Through the Looking Glass and Into the Wardrobe

I find it interesting that closets have become so popular and imbued with status, just as bathrooms and kitchens have been. Nowadays if you don't have a huge custom closet you can tend to feel like a second-rate citizen. More and more in magazines you are getting to peek into the fashion shrines of women from celebrities to regular women profiled in issues of everything from Domino to Better Homes and Gardens.

And, of course, who could forget Carrie's closet on SATC:



I've always had a fondness for my closet beginning in childhood. The house I lived in for most of my childhood had a small walk-in closet in my bedroom. I loved it because, like the Narnia wardrobe, it became an entrance into another world. I played in there and read in there, leaning my pillow up against the door to barricade myself in and my sister out. I had a bookshelf in there too, which was filled with books and special treasures.

I actually still have that bookshelf. It's lived through multiple moves from that time going with me to college then back home and then to my first apartment and now it lives in a whole new state and is a lovely chocolate brown. Can you see it? It's successfully blending into the wall.



Suffice it to say, I like closets even more now. I would love to have a whole room dedicated as my dressing room. I'd love it to be a jewel-box of a room with an ottoman or a chaise to lounge on, built-in cubbies and a three-way mirror. I'd equip it with matching wood hangers and drawer shoe boxes.

But, I live in an old house (as I've mentioned) that I love. So, as many an apartment dweller or vintage home owner knows, closet space is usually small to non-existent. Luckily I do have several closets, it's just that none of them are very big. And when you have a considerable number of shoes, etc., you have to be organized.

I take up three of the four upstairs closets. But none of them are very wide so they equal about one standard long closet or maybe a good sized modern walk-in. I have recently broken my own rule about taking over the guest room closet (sorry friends and family!) but I was running of out space for the shoes and the Master bedroom was looking kind of crazy! It had to get reorganized and put away.

Alright, ready? Here's closet 1:



This acts more as a storage closet because most of those clothes don't get much rotation. They are a little dressier than I normally wear. I've also got some off-season things in there as well as a few unique items. There's a few tulle skirts there off to the side and those two white boxes on the top shelf have tiaras! I have a big purse in there and some hats also. I also have a hat box full of vintage gloves and another one for scarves.



Down below are, of course, shoes! I've got boots in the front there and some espadrilles and sneakers and my Topsiders in there too. I've also got my really formal shoes in there. You'll see that almost all of my shoes are in a shoebox. This actually helps me to remember which are which and also enables me to stack more of them in there.



Okay, closet 2. This is the recent victim to the spread of stuff! You can see that the luggage racks are still in there. A sad testament to the sacrifice that was needed. Actually if guests come, I could probably move all the clothes into another closet so there would be plenty of space to hang stuff up. We also have an armoire that is empty so they can unpack in there.

There are not a lot of clothes in there. Mainly some Summer season skirts and tops. But you can sort of see the shoes stacked up in here.



When I did the big switch around I decided to organize my shoes by color. I've got whites and pinks and creams in here, as well as floral patterns and a bunch of sandals. I could probably list all of them out, but really, who has that kind of time?



Now, onto the really big show... the Master bedroom stuff. I know this is about the closets, but I really couldn't get along without my armoire. This thing is packed!



OMG! Look at all of that. It looks crazy here, but actually it is well organized, I swear! The top shelf has purses in the back and some smaller accessories and clutches in the front. The vase on the left is holding some hair things and my new vintage pink sunglasses. In the middle are boxes with my feather fascinators from KissCurl topped by a vintage glove box (filled with gloves, of course).

The second shelf has tights and knee socks from this year in a range of colors and then sweaters. I keep my knit stuff folded and organized by color. So the middle is greys/blacks and then a big pile of argyles in a variety of colors. In front are perfumes and my little feather poof wand.

The lowest shelf has camisoles in the front and then more sweaters, pink/red, greens/cream and brighter shades.



This also has three drawers, the top drawer is filled with almost all of my jewelry and some belts. Recognize anything? The middle shelf is underthings for everyday and the bottom is for the actual lingerie. Whoo hoo!



Yeah, we haven't even gone to the closet yet and I'm showing you more stuff. I like to create categories and behind my master bedroom door there is another one.



That stack is mainly vintage. That's why all the boxes are the same. They're actually photo boxes repurposed to hold my eBay purchases. The good thing is I can use the little tags on the front to id what's inside. Plus they're only $2 each.



Finally! The daily closet. Drum roll please...



See how narrow that is? That has to explain why I've taken over three closets. What's fun/weird about this closet is that I have to step down two steps to go into it. It's on the same level as the bathroom. The bar for the closet is in the middle of the space. On the plus side I can stack shoe boxes all the way up the back wall. There are also two shelves back there.

