Now that I’ve completed my outdoor projects for now, I’m ready to focus 100% on the storage project until it’s finished. I’m actually a little sad about it because I enjoyed being able to work outside every day, but it’s just getting too hot for that. So I will be working indoors for the month of August. I hope to get back outside and tackle more outdoor projects when the weather gets cooler, but for now I need to focus on indoor projects.
Earlier this year, when I wrote my list of 2026 home goals, the only exterior projects I had on that list were for the outside of the bedroom door – painting the trim, building steps, and adding landscaping around that door. Now that I’ve used the last three months to do a lot more outside than I originally planned, I’ll definitely have to adjust my expectations for the rest of the year a bit. I feel like the only project that needs to be postponed until next year is my workshop.
There are three more areas on my goal list for this year that have not yet been completed. The first is the breakfast room, which does not require any construction work. It just needs to be decorated and turned back into a real dining area with a table and chairs, rather than a living room with lounge chairs and a TV. After “buying out my house” to finish more rooms, I took a lot of things from the breakfast room (i.e. the living room) so it looks pretty empty at the moment.
And then there’s the sunroom, which I want to turn into a home gym at one end and a TV area at the other end. This will be a big project as this space is currently filled to the brim Things. It’s basically a huge storage unit, but when it’s cleared out it will look something like this, only with an additional 13 years of wear and abuse since it was used as a storage unit and I thought we were going to tear it down…
Obviously, it will take quite a bit of time and effort to transform this space into something that looks presentable. I’m still wondering if this is even possible, but I’ll definitely give it a try.
This is all to say that I want to finish this storage room project as quickly as possible since I have so many other projects this year that I want to make time for (and there are only five months left). At the moment the room looks like this…
That’s how I left it the last time I had to go in because of the rain and spent the day tearing out the bathroom to make room for the storage room. But I’ve come this far.
But because I want this project to move forward as quickly as possible, I’ve been looking for ways to make it faster and easier. I realize it’s just a storage room and I’m the only person who will ever actually use this room. But I also like pretty, beautiful, individual spaces, even if they are just for me. I’ve been thinking this whole time when deciding what type of storage shelves I want for this room. I’ve considered everything from prefabricated, adjustable closet walls to completely building closets to match the closets in my walk-in closet.
But over the last few weeks I’ve asked myself what’s more important. To have the most beautiful, custom-made storage unit that rivals my walk-in closet, or to have a simple, organized and finished storage unit. I chose the latter, so I tried to recalibrate my expectations for this space and find a way to build attractive storage shelves without putting in the effort I put into my closet where everything is on display. Nothing is displayed in this storage room, so this room doesn’t need to be that fancy. I want it to look nice when it’s finished. And yes, there will be bold colors and wallpaper because I like those things and I want them to be fun to look at For me when I open these doors. But I really just want to finish it.
You can see that she used a series of wooden blocks attached to the sides of the shelf and these spaces form the supports for the shelves. If she wants to adjust the height of the shelves, she simply pulls out the shelf and moves it up or down.
This is what the finished shelf looks like. I think this looks pretty great!
I loved this design immediately when I watched the video (which you can watch here), and I’m thinking about building shelves like this for my own storage space. Like I said, I just want it to be quick and easy. I want this storage space to look nice and tidy when it’s finished, but it doesn’t have to look like my closet. I don’t need all the fancy and fancy stuff that will take a long time. In fact, I’ve decided I don’t even need drawers. I just want it to be finished. I want it to be pretty (for me), but most of all I want it to be finished, organized and usable, and as quickly as possible. I would rather focus the majority of my time and energy on areas that guests will actually see when they come to us. So that’s my mindset as I’m 100% focused on this project until it’s finished.
