $430 price tag.  For a back to college student trying to furnish his first apartment, it was just far too much to spend.  Time to get real about what he could afford.  It looked more like this....

At $130, it the DOMBAS armoire came in at $300 less!  YAY for us since that money was put towards bedding, a desk, shelves, accessories and lighting!  Boo for the fact that it looked like a piece of standard stock garage cabinetry.

Giving the armoire face lift only cost us a couple extra dollars in wood, some leftover chalkboard paint and a quick hour of our time.

We ran to the home improvement store and picked up about eight 3/8"x2" boards.  From there, it was a basic game of measure, cut, nail.

My Mr. cut the pieces of wood with a simple miter box.

And used his brad nailer to attach them to the fronts of the armoire.

We started by framing the faces of each armoire door first.

And then we used a few of the remaining wood pieces to add horizontals.

A little wood putty...

And the armoire was ready for the chalkboard paint.

The armoire was a melamine material and had glossy edge stripping around the outer edge of each door, therefore, I knew I could only paint the fronts of the doors without too much complication.

The paint covered well on the wooden strips, and did a little smudging on the melamine board since I didn't use a primer.  I used a foam roller to ensure thin, smooth coats.

The first coat acted as a great base, after the first coat was dry, I re-coated with another two.  The process was nice and quick, chalkboard paint tends to have really great coverage.

The reason we went with chalkboard paint for the front of the cabinet, was because my brother really wanted to mix and match blue, white and black, and chalkboard paint makes a really great black.  But most importantly, it allowed me to eliminate the need for a large dry erase board, to manage his busy college schedule... {which I so kindly wrote out for him}

We were all really happy with how nicely and easily the armoire transformed from something so blah to something with a little more umpf with just a few basic and simple supplies.  Of course, I also love that is acts as a piece of multi-functional furniture and cost a fraction of the original inspiration piece!

What have you been hacking lately?  Anyone else playing the high/low game?

55 UHeart Organizing: A Super Solution for Deep Drawer Storage

Today I am excited to extend a warm welcome to my pal Ashli.  Ashli has a love for organizing and an eye to make it lovely, and today she is stopping over from Mini Manor Blog to share with us her genius solution for storing items in those super deep drawers. 

Hi Guys! I'm so excited to be on I Heart Organizing today! I tackled a project that has been bothering me since the day I moved into my home 2 years ago.

You see I have no room in my dining room for a sideboard.

So logically I moved all of our fancy pants dishes and serving trays into the kitchen. I had two drawers to be used as a "sideboard".

The first drawer is a wide shallow drawer perfect for napkins and small side plates.

But it was the larger second drawer that needed some work. Don't get me wrong... big deep pot drawers are great, if you're storing pots in them. But if you're storing spare dishes, there is a lot of wasted space. Since we would also need to store our fancy pants cutlery I thought about sliding cutlery trays!!!

It was really simple to do, a few supplies from home depot and about an hour of time.

1.  You'll need some trim from the molding department. This L shaped edging works really well. We just glued it on to the edges, making sure to keep it clamped overnight!

2.  Spray paint them whatever color you like. We chose Sun Yellow by Rustoleum!

3.  You'll need two boards . . . one for the front of your drawer and one for the back. Cut them to size, paint them white, and screw them to the inside of your drawer.

4.  Your newly sprayed {and hopefully dry} trays should fit right in. I can easily push them to the left or right to reach dishes below!

Everything fit in perfectly. We have room for our plates, chargers, place mats, serving spoons, napkin rings, cutlery and a couple serving platters.

And the best part is no wasted space!

Thank you so much Jen!!!

"I’m Ashli from Mini Manor Blog.  I live in Big Beautiful British Columbia with my Husband Lee and our 5 lb yorkie Max.  I have an organizers heart, I am a bin-aholic, and I’ve never met a wicker basket I didn’t love. During the summer I can be found lounging in the garden or at the gym . . . one of those was a lie. And in the last 5 years I’ve made more than 2000 cupcakes. I want to bake, eat and organize. Hand me some eggs, flour and an unorganized kitchen, that’s my idea of a great weekend, okay go ahead throw Ryan Gosling in there too."

