"It Looks Like a Used Clothing Store"

That's what The Boy said when I showed him how I re-arranged my dressing room last night while he was out snowmobiling. That'll teach him to leave me alone for an entire day! ;)

Warning! This is a picture heavy post!

Honestly, I've been dreaming about re-configuring my dressing room for a while now, almost since we bought our house. Frankly I'd love 3 PAX wardrobes all kitted out from IKEA, but I just can't afford them right now. That $1500 is better spent in other places.

So I've been scouring Pintrest for inspiration. I thought I liked the idea of my clothes behind doors (and it would be better to keep the vintage out of the light), but I was continually drawn to rooms with the clothes out in the open on display. I was inspired to get my clothes out of the closet and create a wardrobe on a budget.

These are some of the images that inspired me:

Check out my Pintrest board Dressing Room Ideas for more inspiring images!


For those of you who may have forgotten, here's what my room looked like before:

And the dirty little secret I kept from you is that I have my treadmill in my dressing room (see it peeking into the pic below on the right?!). It used to live beside my vanity in the corner of the room in plain sight. Not pretty. My goal was to eventually move my clothes into a wardrobe on the wall you see below and put this treadmill in the closet behind a curtain or a screen when not in use.

And that's exactly what I did last night when The Boy was out hehehe... (he hates it when I upset the house like this, so it's better for him to see the "after", even if I know he won't like it) I went to work assembling my new clothing rack and moving the furniture around.
Here are a few shots of the chaos:

Almost there!

Normal people might empty the room completely, vacuum then start bringing things back in. But I'm far from normal and really, what's the fun in that?

Here's what it looks like now:

This is the view of the room when you walk in now! 

I am in love with the results. Instead of looking at the treadmill when you walk by you see this. I don't care if The Boy thinks it looks like a used clothing store - I took it as a compliment! ;)

And here's the other side of the room.

And the closet. Less pretty - the treadmill does a great job of looking terrible in here wherever it is, but I need it, so here it sits.

This summer I've got plans to paint this room white - I'm still deciding on a tone. I want to room to be a neutral backdrop for my clothes, not compete with them. I've also got some window treatments from one of my old apartments in storage I want to put up in here, find an effective way to hide the treadmill, hang a full length mirror on the back of the door and put in a rug. Eventually we'll get the carpet changed in here too.

I've got this rug picked out from IKEA. That's my next purchase for this space. I've got to try and mask the brown shag carpet.

This major upgrade only cost me $140! I bought a second clothing rack, an expandable hanging clothing rod and some more 3M hooks to hang more hats on the wall. Oh ya, and some sweat equity. I think in the end I'll be able to renovate the entire room (including new carpet) for less than $1500! Take that IKEA!

What do you think? I spent an hour laying on the floor enjoying my handiwork this morning! haha! 

Lisa.xo