The linen closet in our dressing room has been devoid of hardware since we bought the house, with the original drillings having been filled in and covered over long ago. I’d been planning to re-drill the holes and replace the old lockset and knob with salvaged parts, but, well—it’s been three years now, and that still hasn’t happened. I’m sick of looking at a partially-open linen closet every day, though, so I forced myself to come up with a “temporary” (cough) solution using something already in the house.

I bought a couple of these rubberized coral hooks at Anthropologie several years ago, but never wound up putting them to use. As it turns out, they work quite nicely as door handles! Since there’s no lock mechanism, I used a magnetic latch to hold the door shut. So easy.

Perhaps not historically accurate, but definitely cute.

We finally have a ceiling light in the office! This is the 15″ LERAN pendant from IKEA. I love how it looks against the wallpaper, and at night it casts beautiful shadows across the ceiling through the bamboo.

I also conceded to needing just a bit more storage for papers and photos (as well as the printer, backup drive, etc.), so we put up this wall cabinet (also from IKEA, from the ASPVIK line). I’ve been wanting this cabinet since September, so I’m happy that it’s turned out to be as functional and well-made as I thought it would be. I really like having storage pieces mounted to the wall, too, rather than sitting on the floor. The feeling is so much more open and airy, something I didn’t want to lose in this room by filling it with too much furniture.

I’ve been a very busy bee so far on my “vacation”. More updates to come!

p.s. The plant on top of the cabinet is a False Aralia. Isn’t it cool?

p.p.s. I don’t know what I would do without IKEA.