Makeover {From Computer Cabinet to China Closet}

When Ron was on vacation last week, the priority project was the remake of the computer cabinet into a china closet.

The two of us had designed the cabinet years ago to house Henry, the desktop computer. Ron had built retractable doors, a sliding drawer for the keyboard, and a sliding platform for the printer. We had intended to add some shelves for computer software and office supplies, but we never got around to that.

Recently, I mentioned to Ron that Henry had aged out. Kati and I both use our laptops almost exclusively, and I thought that the few things that I wanted to save (photos, a few Word documents, our foreign language program) could be transferred to my laptop. What I really needed was space for dishes! 

Ron agreed to do the makeover!

I Pinned a bunch of ideas, we went on a few scouting trips for supplies, and on Day 1 of his vacation Ron started ripping out the innards of the computer cabinet!

Uh oh. Do you know what that means?

It means that all the stuff inside has to be purged or find new homes. Oh no. Ron finished the entire makeover before I finished relocating all the stuff! Ack!!  


Finally, everything was put away, and the china closet was finished and ready to be filled and organized. I had all my supplies: padded containers for The Grandmother Dishes, a rack for platters and trays, and shelf liner.

Uh oh. Do you know what that means?

It means that The Grandmother Dishes and the Friendly Village dishes and all of the white dishes and the Christmas dishes and the mugs (ack!!) and Aunt Lynn's crystal and the platters and trays must all be organized and placed in this very tiny cabinet.

What? It's not a tiny cabinet?!

Oh, you are so right...but it felt smaller by the moment as the boxes of dishes were retrieved from the attic and plopped into the middle of the kitchen floor. (I showed you a picture ~here~.)

And then when we gathered all the mugs from the kitchen cupboards and the various boxes...good grief!

It took the entire day to get it organized (with a lot of working and pausing to think and rearranging...and a bit of purging), but when all was said and done, I was thrilled!

All of my dishes have a home. No more trips up and down the attic with heavy boxes. Easy access to everything. Win-win-win.

So if I want to drink my coffee from a fall mug tomorrow morning, I can do it! And if I want to set my table for Christmas (I don't), I can do that too! It's all here.

Rethinking the function of a piece of furniture (or even a room) can make your house work better for you!