Closet Makeover Part 1

Tuesday night was a big night for us, we started our first major home renovation project. OK as major as a closet renovation can be. But it will be a total makeover I promise. How could it not be with those before pictures?

First all the clothes came out.

And the lovely hooks that were in there.

Then the pieces holding the clothes bars and shelves came down. This pic gives the full beautious effect of the paneling cedar board combo.

Soon enough we were ready to get that paneling out of there. The Deconstructing Chef {as he calls himself in the comments} and his t-shirt will be making some appearances in this post.

Some of it came off in smaller pieces, others in whole panels. Notice the safety mask, goggles and sweat stopping bandanna! A necessity for working in a small closet.

Now this was the part of the project that was a turning point. Depending on what we found underneath was going to determine if we removed the plaster or not.

What did we find? Orange.

It’s not looking so good for salvaging the plaster. Lots of holes from the nails and glue residue. Lots of damage to the walls in general, more than we wanted to repair even if they were going to be behind closet shelves. Plus we’d still have to take down all that wallpaper. No thanks.

Our decision? The plaster was coming down.

We did get to use the paneling as a floor protector. See it had some usefulness.

It’s some pretty stuff, let me tell you.

On the back it said “1979 copyright” Now we know when the closet was built.

Sorry for all the flash pictures, this was at about 10:00pm. So next I thumb tacked a drop cloth inside the door to contain the plaster dust. Those drop cloths have so many uses.

I’m looking forward to part 2 of the closet makeover because currently our bedroom looks like this.

Come back soon and see how far we’ve made it. We’re hoping to work on more this weekend. Happy July.