Summer Fun: Front closet renovated in one day!

I've been on a bit of a blogging hiatus... oopsie.  Life happens.  I have some interesting projects to show you once I get some pictures done, so we'll see if I can get that done this week.

Today's project was a bit daunting at first, but I got it done and I'm rather proud of myself!  This is what the front closet looked like.  It also has a little shelf and bar for coat hangers, but this was the nasty part.  There had been some carpet stapled down, but I took that out before I moved in.  It helped to reduce the general stink of the house to get the carpet out, but doing a whole gutting of this closet was a bit too much to tackle that day.  I promptly loaded it up with stuff and ignored it until now because, frankly, it was easier to close the door than to actually deal with it.  As I cleaned the stuff out, I ran my winter coats through the wash and rinsed the mud off my winter boots so they could go in a plastic tub for storage elsewhere.  My eventual plan is to use this closet for cleaning supplies and tools, and once I get the tall cupboard gutted and transformed into a pantry with pull-out drawers it will be closer to what I want.  Also, to completely finish that plan, my coats will need another place to live, but the front room won't be constructed for a while still so in storage they go.

As in the rest of the house, there were a ton of staples in the floor.  First order of business was to get those out so I could pull up the old (and terribly ugly) linoleum. 

When the trailer was parked last spring, before we could get it moved, it was parked in our field on a sideways incline with the front door facing uphill.  We had to park it because it wouldn't stop raining and we couldn't get it in position until we had 3 dry days in a row, so the rain dripped in the front door and got everything there wet.  Including this closet.  Thanks to the linoleum, it was still wet underneath.  Great, huh?  Made me gag.  I wondered if it was a leak from the roof or something, but the roof was fine and there were no signs of moisture on the walls, so it should just be left over moisture from then. 

So, I covered it with mildew/mold killer sealing primer and let it dry, like I had done with many other spots in the house.  I took the door off for accessibility but also to paint the frame gloss white like I've done with the rest of the woodwork in the house. At some point I'll set up an assembly line outside and get all the doors painted too.  A couple of them had been done already, and the woodwork was beyond saving, so it's all going white. 

My parents had saved some of their old linoleum at some point.  I don't remember if it was in their old trailer or if it was on the porch in the house they built when I was 1, but they had saved a little scrap for whatever reason and it was nearly the right size for this.  I had already gotten some flooring adhesive for this project several months ago, just to be ready when I actually got around to doing it, so all I had to get was a grout spreader and box cutter from dad to get the new linoleum down.

Next was to decide what to do with the walls.  Most of my wall colors came from the same paint chip, just in varying shades, so they all look good together but it's not all the same.  The kitchen cupboards are the lightest version, the living room and hallway is 3-4 shades darker, and the office and bedroom are one shade darker than that.  They all turned out to be pinker than I expected from the paint chip, but the shade grew on me.  It's sort of fleshy, a neutral with a little personality but not too flashy.  I decided to use the bedroom color in the closet.  Maybe so it wasn't quite the same as the rest of the living room, although the door will usually be closed so it really shouldn't matter.  This picture shows the start of the first coat on the back wall and the gloss white on the door frame.

Two coats of paint later, here we are!  I also added a little white shelf to expand my storage capabilities, but I'll need to keep in mind that there are no studs behind the wall so the shelf can't hold a whole lot of weight, even with wall anchors.  I'm pleased with the results after this sweaty day!