Closet Under the Stairs

In our old townhouse, we had most of the kid toys stored in the closet under the stairs. It was nice when we had people come over, we could throw everything in there, shut the door, and pretend we had a clean house. We knew that we wanted to do something even more fun with this space. Then I saw what Brooke Walker of Studio 5 did in hers here and was inspired to do it right then.

We started by searching through the "as is" paint at Home Depot. That's probably my favorite section in the whole store. They sell their gallon buckets of paint for $9 if it was mistinted. I was able to pull out 3 colors I liked and then choose one. Because it's such a small space, I knew I wouldn't need more than a gallon.

After painting the walls (and LOVING the color), we went to Ikea. We got two spice racks to hold books (after I painted them white).

We also got 3 frames for the wall. I'm still deciding what to put in the center frame...

At Hobby Lobby we bought a cheap chalkboard (using their 40% off coupon, it was super cheap!) and I painted it to match.

We already had the magnet board with alphabet letters, an ABC poster, and 2 map posters. We used the magnet board to hide the water turn off thing. We didn't want the kids trying to get in it, and it was ugly. The magnet board fits right over top!

We wanted some sort of seating in there to sit and read books, so we grabbed a bench and pillows I had made for an upstairs bench that NEVER gets used upstairs, and threw that in there as well.

With the little extra wall space we had, we decided to get some cheap Command hooks to hang princess dresses. Before this, they were stuffed in a box, so we thought it'd be fun to display them...and they get used much more now that they are out in the open!

Here it is all together:

For being a fairly easy, inexpensive project, we were happy with the way it turned out! Last thing we need to do is get a little light in there to make it easier to read anytime of day. It gets plenty of light during the day with the door wide open...but it'd be nice to have a light. :)

PS. This is still the place we throw all of the toys when people come over...so don't ever ask to see the closet under the stairs. :)