The new rug is the Martha Stewart Living Tangier Area Rug in Spud. Spud the rug. Heh.

We are still loving our newly installed Ikea shoe cabinets. Even though it’s the smallest room in the house, it has quickly become one of my favorites. I love organization and bright spaces, and this little room has jumped to the head of the class in those categories.

When I was writing my previous post about the shoe closet, I completely forgot I did have a true before picture of this space, carpeted shelf and all.

You might be thinking, “wait, back up, carpeted shelf?” Yep. Check it out there on the right. Sadly I don’t have a full on picture for you to see it in all it’s glory, but it was glorious. Gray, stained, old, dirty carpet. On a shelf.

I find it interesting the previous owners replaced all of the upstairs carpet with hardwoods, but then they had a carpeted shelf. I like to think they had a conversation before replacing the floors that went something like this.

“Honey, hardwoods are so much cleaner and it will help our allergies. Plus, when we decide to sell, I bet buyers will like it.”
“Yes dear, but they are so hard and cold. Carpet is so much more cozy.”
“Well, that’s why God invented slippers.”
“I guess that’s true. Well, can I at least put carpet on that shelf in the little closet since we’re going to do wood floors? It might be too much wood to have wood floors and wood shelves. Then I could sit on it and stare out the closet window and throw things on it with reckless abandon since carpet is soft and cozy.”
An awkward silence followed, but the carpet enthusiast eventually won.

Maybe the conversation didn’t go exactly like this, and I suppose we’ll never know. Do you ever wonder what previous owners were thinking for some of the things you have come across in your home?

Also, don’t forget to check out our inspiration galleries! They include LOTS of home decor images submitted by readers like you! Browse by room type, room color and check out the gallery of painted and refinished furniture, or you can search by paint color, room type, blog name, or any combo of these. Make sure to check out the image descriptions – many include the name of the paint color and a link back to the owner’s blog where you can see more details about their rooms.

Linking up to: I Heart Naptime, Under the Table and Dreaming, Boogieboard Cottage, The DIY Show Off, Dittle Dattle, Between Naps on the Porch, Keeping it Simple, Coastal Charm, A Diamond in the Stuff, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, Savvy Southern Style, Chic on a Shoestring Decorating, Remodelaholic, Tatertots and Jello, Funky Junk Interiors, Thrifty Decor Chick, Decor Chick

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This was the state of our shoe closet as of a couple days ago. Messy, unorganized, and dare I say it had a bit of a stinky foot smell from some of our more “loved” shoes that get worn for things like lawn work and hiking.

I took some time off work this week, and since organizing stuff is my idea of a good time, what better way to spend some vacation time than organizing a shoe closet? We have two closets in our master bedroom. One walk in that holds all of our clothes, and then this little guy. At first glance in our bedroom, you might think, wow two walk ins, since you can technically walk in, but it isn’t very wide, so not conducive to storing clothes. But it is perfect for storing shoes. Lots and lots of shoes. I had no idea how many pairs of shoes we had until we started counting them, and if you add up flip flops, well, it’s a lot. I say “we”, but really it’s “me” who has most of the shoes.

We came across some handy shoe cabinets from Ikea and decided they would be the perfect storage solution for this space. Since they are not deep, they work really well in a narrow space. We ended up going with the Skar and Stall since they fit the space well, and the Stall stored the most shoes out of all the shoe cabinets offered.

Here it is after we installed the cabinets.

It’s our little version of the shoe closet Carrie got in SATC 2, except just a tad smaller.

I had mentioned in my previous Ikea post how quick and easy the Ektorp sofa and Jennylund chair were to assemble. That wasn’t exactly how it went with these guys. They weren’t difficult, but a little more typical of assemble yourself furniture with about a bajillion different screws, but the handy heiroglypic instructions from Ikea were very easy to follow.

Ikea said the Stall holds a minimum of 18 pairs of shoes. We ended up fitting 28 pairs in there comfortably because my heels and strappy shoes take up much less space.

Ikea said the Skar holds a minimum of 6 pairs of shoes, and we ended up with 7 in there. This is where our more “loved” shoes live since it’s closed off, so it contains the “perfume de shoe” nicely.

There is a little cubby area on the right side of the closet. Check out the little glimpse of the former dark hunter green wall color. The bottom of the cubby was previously covered in carpet. If you’re thinking a carpeted shelf is a bit odd, so did we. It was dingy, dirty, and well, carpet, so we ripped it off to reveal particleboard. The current plan is to remove the particleboard and make some built in shelving and organize it with some cute storage baskets for my flip flops and flats that didn’t fit in the cabinets, plus storage for other non-shoe odds and ends.

I’m also thinking we should replace the light fixture with something that doesn’t have a string pull.

The wall color is the same as our master bedroom – Sherwin Williams Ancient Marble. It’s a very soothing light gray-green.

All in all, we’re really happy with how the shoe cabinets panned out. It was a quick, easy, and relatively inexpensive way to freshen up the space and make it much more functional.

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