A Pretty Cover Up

A couple of months ago I found a bomb of dress-up clothes, books and toys exploded in my daughter's room.  It prompted a huge overhaul in her sweet space and we've been plugging away one area of the room at a time!  So far, we've given her a whimsical butterfly focal wall, a unique place to hold all her hair clips, and given her vanity a complete makeover.  Next on the list is her closet and you make have caught a sneak peak of today's project in the vanity post...

But let's start at the beginning.  This is what the closet looked like when we began this girly overhaul:

We have plowed through some deep piles of pink frills, pared down/purged, and have brought in some much better storage solutions.  We're still putting the finishing touches on this little girl's closet, but in the meantime I wanted to address the doors...or lack of!

I have a slight obsession with removing closet doors.  It drives me crazy when I can only access half the closet at a time and since Mia's dresser needed to go in the closet, being able to access the entire closet (particularly the center) was a must.

We considered bi-fold doors, but with all the other feminine touches happening in this space, I couldn't resist this beautiful fabric in a soft pink and green damask.  I started with 6 yards of fabric that I found for a great price on fabric.com.  I actually took all the measurements and cut my fabric several weeks ago, so I don't have the specifics, but here's a quick run down of what I did...

Instead of cutting one panel at a time, I folded the fabric in half, measured the length I would need for one panel (plus my hem allotments) from the bottom (raw ends) up and lined up that mark with my area rug.

I cut off the excess using the straight edge of the rug as my guide.

The fabric on the hard floor was excess and on the rug I had two equal panels.

I ironed down a 1 inch hem for the bottom of each panel.

I made sure that my seam was straight according to the pattern as well, then took it over to the sewing machine to stitch it down (you could easily do this with hem tape too).

If you don't want a raw edge you can fold this over one more time and sew it down for a clean hem.

*We used a curtain rod (mounted on the inside of the closet) and clip rings to hang these, so I simply did another 1" hem for the top.  If you plan to use a pocket rod, just add 2 " to your initial measurements, fold down the top edge 2" and sew right along the seam from your 1" hem.  It will help you sew a straight line and leave plenty of room for the rod.  

At the last minute, I grabbed some wide ribbon in a deep pink to use as a closure for the panels.  I cut two strips and sewed one end of each strip in the center of the inside edge of each panel.  Then it was time to hang them!

From the mixed patterns on the bed quilt, to the different colored butterflies across the focal wall, there is a lot going on in this room.  I was concerned that the fabric might be a little too busy for the space, but now that it's finally up, I L.O.V.E.!   The pattern is symmetrical and doesn't have a lot of contrast, so the effect is soft color that actually calms the space.

Not to mention that they hide all the disarray going on behind them.  It's kind of like making your bed - it can instantly make a room feel less messy and cluttered.  The bed takes up a lot of real estate in a room and the closet takes up a lot of real estate on the walls. 

I love how they pool a bit at the bottom and that bright pink bow just ties her up like a sweet present.

 Now, hopefully we can make the inside live up to the wrapping!

That leaves our to-do list for this room looking like this:


-PURGE, PURGE, PURGE!
-Feature for dark pink focal wall
-Black out shades
-Organize and accessorize vanity
-Replace closet doors
-Window treatment
-Paint and organize the closet
-Rearrange bookcase
-Art for walls
-Photo board
-small cabinet update

And we're saving all those for the final room reveal!  Hopefully by the end of the month - fingers crossed!


*I'm linked up at The Shabby Creek Cottage, The Shabby Nest, A Glimpse Inside, Organize and Decorate Everything,  Tatertots And Jello & The 36th Avenue