DIY: Cheers to closet makeover

CHESAPEAKE

Warm beer wouldn't suffice. Yet with all she had to manage - family, household and her job as a dental hygienist - Ann Emsley sometimes dropped the ball in the "have-a-beer-on-ice-for-my husband" department.

Emsley's creative solution gave her something to boast about, and fattened her wallet by $1,000, after she entered The Virginian-Pilot's Do-It-Yourself Contest.

The 2011 competition invited local do-it-yourselfers to submit their own projects within five categories: Best Kitchen Makeover, Best Bathroom, Best "All About Me" Room, Best Low-Budget Project and Best Outdoor Project.

The winner of each category receives $500. From the five category winners one is selected to receive an additional $500 for Best Overall Project.

At a cost of $371, Emsley's innovative bar took the prizes for Best Low-Budget and Best Overall projects while transforming her lackluster, over-stuffed pantry into a useful and designer-style focal point.

The change began with clearing a space Sept. 3 for a mini refrigerator in the closet between the kitchen and back door, she said. The Chesapeake family had already stored beverages there, but this would keep them cold.

Emsley's creative vision kicked in.

"That's when it hit me," she wrote in her entry. "I could turn this ugly, overflowing closet into a cool bar."

She unearthed a cherry desk top she'd pried from a neighbor's curb-side bulk discard two years earlier. Her husband cut it to fit as a bar top and replaced the old wire shelves with new wooden ones, presenting Emsley with her biggest challenge: "Going through everything that was in the closet and either donating, throwing away or finding a new (space) for it."

Moving the liquor that had been stored in cabinets throughout the living area into her new bar freed up storage for the remaining miscellaneous items from the former pantry. The bonus? Everything was made more organized, she said.

Emsley, of Kemp Woods, removed the pantry's door, painted the walls and shelves, and hung a clip-style light with dimmer that plugged into the outlet, removing the need to hard wire a fixture.

From across the room the bar still screamed "bland." Emsley thought it needed a colorful glass-tile back splash.

But rather than permanently tile it at the risk that husband Chris wouldn't like it, she tiled a thin sheet of plywood, omitting six tiles where screws would attach the backsplash to the wall yet enable it to be taken down in one piece if ever necessary.

"He loved it!" she said.

A week from conception the finished bar added style, beauty and function to an otherwise cluttered storehouse for appliances and containers.

The Virginian-Pilot's panel of eight judges loved it, too, having considered the sweat equity, creativity and originality - and all achieved on a slim budget - in their decision.

"It was pretty cool that we just wanted cold drinks and went to adding this beautiful space" and then winning a contest for the effort, said Emsley, whose DIY efforts also netted her a Best Low-Budget win in the Pilot's contest in 2006. She pondered her 2011 winnings.

"My son (Michael) loves lawn care and thinks I should buy a Stihl backpack leaf blower," she mused. Her 9-year-old daughter, Grace, "would like a lifetime's supply of bubble gum."

Emsley's plan? Probably more home improvement, she shamelessly admitted.

Nora Firestone,

nfirestone@verizon.net