Y’all, I was beginning to think that I would never get this project finished, but the walk-in closet island is finally done. This was a pretty big build, which is one reason it took so long. It has a cabinet section with two doors, and then a total of ten drawers. But most of that building process went fairly well, with little to no surprises or setbacks along the way. What didn’t go so well was the painting.
I chose to use Behr paint instead of Sherwin Williams, and that caused a huge problem because the finish, even after several days, was still slightly tacky. And with the paint color being so dark, any time I touched it or brushed up against it, it left light smudges that couldn’t be wiped away. So I tried to clear coat it, but the weather didn’t cooperate, and the clear coat was streaky and clouded.
But yesterday, we finally had a good day for spraying outside. So I sanded down the door fronts and doors and basically started over. Everything dried well, and while the humidity was still pretty high and the finish isn’t as perfect as I’d like it to be, I’m calling this finished.
Oh, and one more surprise — I repainted the top. Now the whole thing is solid blue. Here’s how it turned out…
I read so many of your suggestions for things to put on the end of the island. I looked at lots of baskets, but I don’t really need any more basket storage. I looked at bars for hanging things like scarves, but I don’t wear scarves. (Although, after looking at so many pretty ones lately, I think I need to start! 😀 ) But then someone mentioned a gold cursive letter “K”. I loved that idea, but I didn’t like the idea of gold leaf or anything like that being applied directly to the island. So instead, I looked at wood cutout letters that I could gold leaf.
I didn’t find a cursive letter “K” that I liked, but I did find an “L” that I really liked. I actually made the purchase on Amazon, and then I realized I already had an “L” that I could use. It’s been in our pantry since I finished it.
So I grabbed that one from the pantry, gold leafed it, and hung it on the end of the island. I love it!
And I also think it’s a little humorous. It reminds me of the television show “Laverne & Shirley” because Laverne always wore shirts monogrammed with the letter “L”. So while my clothes aren’t monogrammed with an “L”, my whole closet is now monogrammed with a very similar “L”.
After repainting and clear coating the drawers and doors, I had to go back and redo the gold leaf pen detail on the one section that I had already done, and then add the gold detail on the other three sections. I used a Krylon 18kt. Gold Leaf pen for that, and each section took about five minutes.
The side facing the hanging clothes side of the room has two sections of drawers.
I haven’t had time to vacuum out the dust from drilling the holes for the drawer pulls yet, but the top drawer is a little bit shallower than the other two. The top drawers on this side are about six inches deep.
And the other four are about nine inches deep.
The other side has a cabinet, and I literally just remembered that I still need to add a shelf inside, so I guess it’s not completely finished. Ugh.
And then the other section on this side has four drawers.
The first three drawers are about five inches deep, and the bottom drawer is nine inches deep.
In hindsight, I wish I would have painted all parts of the drawer boxes white. I thought that pink color would be a fun surprise, but I think white would have looked much better. Oh well. I’m not redoing it now. At least I’m the only one who will see it.
I’m so relieved to finally have this big project done!! That leaves me with two more big projects in the room — framing out the doorway and making the chandelier. Once the doorway is framed out and the chandelier is done, I’ll have a few small projects to finish up, and then the room will finally be FINISHED!
You can find all of the posts about this closet island build here, from beginning to end.
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Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I bought in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do physical work, so I do the majority of the work on the house by myself. You can learn more about me here.
