Project: Stairwell

We don't have a coat closet.  In fact there are only the 3 bedroom closets for the whole house.  I'm still not sure how we're going to handle this long term (maybe a not-too-tall wardrobe in the basement?), but for now we just wanted some hooks in our basement stairwell. I was tired of the giant pile of coats that accumulated on the living room banister.  The cold weather is just beginning and we needed a place to put all our gear!

Before we could put up the hooks we needed to paint the walls because they were pink (mauve mist!) and covered in soot stains from dirty hands doing electrical work.  And before we could paint we needed to patch the giant holes in the walls from those wiring projects.

(Before)

The largest holes (one even being used as an umbrella hook) required a drywall patch, while the others (like around the light switch) only needed some tape and plaster.  Once the holes were repaired and we caulked around the door frame (something we neglected to do when the new door was installed), we painted the walls with leftover bone white.  I touched up the trim with white enamel paint.  The white stairs are impossible to keep clean, at some point I will probably paint them a darker color, but for now I left them alone because we need to be able to get to the basement pretty frequently.  Someday I might even replace the pink carpet!

Finally we added our hooks.  The little green glass hooks on the left organize our keys. The black cubby shelf is from Crate and Barrel, I got it a few years ago for our old apartment. The cubbies with baskets are perfect for holding Georgia's coats, leashes, walk bags, flashlights, etc. And it has 4 hooks on the bottom. We also put up another couple of heavy duty hooks further down the stairs for additional hanging room since this is our only spot for coats right now.

Behind the basement door, just for the winter season, I hung up an over-the-door organizer (originally for shoes) filled with our hats, gloves and scarves.  It's really nice to have a place for everything these days, especially after going so many weeks without.