There’s something I’ve been wanting to do since I came home from being with Tim at Fort Polk. Turn part of my house into a book nook.
At first I wasn’t sure of the location. I kept eyeballing certain areas thinking, “Maybe here.” And then,”No, maybe over there.” Then the sliding door to the upstairs closet ripped off a fake nail (still painful) and the moment was decided. I pointed to the door and said, “Off with it’s head!” My friend who was living with me at the time was literally shaking as she removed the door, because theatrics terrify her.
The hall closet has been sitting open ever since and has become a sort of junk depository. Well, it was already a junk depository along with much of the house because my husband literally will not walk three steps to put something back where it belongs. However, I keep trying to tame bits here and there. I’m doing it by myself so it’s difficult, but I’m trying.
Over the past year I’ve been buying odds and ends for the planned booknook. I have a Fingerhut account so I got a small bench – painstakingly researched to make sure it would fit because the hall closet is a small space. I have a gear wallclock, a couple of buckets of paint, and a sample of some wallpaper I’d love to be able to buy. (It’s very expensive.) I’ve got a drawing of what I want where, and deep in my gut for the past couple of months I’ve been feeling that it was almost time for me to begin. Yesterday was the day.
So for your general reference, my closet started out looking something like the left aligned picture over there. Gross isn’t it. Even though what I really wanted to do was throw everything there into the garbage, common sense reminded me that I’m not one of those women that collects shoes. My three pair of shoes are in that pile. Step one instead was to finally unbox the Fingerhut bench.
The unboxing began, as you can see by the picture to the right. And it was kind of exciting, partly because I’d forgotten what kind of bench I’d ultimately picked out. I knew I’d chosen one that would normally go in the foyer for people to sit on for changing their shoes. So when the bits and pieces presented themselves it was like getting a Christmas present.
I waited to unbox the bench partly because I was busy, but also because I didn’t want to damage it. Turns out it was damaged already. Parts of it were very poorly put together. My excitement cooled down a bit when we noticed that, but I’ve repaired furniture before and this was an easy fix. The only damper was that my project was going to have to wait a bit in regards to the bench. It spent the night glueing up in one of the rooms.
You can see another picture to the right. I tried to photograph some of the damage but I don’t think I did a very good job.
We had to stop after that but hopefully we will resume today. My booknook project is actually a very simple one. Basically we have to clean the area, repaint, remove some of those shelf lines, place bench, and then over time buy the rest of the parts I will need to make it perfect. Those parts will be molding, pillows, LED battery lighting, a clothes hamper, and tile.
The tile is going to be the biggest challenge. That old carpet is okay, I guess. I don’t want carpet, though. Carpet encourages allergies, and I’m sick of being sick as we all know. Besides, I like tile and they have some real awesome pieces that look like wood. So I’m set on that. My plan is to buy some here and there until I have enough. I’m pretty sure I can lay down tile. It’s getting the tile cut that worries me.
Am I going to have a theme? You betcha… but… how about we let that be a surprise? I’ll give you a hint. I’m going to use the color red.