45 Reader Space: A Lovely Multi-Purpose Closet

We don't always have the luxury to have oodles of closets, specialized for specific needs.  There are times when those linen closets, craft closets and utility closets, all need to be combined into one closet.  That is the case for today's reader, and I just adore how she tackled it so smartly!

Reader, Chloe, has a high traffic closet in the main area of her home, and she wasn't exactly thrilled with how it was organized or functioning.

"We have a hall closet that gets A LOT of use. It's where we store towels, bed linens, diapers, cleaning supplies, craft supplies, and much much more.  Even though I worked hard to keep it organized, it was always an eyesore when left open. I wanted it to look nice but most of all I didn't want to have to constantly be reorganizing it to keep it from getting out of control.

I decided I needed containers. I would have liked baskets {because they are cute} but let me tell you, baskets are not cheap {especially when you need 14 of them like I did}. I searched stores and online for something that would work and eventually went with Snalis boxes from IKEA. Just a simple, white translucent container for $1.99 each. I am really happy with these. I realize now that wicker baskets wouldn't be best for holding cleaning supplies because unlike wicker baskets, the Snalis boxes are easily wiped clean if something spills.

I also got one larger size version of the Snalis box for $4.99 to hold diapers and wipes {I have 2 kids in diapers so of course I needed something giant!}.  I made labels for each box which may be more for aesthetics than practicality but love them!  They are just blue and white card stock for now {which has held up surprisingly well} but a laminator is on my wish list, so hopefully I can make them a little more sturdy. 

For all the linens {towels, bedding, table cloths, etc.} I chose the Antonius wire basket also from IKEA. They are a shallow, white wire basket at $2.50 a piece. So far they are working out very well.

Here is the result!

I love my hall closet so much I kind of like leaving the door open! which I am thrilled about because the closet is in a very high traffic area and is seen constantly!  I still don't quite understand why but seeing that pretty, neat closet everyday always puts a smile on my face.

With a specific box for everything, nothing is misplaced and everything is easy to find!"

 

Let's celebrate with a lovely before and after!!

I know why she finds herself smiling and staring.... Because it is AWESOME!

• Everything is nice and uniform.  This makes is extremely easy on the eyes and reduces the "cluttered" feeling.
• The updates are so incredible, she can leave the closet door open {by accident or on purpose}, and never worry.  It's lovely!
• Everything has a home!
• The closet functions for so many items.  Craft supplies, cleaning supplies and linens, oh my!  Anything multifunctional rocks my world.
• Those labels.  Practical to help her quickly find what she is looking for, lovely because she took the time to go the extra mile and make them pretty!  Doing so was the key to the overall after effect of the closet.
• She mixed and matched storage so that it made sense for her and the closet.  The baskets on the top shelf make more sense for linens that the translucent bins do.
• Using bins in a closet is actually a huge time saver.  You can quickly pull/slide out a bin to find what you are looking for, vs. digging deep into a closet.  Same goes when putting items away. 
• She knew her budget and was savvy when searching for storage.  Wicker would have looked lovely, but would also have been expensive and not all that practical.  Her final choice was soooo much more effective and budget friendly.

A special THANK YOU goes out to Chloe for sharing her closet makeover with us, you can find all of the details on her blog here.

Anyone else been tackling multifunctional closets or spaces lately?

ATTENTION!!  Want to be featured in a Reader Space edition?  Have an awesome organizing story to share?  I am looking for projects that have made a positive impact to your life.  Please submit your story and photos here and I would heart to feature them right here, on the blog!!  Photos should be high resolution and unedited.  Please include a description of the project, including any costs, inspiration, and how it has changed your life and routine for the better!  Oh, and no worries my friends, we will NEVER judge "before" pictures because that just wouldn't be nice!  Only love goes on at this blog!