I've also added a few hooks for some additional easy access, two on the front and one below the clothes for some bags.



Hey, look! It's some of my new sale stuff. Once it gets worn it will be integrated into the herd. Right now it's in staging mode.



The top shelf has some of my luggage, another obsession. I buy all these really cute bags and then they are too nice to go on the plane. I need to take more road trips. I mean, I can't be expected to check that cute pink Dooney pilot case. It would be ruined!



See the lower hook for the bags? What I used was a shelf support and then put some velcro on top to keep the handles from getting scratched or slipping off. I step down and duck under the clothes to get to the back. I know it's kind of crazy but, what can you do?



More shoes!



Does that look excessive?



These are all organized by color - black, then browns, then reds, then greens and so on.



I also tend to stage my shoes. So until I wear them for the first time, they hang out for a while on the toy chest I use for storing my yoga and workout clothes. This kind of typifies how I look at shoes and fashion. There's a mix of vintage, new Manolos and inexpensive pumps. I like them all.



So there's a peek into my secret lair.


For more fun take a peek at these:
Jennine at The Coveted exposes her closet, which may be smaller than mine

Gala took everyone through a thorough Wardrobe Taming

Vivre owner, Eva Jeanbart-Lorenzotti has the closet of my dreams (almost). Hers and others are featured at Brilliant Asylum

A closet must-have: wooden hangers, preferably monogrammed. I'm still saving up for mine.

Unless you want a more whimsical closet - then go for cloud hangers. Even your clothes will have sweet dreams.

I'm not the only one who loves closets.

Come on in!

One of the requests that go around the blog universe is the request to see inside a person's bag. And maybe I'll get around to that, but I wanted to invite you into a bigger world. One of the things I am most passionate about. My home.

When we moved, we moved from a much smaller house that, while nice enough, was pretty generic. Most Florida homes are. So when we moved here we had an opportunity to find a house with some charm and quirks and character. And when we visited this house, on a whim actually, we fell in love with its crazy twists and turns and all the great woodwork and built-ins that are around each corner.

I love my house. Maybe too much. And while it doesn't say everything about me, it does say a lot. And we feel very comfortable here. And very protective of our house and everything with it. I'm going to try and share all the rooms with you and even some of the views from outside because we have a lot of cool trees and a great big yard (we sit on 3 acres here).

What I had first intended to share with you was my closet, but that is going to be a pretty big post so I'm gearing up to it by starting in the even more private room. The master bathroom. This house (at least most of it) is almost 110 years old. So, you can't love this house with out understanding and appreciating the unique features of an old house. And you can't come here expecting to get a big bathroom because you just won't get it.

Some things that are funny about this bathroom are that it sits at the top of our stairs on it's own little level. You have to go up two steps to the level the bedrooms are on. There are two entrances to the bathroom, one on the landing and one going into what was the Master bedroom (although we use it as a guest room).

This picture is taken from the doorway of the bedroom. To the left of the picture is the other door. We painted the bathroom a deep teal color. We have a fair amount of strong colors in the house so this goes along with the other tones, plus it makes the white fixtures and built-ins pop. The tub is an old enamel tub and we added a new shower head and rounded shower curtain bar. Our next step is to rip out the fiberglass stall part and tile in that whole alcove with white subway tile. We also want to add bead-board around the room to about chair rail height. You can enlarge all of these images. And you'll get to see a close-up of that vintage illustration soon!



Our house is decorated in what I call "Streamlined Vintage". What we have done is not period but it's in keeping with the spirit of the age of the house. I don't really like country or Victorian or anything and I really hate to dust. So we try to keep it neat. In the shower we wanted to get a fixture that had more of that English bath/claw-foot tub element to it. And we've always liked the nickel and porcelain fixtures. But we needed to be able to rinse the dogs off during their baths. We were so excited when we found this shower head.



Nothing fancy here. We added new towel bars and ripped out all the old painted over fixtures and hinges and knobs etc. It was a big pain, let me tell you. One thing we are going to leave in are the original honeycomb hex tiles. We have them in the downstairs bath too. You can't find these same ones any more and, although they have some cracks, we just love them.



We recently had to replace the sink that was there, but it was just as well. It was a small wall-mounted one and kind of sucked. Ours is very petite but because of the window and radiator we couldn't get any bigger. So, if you love the house, you have to deal with it. Plus, the radiator is great for warming your towels, especially on a cold snowy day like today (check out the view of the snow on the trees outside! Brrrr!).

