Look! A Nook!

Hi everyone!

I am sooooooooo excited to share today's post with you all.  I have been working on this project for months now, with the help of Mr. Bluebird.  And ~hooray~ it is finally done!

Our upstairs hall has always been a nothing special area.  Kind of neglected actually.  It's small, dark, and really had little room for any kind of personality.  It has been a very sad space.  At the top of the stairs is a very large closet.  While spacious, over the years we never used it efficiently and it had turned into a harbinger of  clutter and "jamming in junk that had no home."  What a waste of space!

One day while cleaning out this junk heap - yet again - I got the idea of changing this closet into a cozy nook.  I threw this idea out to Mr. Bluebird - thinking he would nix the idea of losing a closet - and to my surprise, he was all in!  So I emptied the closet, took out all of the shelves, and began the process of patching and painting.

I knew I still needed some storage space and came up with the idea of black shelving filled with baskets and vintage crates to fill that need.

 

I also purchased three Pottery Barn Kellan Cubbies with hooks for underneath the shelves.  I also added a wall mounted lamp to amp up the cozy factor.  This is how it looked at Christmas. Not quite finished yet.

 

 

 Mr. Bluebird was kind of enough to add oak beadboard and chair rail.  We did this for the entire hallway and one wall of our stair case (that reveal coming soon!).

 

 

 

 

 

 

We decided on real beadboard because of the high traffic this area gets - the beadboard wallpaper, we felt, would be prone to scrapes, nicks, etc. that would be difficult and/or impossible to repair.  I do love beadboard wallpaper though!!! No, the lamp is not hardwired - I do plan on putting a cord cover on and painting it out to match the walls & beadboard.  (It's okay - cords are a fact of life, not going to hide them and pretend it's something it isn't! I am all for keeping it real!)

 

And voila! The finished nook.  Isn't it the cutest?  I placed a white washed bench and two cushy pillows in the sitting area.  I just love coming up the stairs at night and seeing this view!  It has taken our forlorn upstairs hall to a completely different level.  I don't regret giving up the closet at all.  I still have storage space with the crates and baskets!  I also think this could be a cute area for a desk, but for now, I am enjoying the little sitting nook.

I will post the cost breakdown of everything soon and give you the details on the items used to make this area so darned cute! (Yes, - I do say so myself!) I also have a few pics coming of the rest of the hallway and the staircase.  Stay tuned!

Thanks for stopping by,
Jane

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