27 May 2010

shelf with a twist

I'm inspired by my sister to put up a blog entry on home decorating ideas. If there's such a thing as "home decorating within the budget", I'd call our (I and my family of creatives) method "home decorating UNDER the budget." It's not just about the money (although it does come in as a big factor), but we get excited about re-creating things from stuff thrifted, handed down, abandoned, picked from the salvation army drop-off points and so on. You get the idea.

Since we moved in to our new apartment, we had to make do with do super minimal furnishings offered by the housing. Example, there was only one wardrobe in the whole apt and it fit only Lakay and my little one's clothes. Squeeze my clothes in? You can't be serious. "WARDROBE!" I then wrote on top of the buy list in IKEA.

But after all the fixing and sorting, I had one bookshelf left from the old apartment which suddenly became useless here. Just when I was about to get rid of it, I came across a pile of fabrics that I've been collecting from the thrift shop. And then think...think...think...ting! I got a new wardrobe out of virtually nothing!

See results below:
All my clothes, except my jeans, fit into this small shelf (my other sister says it's unbelievable!)


This was once a curtain made of canvass. It's tailor-cut in the middle so I can just simply fold one fly up whenever I'd get clothes. Lakay stapled the fabric behind the shelf so it won't fall off. I topped this with my son's old toy boxes for my socks and underwear. Then there I have it! A wardrobe for only 0 €.

2 comments:

ruthietheotaku said...

wow seriously? no closets? In germany I had my underwear in cardboard boxes ahaha. You can also modify this by just getting yarn, hand stitching the fabric so you can you can insert the yarn. Then staple the yarn somewhere so you have a curtain like effect.

Socraticmom said...

Thanks. Thing is, the fabric is quite stiff, which is also good for protecting my clothes. I was thinking of making the japanese folding curtain so i just pull a string and it folds up nicely. you know how to do it?