The medicine cabinet is original too, we just added new hinges and a latch. We also got a cute goose-neck faucet with the "Hot" and "Cold" x-knobs. I did find a small magnifying mirror to stick on the regular mirror. The lighting isn't that great but most of the time I am using the natural morning light, so it isn't too big of an issue.



What's behind door #1 and door #2?



Lots of stuff apparently! One of the things that is great about this house is the amount of storage from all the built in cabinets that are everywhere (all in various shapes and sizes). We are able to fit all of our bath stuff (and then some) in here. Not only do these go from floor to ceiling but they are really deep too. Because stuff could get buried or lost in the back I have used containers to corral stuff. Sometimes I want to chuck half of it but we actually do use most of this. It's crazy, I know!



So, working our way from top to bottom (is this too much information? Probably, right?) I have some spare towels that I should give away, but they are actually nice. I'll most likely store them for future dog towel needs. The box holds dog supplies like nail clippers and brushes. The electric toothbrush is in here because the bathroom only had a plug on the light fixture (I told you it was old!). We got our awesome electrician to run a line into here which also keeps all this stuff out of sight.

The next shelf down is the "man's shelf" mainly because I'm too short to reach up into it. So, the husband's bin of stuff is there on the right. We also have miscellaneous things like Crest Strips and a small caddy for tweezers, nail files and clippers. Back behind it are band-aids and we actually have the electric screwdriver plugged in there.



The next shelf is mine. I consolidated all my make-up into this case and my bin has my lotions and blow drier and hair stuff. Hey! I just realized I missed a shelf in between there. It has this metal 4 drawer thing that has our cotton balls in one drawer, our q-tips in another. The top right has nail polishes and the top left has stuff like extra razors and sample stuff. Plus it has my soap dish for my Cetaphil face soap. Behind it is my sliver and crystal powder and some bubble baths.

Okay, the next shelf down has bins for general stuff. The left bin has a bunch of travel sized shampoos and shower caps. So if we have to travel or have a guest, we've got plenty of supplies. Oh, yeah, and my pedicure slippers. On the right is a bin for first aid supplies and "extras". Is that a thing of paint in there. I really need to clean this out! Geez!



Bottom shelf is for paper towels, cleanser, a hand-vac and a container of buttons, etc. You can also see our humidifier stored in the back there. That's how deep these things are.



In the right cabinet we have our hampers and keep the towels and sheets. The top shelf has the sheets and the soap we buy from the bee keeper at the farmer's market. That's our stockpile for the winter. The little Waterford clock is the first piece I ever got at 17. I like knowing its there.

The next shelf holds extra TP, as well as lavender delicates detergent and linen water. Plus some of our towels. We bought these huge bath sheets and they are so awesome. Now whenever we go anywhere else those regular towels seem like washcloths.



More towels, and ironstone pitcher/ewer set and a basket for delicates. You'll also see the tissues in there. Our crazy kitten loves to shred any kind of paper like tissues, paper towels or TP. We've had to lock it all up. It's so embarrassing. We have to tell guests that we've locked up the TP so we look like crazy people.



Then the big hamper (Obviously full too! I should be doing laundry instead of goofing off taking pictures all day. Aaack! I know what I'm doing tomorrow.) We also have a really sleek fire extinguisher tucked in the corner. The hamper is sitting on top of a big aluminum bucket which we've used for all sorts of stuff. There is some serious space in here.



But really, what bathroom tour would be complete without a peek inside the medicine cabinet? Until you can stop by to do it for yourself (you know you would, just admit it!), here you go.



Now before I even mention anything in here I'm going to say something you probably are not going to believe. This how it looks all the time. Seriously. I have a thing for organization (a.k.a. anal retentiveness). We have a lot of stuff so it all needs a home and it needs to stay there! Wait until you see the closets. I'm not kidding you. We may have pet hair and some dust but at least it's not on a lot of clutter. Clutter makes me crazy.

Guess which shelf is mine.

Okay, I'll stop teasing you. It's the top one. What do you mean you already knew that? A quick run through, left to right: anti-p, make-up, Prescriptives custom blended base, toothbrush, Proactive 4 pack, Oil of Olay Regenerist serum, Clinique eye make-up remover and eye cream, Burt's Bees Carrot spray, dental floss, Thayers Rose Water witch hazel.

The hubby has so few things he gets stuck with the toothpaste too. But look! He's got Kheils face wash. He's a serious Kheils junkie now. I wash my face with $3 Cetaphil soap and he's using the entire Kheils line. It's so weird.



Were you riveted? Well more to follow soon!