Kitchen Renovations

This past Saturday, Paul and I made the trek to Home Depot to get supplies for some home renovations. Between the wedding gifts, living in a NYC apartment, and me being a quasi-hoarder, it was time to clear out our crowded kitchen and make our closets more efficient.

I should have taken a ‘before’ picture of the closet. It consisted of precariously stacked plastic drawers and milk crates. It was my attempt at makeshift shelving, and it was pretty bootleg. Since we rent, I never wanted to invest much in home improvement projects. But we’ve been here for almost five years, and I don’t see us moving out anytime soon, so I figured it was time to put in a little work.

The curtain to my room.

Honestly, I’m just happy we have closets. My first apartment in Brooklyn was a loft where the previous tenants had unprofessionally installed the bedroom walls. Because of pipes along the ceiling, they didn’t build them all the way up, so we were basically living in cubicles. No doors either, just curtains. And of course, no closets. I built a shelving unit into my wall, but not knowing what I was doing, I didn’t use anchors. The whole thing pulled out and toppled onto my bed while I slept that night. A terrifying way to wake up. So when Paul and I found our current place, the number of closets (there are six!) was one of the selling points.

A thing of beauty!

The closet renovation really is amazing though. It took up our whole Saturday and we joked about how middle-aged we felt, but it was seriously satisfying to declutter and organize. The closet is now a pantry, linen closet, and bathroom vanity all rolled into one. Every time I walk by the closet, I stop to open it and sigh as I admire.

Prem stopped by over the weekend, and I proudly showed him the closet and solicited compliments on how much cleaner the kitchen looked. By default, the kitchen is an improved space for rappers too. If Paul had his way, he would have expanded and turned the closet into a vocal booth, which I think the rappers might have preferred. But I won’t let Paul take any of the closets away from me. They are too precious.