Redoing my Storage Cupboards!

I'm taking a little break from the utility room renovation posts as unfortunately, once again things have come to a little bit of a stand still. It is so almost finished but the next stages can't happen until the 5th June so it's another 6 weeks or so until it will be finally finished. I'm just so ready for it to be done. In the meantime, I've been getting a few other little jobs done around the house. As I posted last week, I added some new artwork, and this week I'm sharing all about the storage cupboards. 

I am so lucky that in this house, I have a huge amount of storage space. So much that the majority isn't actually in use just yet. I have quite a few little bits to bring over from the farm still. I try to bring a few bits back whenever I travel back and forth. The main storage spaces are in the form of 2 big cupboards. One is a linen closet in the upstairs hallway and another in the study, above the stairs. 

I wish I had taken a before picture of the linen cupboard, but I sadly forgot. It had 3 make shift shelves in it. The wood was old bits of scrab with nails and splinters sticking out everywhere. The main shelf that was semi functional was slats of wood that weren't fixed down, so everytime something was taken in and out, they fell off the shelf and it was just a nightmare. In the spare bedroom cupboard, the flooring had holes in so I accidently dropped a few things down, it was also a little uneven. In terms of the shelving, they were a narrow L shape around the outside of the wall, so didn't make full use of the space. 

The first job was to take down the old shelves and dad did that at the end of the last day he was up. Unfortunately it left a lot of damage in the walls as huge amounts of plaster were taken down and they were very uneven. I had thought to just stick up some spare plaster board I have in the garage but ultimately was convinced not to do that and instead I bought some wall filler (basically ready made plaster). Dad did the first layer and then I did 2 further layers over the next couple weeks, leaving plenty of time for it to dry in the middle. 

After that, it all needed sanding down and then painting. I painted it fairly simply with my usual Crown Paint Tottington White and then the skirting board and edging in Satin White. I didn't quite get to the doors, but I will do soon. 

Meanwhile, dad worked on building the shelves. We got some wood from B+Q and it was perfect. For the wider cupboard, we did a frame of three wood brackets for the shelves to fit on and for the linen cupboard, just did 2 on either side. The wood was then all cut to size. 

The linen cupboard was a little trickier as the width varied and wasn't just straight. One side was 60cm and the other less than 50cm, meaning dad had to cut them down at angles and plane them. I loved cleaning them all, vacuuming up the mess and organising. I reused some old pink boxes that I bought when I remodelled the farm house room and they fit perfectly. I could even put 4 more in if I wanted to at a later date. I've managed to fit all my spare toilet roll and kitchen roll, plus towels and sheets for all 4 rooms and finally presents for people. I think the latter will be transitioned to the spare room when I get more boxes and bring them over from the farm. The other cupboard is going to mainly be boxes of decorations for seasonal events and celebration items. 

I am so happy with them both. I think they are absolutely perfect and everything that I wanted and more. The finish is so beautiful and smooth and everything about it is great. They aren't quite 100% finished just yet but I couldn't wait to share my excitement and joy any longer. In the linen closet, I need to add some skirting board around the bottom. It's already cut and painted so just needs sticking on. Plus, both need carpet adding on the bottom. The carpet is leftover from my spare bedroom, it just needs cutting to size. Finally, the inside of the doors need painting. It was the one thing I didn't quite get time to do on the day but that shouldn't take too long!