Labor Day Weekend Project: Master Closet Updo

It seems like lately I have started to hate almost every decor item that I have. Maybe it's because I just stare at everything all the time, and then it gets old. Am I alone in this? Please tell me no. I already feel like quite the witch of a wife when I tell Cliff about all the things I want to change, and then he turns and says, "I like the way you have decorated the house." 

He's too good of a man. Just wait #iminsanelyluckythismanputsupwithme is going to start trending on Twitter because I use it so much. Which by the way I gave in and have joined the tweeting masses, @emkmcgraw. 

Anyway, we've started making strides in the home renovation department and have a pretty good timeline for the bigger stuff in the near future. But in the meantime, I have decided to start tackling more of the little issues. The first and most annoying to me was our closet. As you know from this post, the builder of my home decided that the master bathroom didn't need any doors in the useful places, like entrance or potty area. However, on some whim, he decided that the closet needed doors. Well, that's all good and great, but the fact is that Cliff and I rarely close these doors and since there are no doors at the entrance of our bathroom you can see all the way into our closet as soon as you walk into our room and the view ain't pretty.  

The reason we never close these doors is that they have never closed well over any of the carpet we've had and then when you pull hard to force them closed the builder's grade knobs are always falling off. For a while I couldn't find one of the glass balls which was scary because of the choking hazard to Macy. What am I saying, Macy was probably the one who hid it. But the point is that the one set of doors in my bathroom are completely useless and irrelevant.

We also have built-ins throughout our closet, which you would think would be a plus but they are just sad. The shelves are a weird size and have several dings and nicks in the wood and paint. All around, they are just depressing and, even more unfortunate, they are wildly visible as soon as you walk into our master bedroom. I had the great idea of putting decorative cloth bins on each shelf, but the size is so off that you can only fit one on each shelf and then there is a lot of awkward looking wasted space left over. And, I cannot tolerate wasted space, which is why my house can be so infuriating at times.

Then the cherry on top, we have this terrible lighting. My eyes are squinting and hurting just looking at this picture. A man built this house. No woman would ever commit a travesty like this. 

So I sat in my closet and thought to myself, 'How do I make this better? How do I make this pretty and something that I want to look at several times a day?' I started scouring my Pinterest boards for inspiration and decided curtains and ombré will be the solution to my problems. 

So, I went to work planning out all the logistics of how this would play out in my closet. Luckily, my mom is awesome, and agreed to help me pick out fabric and then turn that fabric into curtain panels for my bathroom. She also used the leftovers to make Euro shams for my bed. AHH! Moms are great, and everything seems to go smoother with them around, agreed?
 If not, get out, now.

Here is a closeup of the fabric we chose:

The fabulous panel my mom made for the potty room. 

And the panels on our new closet entry, also made by Mom, with a peak of my Labor Day weekend project!

So like I said, I decided Labor Day weekend would by my ombré-ing time. My mom was delivering the curtain panels on Labor Day so I wanted everything to be done! Ombré is by far one of my favorite trends right now. There are so many applications that can be made and so many ways to make it personal to your home, life and style. A win/win all around for me.

Tutorial via Little House on the Corner 

Some of the different applications and my inspiration.

Tutorial via PS- I made this

On a side note: as if I could love Erica Domesek any more after my love affair with Craft Wars, despite Tori Spelling's weird looking lips, she also posted this great DIY project giving tips on how to paint an ombre wall.

So I conned Cliff into taking me to Lowe's where I decided on the colors for my ombré shelves.

The colors I chose from darkest to lightest are:

Valspar's Summer Sparrow

Valspar's Soft Rabbit Brown

Valspar's Wool Coat

Valspar's Seagull Beach

Valspar's Warm Fog

First, I had to fill in some holes with Painter's Putty and prime the shelves with Valspar's bonding primer (my shelves required about 2 coats of primer). Thankfully this primer cuts out the need for sanding, which would've been disastrous since I am too lazy to take all our clothes out. Just FYI, Painter's Putty takes about 2 days to dry, so make sure to plan accordingly in your project timeline.  

I got a gallon of the primer, because it's the smallest can they had, but as for the other colors I only got quarts and still have lots left over for other projects. These colors are perfect for all over my house! I also didn't want a lot of sheen in the shelves, so I went with the eggshell finish. I gave each shelf two coats of goodness, and Violà! I am extremely happy with the results!

So before and after... 

The only unresolved issue is lighting, which I'm afraid will take a little more planning. The issue is that I want a chandelier to peak down between the curtain panels, but my extra-tall husband doesn't want to hit his head on it every time he walks in the closet. Boo. You may also be wondering what I'm going to do with the set of doors we took off the closet. Well, I don't want to ruin the surprise, but I have pretty big plans for them that I will of course share once I'm done in another post! :) 

I hope that your Labor Day weekend was wonderful! I'm so thankful for my family driving down to spend the day with us and being willing to help with projects. I know Cliff enjoyed a break from all my wild shenanigans. 

In conclusion, what type of mother would I be if I didn't share a few funny pictures of my precious little daughter? My brother sent me these from his iTouch on Monday of Macy giving us her creeper face (which I know she got from Cliff) and a good shot of her two bottom teeth.

Oh happy day! Love to you all!