Trading Spaces

As I've mentioned before, our house came with closets galore.  Parker has TWO of these full size closets in his room, and only ONE was being used for clothes.  The other was overrun with lego bins and stuffed animals (which I swear he will end up bringing to college because he continues to accumulate them).

I already started hacking away before I remembered to take pictures. Oops.

I decided to tear the slatted wooden doors off this one (gotta love that builder-grade oak again) and transform this closet into a workstation for my soon-to-be middle schooler.  His room was overtaken by his large loft bed and bookshelf, and since this entire wall was closets, there wasn't much room for a desk are.  Bingo.

Both closets have a shelf about 6 feet up with a hanging metal bar beneath.  Functional, yes, but although they were equipped with lights, little was able to filter down to serve any real purpose.  First thing I did was remove the upper shelf and bar.

A bit of demo is always fun.

After the bar and shelf came down, I had to pry the wood supports off the wall.  In hindsight, I should have just left it up and painted over it - I dented the drywall with the hammer.  Whoops.

I let Parker pick out the colors for his room - a neon green for the closets and a bright blue for the rest of the room.  Off to painting!

Blurry, with a chair. Because I'm short, shut up.

It looks speckled in the picture above, but I promise I did more coats and fixed that.  Those white spots are my terrible attempt at drywall patching.

Instead of buying a desk and cramming it in there, I took the shelf I previously removed, sanded down the rough edges, and replaced it on the existing midway supports.  Total cost = zero dollars, just a little elbow grease and some nails.

From Desk Til Dawn

I wasn't going to use the bar, but seeing as the desk was so long, it required more support than the side rails.  Repurpose item #2 - the bar and it's supports served to hang cords wired for Parker's computer and eventually wall mounted television.

Saddle on up to the bar.  Top Shelf.

The shelf needed some finishing, so I painted it with the leftover white paint from the kitchen trim.  Oh, and that TRON poster nicely hid the drywall boo-boo until we got a wall mount for his 32" tv.

End of Line. Almost.

Drilled a few holes in the back to allow for computer cords and voila - a fun and functional workspace for a growing boy that took up ZERO floorspace.  All for the cost of some paint and invested time.

Not sure if fun or functional or both...