Have you ever built a closet?

I have.. and it's not as much fun as you would think. I'm all for DIY and building things and following instructions etc but after this experience, I may think long and hard when contemplating a project like this again. When we recently moved into our new apartment, with no built-in wardrobes, and consulted ready-made closet prices, we made a bee-line for IKEA to do it ourselves. This process was not as exciting and liberating as I had anticipated. When the instructions show you that you need two little men instead of just one, they really do mean it. That was me pictured below. 

 

During the "installation phase" I had a few things working against me. 

1. The weekend that we moved in and the IKEA delivery arrived, Ryan was away from the Friday to the Tuesday which meant that my window for him to help me would have to wait until the following weekend (and this would not be a sure thing if he had to work), leading me to my next point..

2. I need things done NOW (especially things like moving in and unpacking). I can't wait 10 days to unpack my clothes. Are you insane?! 

3. I ignored the IKEA man's plee to phone a friend and tried installing the first frame myself. Nope. Should have listened. I realised this after something important went "crack". 

4. I know basically no-one in New York who could help me with this kind of task.

And so, as it turned out, one of my good friends (it's very important that this friend be a good one) was in New York for the weekend and kindly obliged (read heavily urged) to give up some of his valuable Saturday afternoon to be a handyman. I am so appreciative. Had we had time for lunch or dinner, I would have taken him to the fanciest place, but we ran out of time before he had to leave because assembling just the frames (no doors, shelves and rails) took over 5 hours and a lot of hard work! 

 Mountains and mountains of ridiculously heavy boxes begging me to unpack them.

 (Not) Following instructions.

 

 Remember: The key to DIY is a neon pink toolkit.

 After 5 hours, we finally have some frames

  A door! Amazing!

Once I got the frames and the shelves in, we lived without most of the doors and no doorknobs for about a week. It made the whole bedroom seem like a bit of a walk-in closet. How glam.

And finally, I plucked up the courage to drill holes into the uneven cupboard doors (You can't tell that they're uneven because they are so tall but they don't align perfectly no matter how great a carpenter you are. Oh IKEA. You get what you pay for.).

And the best compliment? When most people walk into the room, they don't even notice the cupboards, supposedly because they look "built-in". I guess that's all you really need from them. Just stand there and blend in!