DIY an Apothecary Cabinet for Linen Closet Organization

Woohoo it is ORC Week 4: DIY an Apothecary Cabinet for Linen Closet Organization. This week we are painting everything, and I have a great DIY for the ultimate linen closet organization.

This season we will be completing our Master Bathroom, which we are in ORC Week 4: DIY an Apothecary Cabinet for Linen Closet Organization. You all may remember got started last fall with our little toilet room upgrade, for the $100 room challenge, The Game of Thrones. That challenge just left us thirsty for more beautiful things in the rest of our Master Bathroom and Hallway, so now we begin the tile work in this area. Which we have never done tile work before so this should prove to be interesting.

WEEKS AT A GLANCE:

WEEK 1     WEEK 2     WEEK 3    WEEK 4   WEEK 5   REVEAL

Just in case you maybe wondering exactly what The One Room Challenge is here is a link, and the scoop. This event was started by Linda Weinstein @ Calling It Home and is hosted twice a year, in April and October for the past 15 seasons. The ORC has hosted over 300 interior designers & home decor bloggers, that have joined together in this challenge to makeover one room in their own homes.  The participants have total of six weeks, from start to finish, to complete a full room transformation. Over 3,500 rooms have been transformed through the One Room Challenge to date, and many spaces have been recognized and featured by several prestigious sites seen here:

THE INSPIRATION BOARD:

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TIME TO PAINT EVERYTHING, HERE ARE MY PAINTING TIPS & TRICKS

Tip #1: Use the Proper Supplies for the Job:

You may remember that last season HANDy Paint Products sponsored us during the One Room Challenge and supplied us with all of our painting supplies for season four Guest Bedroom update. Well we are so grateful to still have a bunch of their amazing products available for this HUGE painting project! I can not imagine using any other painting supplies now that we have full use of the entire product line and since we a avid DIYers we are always doing our own painting, so I can personally speak from experience

The paint liners seen inside these roller bucket make clean up so easy and my buckets never get those layers of paint build up. Which I will admit, I did find it secretly very satisfying to peel off the paint layer from my old buckets, like those IG videos I get sucked into watching with people smooshing things. However, it’s very time consuming, so in the grand scheme of things I need to save my time from peeling the paint and apply it toward other more useful projects. Now that I think of it, I can actually just save the liners for later….when I have time to peel that paint, but now that makes me sound a bit like a hoarder….. so I may have to re-think that too. Ah decisions, decision, to peel or not to peel….

Tip #2: Pre Paint Hard to Reach Areas in Projects:

Okay, so some great painting tips are to pre-paint anything that will be hard to get too later on. For example, the inside of the custom cornice we installed last week; was pre-painted prior to ever building out the front. Along with the wall behind it.  This wall can be seen from inside the tub, and needed to be painted. However it would have been a lot more challenging this week after the cornice was installed. Take advantage of being your own contractor and make the DIY project work for you. Yes if you were hiring a carpenter and a painter separately, this would never be able to occur which is part of what I like to call the “inconvenience charge” because the job will be harder for them, simply because of the way you have chosen to schedule the project to be done, not to mention this is also where things end up becoming messier with less precision.

Tip #3: Think Out Your Color Layers:

Another tip is to think out the layers of painting. My example here is an accent panel of a Sherwin Williams Dorian Gray, that we have pre-painted on the ceiling first, then we installed the primed white trim to cover the imperfect edges underneath. Now we will paint the outer ceiling and the rest of the walls. No taping required, and all clean edges. Sometimes you just need to think through your projects and have a little prior proper planning, to prevent piss poor performance! The “Seven P’s” is a motto I adopted from my friend Karen many moons ago, and it still serves me well to this very day!

Tip #4: Remove Fixtures and Hardware to Save Time :

A pro tip is always remove all your light fixtures, electrical covers, and in this case towels rings. This will make painting so much quicker  and will save your fixtures too. Plus we were able to flip the fixtures as planned for this project.

Tip #5: Extender Poles Are Not Just for Ceilings:

Also, extender poles are great for high ceilings but they are also great for areas that you may not want to place a ladder. We used ours to roll the wall above the tub, mainly because I did not really want to put the ladder inside the tub for fear of scraping the fiberglass. Now yes I could have layered towels under the feet and been really careful but why if they make a tool for the job?

Tip #6: Check for Touch Ups During Daylight Hours:

If you are like us your projects can run late. Always make sure to recheck the coverage during the light of day with natural light before calling a painting project done. You maybe surprised at the places that looked done in artificial light but show up in natural daylight. If you are worried about double clean up, use a plastic store bag to wrap up your rollers and brushes over night so you do not have to waste another one with the touch ups.

 

LINEN CLOSET ORGANIZATION: 

This was the before picture of our linen closet. We have the basic wire shelves which I don’t think are very attractive to look at when I open the door. Even though they are very functional, since they allow air circulation around your towels unlike wooden shelves, which keeps your towels from getting that musty smell that may remind you of your grandmothers old linen closet. Well, now you know why, no air circulation, it really was not her fault, just a lack of materials back then.

I developed a way to cover the ugly wire in a previous linen closet last year, by using a facia board to cover only the front rail and still keep the wire rack for air circulation. I loved the look so much that I just knew I had to replicate the look into this linen closet as well. Plus matches the UFP Edge Barnwood that I used on my mirrors too! Next we added a DIY chalk painted card catalogue to the base of the closet, which was a pretty tight fit, but I had pre-measured so I knew it would work. We did have to remove one the wire shelves to accommodate the height of the cabinet, but it is worth it considering how much it can hold. We actually gained space by adding this DIY an Apothecary Cabinet for Linen Closet Organization.

This will now replace all of the plastic totes seen on the top shelf, that was used to house all of our medications, first aid supplies, travel supplies, razors, and tooth bushes. However we were also able to add the entire basket of nail supplies, cotton balls, q-tips and cotton pads to the cabinet and many other items.

Finally, it was time to add back in the large bulk items like our towels, shampoos, soaps and other toiletries. By eliminating the need for the for all the miscellaneous baskets and totes it really streamlined the organization of this linen closet.

Now the only thing left to do is label each of the drawers with my P-Touch to soothe all my OCD requirements, LOL! I thought it would be cute to use a clear label to showcase the gray craft paper tags that came with the cabinet. Now with just a glance even my husband can find anything in the linen closet, no more searching for cold medicine, Neosporin, back pain patches or band aids.  They are all clearly marked in separate drawers.

Honestly, I am not sure how we ever survived before this, and I am not sure I will ever go back to any other methods of Linen Closet organization, so take notes my fellow Marie Kondo lovers, this is an innovative organizational game changer.

THE PROPOSED SCHEDULE:

WEEK 1: Introduction, Inspiration Board, Ordering and Procurement of Supplies 

WEEK 2:  TILE- Tile Work in Toilet Room

WEEK 3: TRIM- DIY Wainscot Panels & Built In Window Cornice

WEEK 4: PAINT – Paint Room, Paint Closet Unit, Work on Linen Closet (Chalk Paint Card Catalogue)

WEEK 5: ELECTRICAL- Flip Light Fixtures, Chandlier Installation, Ceiling Decor Trim Out, Finishing Touches (DIY-A Tub Tray?)

WEEK 6: REVEAL