Home Renovations – Part 2

Our new home, now 5 years old was a source of some fun projects.

Bedroom Closet

The first renovation in the home, other than flooring and painting was for us to maximize our closet in the bedroom. With three walls available we wanted to make sure we made the most of every space possible. We worked with Royal Custom Cabinets and Closets for the design and delivery. Our experience with them left us pretty happy. If I remember correctly we designed it with a gentleman called Brian but I don’t seem to find his details on their website so maybe he has moved on. The original closet had two bars across the parallel walls, a shelving unit and a sliding door. Some of our changes:

  • We took out the doors and never put them back in. I like the open space and having it easily accessible.
  • We made sure we used all three walls even if certain areas were slightly obstructed
  • Included two towers, one of only shelves, one of both drawers and shelves
  • Included a scarf/belt rack

We have been using it now for 4 years and it has fulfilled our needs originally, and then later on we found space for Cillian to also share the same closet.

Closet.Closet.

Murphy bed and Library

The second bedroom in the apartment was a standard room with a standard closet with sliding doors for the closet.  It also had a pair of French doors leading into the den. It was, and still is, important for us to keep the option of a second bed in the house as we tend to have family and friends visiting and sometimes for more than a couple of days. Now with kids in our lives even more we need to have the option of a second bed. At the same time I didn’t want us to have a room blocked off with a bed. I thought a Murphy bed with built-in shelving around it would make the most of the room. We talked to our installers of the bedroom closet for a tentative design but thanks to a post I saw in Design Sponge featuring a Toronto home with custom shelves and built-ins we went another way. I contacted to ask for the contractor who did the work and see if we can get a quote. The feature had a blend of walnut wood with white and I loved the contrast between the two.

The contractor was not in the country at the time and recommended his friend. It was pretty exciting to have her come in and do the work. I felt things went well and I was also very happy to work with female contractors. It felt like a nice change. I loved the result and was very happy with it, still, I am quite happy with our decision to make the room into an office/bedroom. I was disappointed they were not responding to some of my concerns regarding one of the shelves sagging after we started using it. We had it repaired by Mike, a wonder of a cabinet maker. I felt saddened by their inability to maintain their work after it was done but still overall their work has been used for years now successfully. On the opposite wall from the bed, we managed to fit a sitting standing desk from UpliftDesk and the room has been used heavily especially now as we are both working from home.

Murphy Bed.Murphy Bed.

Murphy Bed.

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