MY DIRTY LITTLE SECRET UNDER THE STAIRS....

What lies behind this beautiful door????

I have wanted to get this one post written simply because I like the title so much! lol.... Seriously, secrets aside, we all have those junk drawers, junk rooms, dumping areas etc that we don't let others see. Especially if you blog and take pictures. We all know pictures lie. We don't all keep our homes "Home and Garden" beautiful all the time. At least this girl doesn't! We live here. So, I have this area that is just off the kitchen hallway and is under the stairs. I have used it for everything. It was my "Hurricane Hideout" when Hurricane Hannah hit here in 2011? I think. And it has been my junk room. The little area that EVERYTHING gets thrown in because no one will see it and I don't know where to put it. So off it goes...into the junk room. Okay so here is a picture of the before. 

DON'T JUDGE!!!
It's only about 3X5 and has a horrible slant in the back where the staircase comes down so I always kinda thought it was useless, other than throwing junk into.

So after taking a good look at it again this weekend, I came to the conclusion I must be crazy to be wasting precious storage space like this. So this is what I tackled this weekend.
And guess what???? It is NOT useless. It is now an amazing storage area. A completely cleaned up, painted, refloored, (is that a word?) refinished and refreshed completely organized space! So take a look at her now!!! Isn't she lovely?????

Can you say beautiful AND functional????

And seriously it's not even done yet or really organized but I couldn't wait. I can't believe it took me more than 6 years to get to this little gem. Geez.... So anyway, I decided to use the paint I have around the house and came up with this color. I used blues, greys and white paint that I had already and mixed it all in a big bucket and came up with this mixture. Pretty huh? So first we emptied it all out. Sanded down the sub floor which had paint spilled on it.

And then we went to Lowes and picked up this vinyl flooring that comes in strips to look like hardwoods. It was only .98 a strip so the flooring cost us about $15.00. Then I painted with my mix of colors and VOILA!!!

Such pretty swirls! Loved the colors.

We found the shelves at Lowes too for about $15.00 a piece. (Musta been the number of the day). I still have to get a light cover and hang some hooks and things but I couldn't wait to show ya! I love it.

Vinyl Strips

And I thought this was useless space?!!??

Now I have a place for everything instead of just shoving it in there and closing the door. No more secrets and no more cringing when guests ask if this door is the bathroom and open it before I can scream no!!! :)  So here are a few pictures of the process and here is also a picture of it when it was my Hurricane Hideout.

My little Hurricane Hideout!

At least now if I have to use it for another hurricane it'll be a pretty place to hide in! I can't tell you how big of an improvement it is. I have a small pantry in the kitchen but this room is just off of it and now I can put items in there that don't get used all the time but I don't want to store in the garage. Like my deep fryer, big bowls, light bulbs, batteries, dog and cat food...Oh the list goes on! Granted it will never be a showcase pantry like this one I saw online... 

(I found this online with no credit to the source. If you know the source for this please let me know so I can credit it!!!)

but it is still a big improvement and works for me!

Things just kept piling up in this junk room and serving no purpose....UNTIL NOW!!!