2017: Top Five House Project Plans
A couple of weeks ago, I went over what I thought were the top five house projects of the past year. They all had to do with bringing in color and creating more function out of our cozy spaces. For 2017, we plan on doing absolutely nothing.
HAHAHAHA, yeah right.
Here’s a list of the top five projects I am planning for 2017 and each is rated on a scale of 0 to 5, 0 being the littlest chance of this project actually getting done and 5 being the highest chance. Starting in January, over the course of several weeks, I’ll detail the reason for each project and share design ideas too.
1. Master Bedroom Closet Doors:
Our master bedroom is almost done. After a small renovation, painting, furnishing and styling it, and then getting a California Closets installation, we have just a few things left to do. The biggest project on the to-do list is getting closet doors. Because of the cost of custom doors, which we’ll need because of the odd configuration of the space, I’ve found a few DIY examples that I think can work for what we need. I really hope that we’re able to do it on our own and end up with a unique and beautiful closet wall. This is an important project that will lead to our room being pretty much complete and, since our closet installation was done a whole year ago, I am confident that this is a project we’ll actually tackle in the coming year. I’m giving it a 5 out of 5.
2. Office Bookshelves:
I know this might not sound sexy, but I’m looking forward to having all of our books in one space and incorporated into the desk/office setting. Why aren’t our books all in one space, you ask? Well, that’s a long and stupid answer but the result was two separate book areas on two different floors, one in the dining room and one in the office. If we could afford a $4,000 Midcentury Modern wall unit that incorporates a desk, then that would be the easiest and fastest solution, but we can’t so we plan to embark on a DIY that will create shelving and a desk spanning the entire wall in the office where a desk and some shelves are now. This project isn’t a must-do, it’s a want-do, but one that I have been talking about all year and one that I hope can be done on a budget. It is also a project that will figure into a future downstairs renovation. For all of those reasons, I’m giving it a 4 out of 5.
3. Create a Pantry:
I’m going to call this part one of the creepy crawly section of our cozy cottage. We don’t have a basement. We have a cemented area where our water heater, boiler and sump pump are as well as a dirt and concrete area where a root cellar once was. Part one focuses on the water heater/boiler/sump pump area. The door to the stairs leading down to the creepy crawly area is off the kitchen and, as with everything in this house, I want to turn all space into useable, functioning and attractive spaces. We will one day have to replace the water heater and boiler and, in doing so, we can probably get smaller sized units to create more room for storage down there. For now, we plan to create a pantry/storage area where we can use the space we have down there and hopefully make it feel less creepy crawly. For level of difficulty, potential expense and a tendency for us to get lazy, I’m going to give this one a 3 out of 5.
4. Create a Wine Cellar:
Part two of the creepy crawly section of our cozy cottage is turn the previous root cellar into a wine cellar and storage. For similar reasons to part one, I’m going to give this one a 3 out of 5.
5. Pretty Up the Entryway:
A lot of our focus on our entry, from the outside to the foyer, has been on making our house seem like a happy and fun place. I think we’ve succeeded with little details, like having a funny doormat, adding a bright and unexpected color to our mailbox, painting our front door and adding a cool, red coat rack and vintage detail to the foyer. But we haven’t painted the foyer or stairwell yet so it’s still a drab off white and I want to make the foyer even more functional than it already is. I also hate the light fixture and Daniel has slipped and fallen down the slippery stairs a couple of times so he may force me to add a runner. In short, there may be some changes to our entryway. Nothing is a must-do and I have the feeling I’ll get too lazy and balk at the price of purchasing a new light fixture and hiring an electrician to install it. For these reasons, I’m giving this project a 1 out of 5.
I’m quite sure I’ll take on a few other, smaller-scale projects next year but these are just the top five projects, ones that will cost the most and have the biggest impacts in function and look. What do you think of these project ideas? You’ll get to see more of my thinking on each project over the next few months, but feel free to leave your suggestions and tips in the comments section below.
