Snap Ollie

When Madison told me she wanted to paint her closet red, I thought what the heck!  It’s only a closet, no biggie.  (Actually she wanted coca-cola red, including the white stripes.)

Let me back up a bit.  Madison and Alex used to share a room.  This was perfect for me; I could use the other room as an office.  But as Alex grew older, her pleas for her own room became more frequent and harder to ignore.  Madison wanted to stay with her sister; she did not want to be all by herself!

I moved Madison’s bed and Susan’s old dresser into the office.  I was going to move my office items downstairs, but Madison insisted I leave the office where it was.  She didn’t want to be there alone and as I was often on the PC, she wouldn’t have to fall asleep alone. And of course the filing cabinet was awesome for her magnetic Bakugan toys.  That was fine (for now), but I still needed to clean out the closet; it was stuffed full of old technology, gift bags, unworn baby clothes, and assorted other detritus. Years ago I had added basic shelving to handle this accumulation; there was no need for a rod from which to hang clothes.

Two days and three large garbage bags later, the closet was pleasantly empty.  Some of the closet orphans still need a home, but for the most part it wasn’t to bad.  I did have to patch and sand a bit.  Susan brought home a gallon of red paint and Madison and I got crackin’. (As a side note, why do some areas look much darker then others when you go from an off-white base to red?) It took about four layers to cover the back wall of the closet properly, and all the time I was worried I might be creating some sort of doorway to hell (a la Amityville.)

Madison wanted to paint the entire closet red, but that would just have been to dark; I ended up painting the rest of the closet white. The shelving we bought was the inexpensive but oh-so-adjustable track system, very white.  This stuff is perfect for a closet, unless you feel the need to parade guests through your closet just to show your awesome taste in more expensive shelving.

Well after the shelves were in place and the closet began to fill with clothes and some storage boxes, I discovered something.  Instead of making the closet look weird, it actually looks good!  Damn good!  It’s not a solid wall of red, but a nice background color behind the white shelving and hanging clothes.  I am most pleased with the way it turned out!

Awesomeness.