Better Pics

First off, thanks to those that that commented on my closet  (and all my other posts) - means so much to me. THANK YOU!

My friend Peggy went back to get a better pic of the closet for me, to see the whole thing...or almost the whole thing.

Here is the before view again

Here is what it looks like from a similar angle

A couple more views

Love, love love it and can't wait to see it for myself!

Aloha a Hui Hou!!

Last Big Piece of the Puzzle

One of the reasons that we fell in love with our house was because of all the built in storage.

Even love the period typical closets.

This is, as you can guess, the one in the wood room. The closet is smaller, but there is a built in dresser, complete with dividers in the smaller drawers so you can organize your undies and such.

This one is going to stay just the way it is. The wood has aged together, so it should stay together.

The one in the bedroom is a different story. The doors are all chipped, they don't stay shut and the drawers are worn down.

Sure, I could have torn the built in out and put in a modern closet like this. But we are trying to maintain the character of our home, not take it away.

I wanted something rustic looking that would go well with our little farm house. The carpenter that did the rest of the work in the house has been very sick so I had to look for a new one.

Carpenters must be very busy in that area because I didn't get one response. From all those that I contacted, not one.

It's not like we were in a hurry, so it was ok for it to stay the way it is. When I painted the bedroom I did take off the doors and put them out in the shop... might be able to put them to good use later.

Last Fall, before our last trip I was browsing craigslist and came across an ad for a carpenter offering his services. They had a website and I checked it out, looked like good workmanship, so I contacted him.

To my great surprise he got back to me and we arranged a meeting for during our trip.

And this is what came out of it. TA DA!

I love the wood grain, love the farm look of it. I also see that I will have to touch the wall up a bit too.

So, for the top, I decided against putting the doors back on. I want to put curtains up and wouldn't be able to open the door fully because of the curtain hardware. I know that I would wind up getting the door all dinged up, so no doors. Right now I have my winter clothes stored in fabric boxes that I'd like to put back up in that open space. I'll hunt till I find the right thing to put up in there.

Just like in the kitchen, I don't mind keeping the old insides....for now.

But I will save my pennies, better my carpenter skills and somewhere down the line I'll line it with cedar.

Hoping to get pictures from a bit further away soon! I just couldn't wait to share.

Aloha a Hui Hou!

PS: Thanks to my friend Peggy for taking pictures for me!

Got an Idea for the Hallway Built In

A little while back I wrote about our hallway built in

and I was pondering what I wanted to do with it. Compared to all the other built ins in the house, this is in pretty good condition and I would like to keep it, but what to do with it?

While we were there I decided to get a new front and doors made for the light room closet, a white stained ash is what I think I finally decided on (which is the same wood that we are having the murphy bed built in the wood room).

I went on to think I might get the same thing done with the built in...that is until today....just now, when I saw the Lake Girl Paints: Sand and Shells Dresser post. Love the distressed look and the colors go well with the space. I would just do it a bit lighter because the hallway is a bit dark. I would definitely still go for the vintage glass knobs that would match the glass doorknobs we put on the bedroom doors.

What do you think?

Aloha a Hui Hou!

What to do?

One of the reasons I fell in love with house was all the built in storage. Everything will have a place - close and handy to where it's needed.

This is the built in that we have in the hall way.

FWIW, the socket and the switch you see here have been moved to the other side of the wall  because of all we had to do for the bun baker.

Now these cabs, unlike the original cabs in kitchen, are in very good condition and the only thing I might think of doing is painting it, put the drawers on tracks and swap out the flimsy plastic hardware for something more substantial - but staying with the period of the house.

When we were last there I had taken the hardware off and looked for new ones with the same distance and it was impossible to find anything with the same distance. That means, for what ever I pick, I am going to have to putty up the holes.

I'm thinking something like this for the doors:

photo from this web site

Not sure about what I'd like for the drawers though.


Now comes the question, what kind of paint job should I do? It is straight across from the front door, so it is one of the first things you'll see when you come into the house. Then the hallway is dark, so I don't want to paint it too dark...or should I just stick to white? only freshening it up?

Decisions, decisions....

Aloha a Hui Hou!