Storage can be pretty as well as functional.
Our oldest daughter's room was totally disorganized and needed a place for all her girl stuff.
I thought an armoire would be perfect for her so I scoured Craigslist and found one that could be transformed.
I turned a regular old armoire found on Craigslist to an totally organized jewelry/makeup/t shirt cabinet.
We bought an armoire almost a year ago on Craigslist.
Our oldest daughter had an overflowing walk in closet and she had a difficult finding everything.
She does her hair in her bedroom because the upstairs bath she shares with her sister is small and couldn't hold all of her things.
You'll understand why by the time you get to the end of this post.
The armoire was partially organized, but it was still a mess because she still didn't have enough space. It looked like this:
I took inventory of my daughter's things and felt she needed one more 1/2 shelf on the top part of the armoire and she really needed more shelves in the bottom of the armoire. She had well over 200 tops in the hanging part of her closet. It was so crammed that it was difficult to hang things up...so they ended up on the floor.
If her junk stuff in the bottom of the armoire could be put somewhere else, then the tops that could be folded, would fit in the lower section.
The first thing we did was order some adjustable bed risers so that the clear boxes would fit under the bed.
The previous owner of the armoire cut out the back for the TV and this had to be fixed.
So, Mr. Fanatic cut some a thin sheet of backer board, 2 full shelves and a 1/2 shelf & I painted them with some leftover oil base black paint.
Since it was so dark inside on the top and a girl needs to see what she's got, we thought it would be a good idea to install a fluorescent light inside.
Here's what the top looks like now
Awhile back I ordered Bling-eez online (link on Amazon below) and put them on the top left door. She still needed more room to hold all of her rings and bracelets.
So, I used a box lid for her bracelets(in back), and a divided tray for her rings and other miscellaneous jewelry. Yes, those are 4 sections of rings, plus all the ones on the left door! The girl loves to dress up.
She keeps all her curling irons and flat irons in one of the baskets, and hair products in the other basket. There is a switched outlet strip between the baskets, so she can leave the curling irons plugged in and just turn off the switch. I LOVE that! My daughter hooks the curling irons on the edge of the basket to cool.
We installed a mirror on the right top door so she can do her hair here.
Ah, much better!!!
The half shelf on top really freed up some space and doesn't cover up the things below because it's only 10" deep.
Here's what we did on the bottom...
There was already a shallow roll out shelf in the lower portion of the armoire which is perfect for my daughter's hair extensions. Yep, she's got a lot of hair!
We had some drawer guides left over from when we installed her closet several years ago, (yes, we keep EVERYTHING!), so I thought it would be wonderful to have the shelves roll out. This is important especially because the armoire is very deep.
All three shelves roll out.
I told you she had a lot of tops! Remember, these are only her folded tops! She has two hanging racks of tops in her closet! You should see her shoes! But, that's another story.
Bottom Before:
Bottom After:
Top Before:
Top After:
Armoire Before:
Armoire After:
I really love organizing things and love when the project comes out being so functional and looks great!
If you liked the above post, you might like to see how we organized our youngest daughter's jewelry. You can find the post by clicking here.
Pam
update: my daughter has since moved all the way across the country and was unable to take her "command center" with her. The armoire is still in her old room waiting for a new purpose.
P.S: the dimensions of the armoire are 68 1/2" tall x 21 1/2" deep x 38" wide.