One Year Anniversary at Our "New" House - THANK YOU!

The saying "Time flies when you're having fun" really applies to us here at our "new" house.  It's not so new anymore, we've just celebrated our first year anniversary here!  Our builder's cookie-cutter townhouse is slowly, but surely, turning into our home sweet home - thanks to the Mr.'s tightly packed DIY projects schedule.  

Addressing storage was on the top of our priority list when we moved in.  Having a spot for everything definitely helps with keeping the house more organized (though admittedly, I'm still not very good at staying organized!).

If you've been following along, then you would know the Mr.'s ultimate build was our closet/ dressing room.  We had designed it to have a spot for everything, from his ties to my scarves.

Since the building of the closet was a lengthy process, we decided to make a video of it instead of blogging about it with pictures.  To our surprise, the YouTube video of his entire process has more than 12,000 views and our channel has more than 170 subscribers!  

Of course, this is nothing compared to the millions of views garnered by celebrities!  But your continued support and kind comments, both on YouTube and Instagram, mean a great deal to us!! The Mr. and I are immensely grateful for all the love you've shown us, and we thank you for that.

If you haven't watched our video, grab a coffee and take a moment to enjoy it (see video below).  Let us know of any feedback in the comment section.  We want to make our videos better and are open to any constructive feedbacks.

You can read more about our DIY Custom Closet here, with links to previous updates in the post.  You can also check out my post on how to add glam to your boudoir here.

I think our one year house anniversary calls for a review/ roundup of our home projects this year.  I will have that up on the blog soon.  Be sure to subscribe to our blog for our latest update!

DIY Art Display Frame

Summer is almost over (and already over for some kiddos)!  Have you had a chance to clear out the previous school year's work?  No judging here...  I haven't!  Are you prepared for another year's inflow of arts and crafts from school?

Little man never seems to slow down his art production, so I had to come up with a way to have an in and out system.  Shhhh...  Yes I toss out his art work in the end, but not until I've taken a photo of the piece for a photobook of his masterpieces.  I only keep the ones for special occasions 😊

Now that this art display frame is in place, we can actually display his work before I take a photo and then...  shhhh....

So without further ado, let me share with you this DIY project's step by step details in this video.  It's so simple that I attempted this DIY without the Mr.'s assistance!  I think this is my first DIY project for the blog!

Recap of materials:

• IKEA's Gunnabo frame (50x70cm used in this project)
• Hanging wire
• Screw eyes (6 for this project)
• Glue gun
• Burlap
• Optional:  pliers, wire cutter, shears

I hope I've given you some inspirations on handling the flood of art work coming your way this new school year.  With this art display frame, we can decorate the wall with little man's art while having a systematic approach about his art storage. 

Just wanted to remind you that I've partnered with Canvas N Decor for a free canvas art giveaway of your choice.  Have you tagged yourself and friends for a chance to win?  For details, check out my Instagram post here.

You can find the rest of his playroom revealed here.

DIY Custom Closet Dressing Room + Video

Sometimes a DIY project can be so huge that it consumes much of your "me" time and every ounce of patience.  Even the best of DIY'er, no matter how much s/he enjoys the project, would want to get it done and move on to the next project.  I can see a bunch of you DIY'ers nodding your head in agreement.  I feel for you, and the Mr. can relate.  

Our DIY closet/ dressing room was one such monstrous build.  The Mr. worked on our closet tirelessly, after work and on weekends.  In between the miscellaneous projects I threw at him (my bad) and other commitments, (did I mention he was also the coach of our son's hockey team?), he managed to stay afloat.  Although it took longer than he expected, the build is now complete, AND the chandelier installed.  WOO-HOO!

To mark this special occasion, we've put together a video that documents the blood and sweat that went into the building of this closet.  It's funny how this closet required so much detailed planning, that the Mr. was amazed he had done it all while watching the video.  

How we turned a HIS and HER closet space to one beautiful custom closet / dressing room. For details on the cabinet doors installation, check out our video tutorial: https://youtu.be/TSiq34SMtJA. Our blog www.classyglamliving.com has more DIY, design and decor ideas. Go check it out!

(Please scroll to the bottom of this post for a source guide.)

After he came back from his much-deserved amazing guys' trip last month, I again had a bunch of "stuff" lined up for him. Putting up this chandelier was one of them.  It's the cherry on top; what the closet/ dressing room needed to feel complete.  The sparkles from the chandelier compliment the sparkly glass pulls on the doors, and bring out the gold tone in the drawer hardware.

If you've only started to follow our blog, allow me to backtrack a bit.  This closet came to be when we made a request to the builder of this new house to delete the wall that separates the "his and her" closets, so that we can create this dressing room.

The closet's design went through several iterations and changes, and we ultimately ended with our current design.  We were very into the boutique style closet for a long time, and even researched the DIY possibilities.  However, we leaned towards a closet of closed storage, so that I can hide my mess!  

So we blended these two sources of closet inspiration:

Image via Atlanta Homes

... any Sex and the City fan would recognize Carrie Bradshaw's dreamy dressing room from the movie:

Image via Marks & Frantz, set designer

... and we created our own version:

Now, this is a dressing room fit for a princess; one who demands that there's a spot for all her specific storage needs.  (Did I just describe myself?  ;-P )

While making the DIY start-to-finish video above, I witnessed once again the Mr.'s persistence to complete this project.  I never doubted his ability to build this closet, and like I mentioned in the previous update, the closet turned out to be even more beautiful and elegant than I had imagined.  I hope he knows that I am immensely proud of this monstrous undertaking.

Well, that's precisely one of the reasons why I started this blog, so that I would be reminded again and again of the Mr.'s dedication to making our house a beautiful home.  For this home, this custom closet/ dressing room is the first step to making this home a classy and glamorous one.

Understandably, building from scratch isn't for the faint of heart. But we've also done an easier dressing room in our previous home with IKEA PAX wardrobes. All you need are some mouldings. Check it out here! 

(Scroll down for source guide)

We hope we haven't kept you waiting for too long for this final reveal of our DIY custom closet/ dressing room!  Here are the previous updates of this DIY project:

Update #1

Update #2

Update #3

Update #4 - lots of detailed shots in this post

Source Guide

• The closet frames and drawers were constructed from maple wood for sturdiness.

• Paint color - Benjamin Moore's Sidewalk Gray @ 50% tint

• Hardware - Glass door pulls from House of Antique Hardware; vanity glass knobs from Lee Valley Tools; brass drawer pulls from Gingers Bath.

• Marble adhesive - Amazon (affiliated link)

• Acrylic mirrors - Plas-Tech Inc.