Emily vs. The Shelves

It’s become common knowledge that I absolutely detest the wire shelving that came with our builder-grade house. Whoever designed the storage and shelving situation have basically become my arch nemesis. I have made it my mission to replace all of them as well as add new shelving all throughout my home. So come along with me as I painstakingly battle shelves on every floor of my house.

Emily VS The Shelves | Floor 1

Kitchen Bar

Our kitchen originally had a nine foot long bar we simply don't use. We prefer to eat at the table so the bar was just awkwardly taking up space. I added cubbies to half of the bar leaving room for 2 bar stools. This fits our needs SO much better and, like everything else, adds more storage we desperately need.

Laundry Room

When you come in through the back door of my house, you walk directly into the laundry room.  Like I've said before, I have beef with whoever designed this house. Because of how the laundry hook ups are laid out there is no way to stack them and we lose all of the 12 ft ceiling space. I  knew there had to be a better way so I designed a laundry tower with a shelf across and a hanging rod. This makes this area not only prettier, but much more functional.

Family Room

Another big storage issue I tackle was in the front room. I designed a custom entertainment/storage center with Lily Ann Cabinets and it completely transformed the space. It has made the BIGGEST difference and is the perfect place for toys, books, diapers, and even my son's clothes since he tends to get dressed on the main floor anyways. I will always be blown away at what a difference this made to our main living area!

Coat Closet

Last on the first floor was our coat closet just inside the front door. It had the dreaded wire shelving so it was one of the first things to go. Once we took out those shelves, it was so much easier to add a few functional shelves while still leaving space for our stroller and coats.

Emily VS The Shelves | Floor 2

J’s Cubbies

Moving to the second floor and the cubbies in my daughter’s room. She has SO much stuff and I wanted a place to not only store toys, but also an area for her to create and use her imagination. Of course we had to also paint it pink to match the rest of her room.

J’s Bookshelves

We originally just had an IKEA bookshelf in her room but as she got bigger and added more toys and books to her collection, we needed more space for everything to be stored. I created these built in bookshelves with a bench so she can climb to reach things up high and it was sturdy enough to hold all of the toys and books.

Primary Closet

In the primary closet, I took out another set of the awful wire shelves and added a ton of extra shelves, drawers and hanging rods and made things go all the way to the ceiling to, again, utilize those high ceilings.

Emily VS The Shelves | Floor 3

Loft Bathroom

Moving onto the 3rd floor and one of my favorite projects ever. I added a set of shelves I repurposed from a closet at my parents’ house because the bathroom had no storage. I then did the mermaid tile and painted the vanity. It was a game changer for this space.

Loft Closet

I added a bunch of shelving and have moved some of the shelving around as time has gone on just depending on what's in that closet, but the shelves were a necessity and make it so I actually know what is in the closet and can access things. Like I said before, even though it's the closet for my son's room, all of his clothes are downstairs so it is just an extra storage closet for us now, but I'm sure things will change as he gets older.

Loft Storage

I talked about this closet in my last post but this closet has always been kind of the bane of my existence. It’s a super long closet (15 feet) but is only about 3 feet deep with zero shelving. Once you put things in there, there was no way to see what you actually had. I added a big set of shelves which have made a huge difference. It's still frustrating that it’s not even deep enough to hold my label buckets where they would optimize the space more. I have to have them in length wise, but I'm doing the best with what I've been given. Like I said before, whoever designed this space is definitely on my list, but I'm pretty happy with how I've been able to transform the space regardless.

There is still ONE more set of the awful wire shelves in the house so stay tuned when I am finally able to officially beat the shelves once and for all, but for now I'm still calling it a win for Emily.