Storage, Design, and Coming Out of the Closet...

It's amazing how something small can trigger a memory...
I was perusing one of my fave design blogs, Coco+Kelley, and came upon this post. It's really about closet design for small spaces (unlike Ms. Mariah Carey Cannon up there... her shoe closet alone is bigger than some of my client's STORES, for heaven's sake), but something in the story and this photo below made me laugh:

The comment in that post is about putting your nicer clothing on display in your home, as a way to add storage when all you have is a small closet. ...along the lines of "Think of it as treating your home like a boutique!" This unleashed a flood of memories for me. You see, way back in my junior high days, just as I was beginning my foray into retail display work at my mom's gift shop, I set up my bedroom like a retail store.... yep, folks, I'm coming out of the closet (pun intended) about this lifelong retail design obsession.

I was inspired by one of my favorite mall stores, 'Casual Corner'. (OK, now, be kind...I was in junior high and the mall was important!) I took many of the ideas I had seen in that store and recreated them: groupings of my jewelry on stacks of books and in shoes on a huge 6X6 cubed shelf unit, folded sweaters in rainbow stacks in my closet, and perfectly styled outfits hung on a pegrack on the wall. On one wall , I had a giant bulletin board that was covered with magazine pages of fashion and decor that I loved.

I was so proud of my room! No one else 'got it', of course, but it was my way to express my new-found appreciation of retail display. I had a lot of fun constantly rearranging the bed and shelves and dresser - and every accessory on them - to create new looks.

By the time I reached high school, my room was an explosion of school colors and all of the paraphernalia that comes with being a teenager and involved in school activities. (Actually, it looked a lot like the School Student Store.... sorry, I digress...) But for two creative years, it was literally a laboratory where I could test, explore, and play with visual ideas that I had seen in magazines & stores. Which, of course, was a precursor to my studio & home today.

Some things never change..... ;0)

Photo Credits: all from Coco+Kelley blog