My Lady Cave

Remember that fabulous movie Sex and the City?? (Happy wink face)

In the beginning of the movie “Carrie Bradshaw” (Sarah Jessica Parker) and “Big” (Chris Noth) head out to find a new place to live together. “Carrie”and “Big” are mesmerized by the apartment and can’t believe it's available for them to buy, but then… “Carrie” realized the closet was too small and that’s when “Big” says the magic words… “I'll build you a new closet.”

In another episode of “Sex and the City” when they start talking about marriage and decide to get married, “Big” asks “Carrie” if she would want him to get her a diamond ring?? she replies… “NO..NO.. just get me a really big closet!” Well… “Big” did surprise “Carrie” and you could see and feel how “Carrie” was so blown away!!

I can relate to Carrie because I would feel the same way! “Carrie” didn’t want a diamond engagement ring, she wanted a big walk-in closet and that was just enough for “Big” to make it official with “Carrie”. He built her a huge shiny walk-in closet…. that WAS her big diamond ring! Priceless!

I remember when we used to live in a tiny apartment, those were some hard times for us. My dad was the oldest of his brothers and sisters and he not only had to take care of us.. but his brothers and sisters too since their father was.... let's just say not a great father. It was crowded in that tiny apartment but we have a lot of great memories. My parents worked day and night to give us a decent living, then finally we were able to move into a house. It was exciting but I didn’t have my own room until my brother went away to university at UC Berkely and that’s when I was able to have my very own room and closet! My dad decided to do an upgrade to the room and luckily my dad’s car mechanic was also a handyman. That man was so talented! Since I'd never had my own room till now I was excited about the idea and I decided to make it 80's style with pink walls. My dad even bought me new furniture to add to my room so I decided to draw a rough sketch of how I wanted my room to be and how I wanted the closet built.... and that’s when I felt like Carrie in Sex and the City.

Even though my room was not huge I still wanted to make me a nice big closet with huge mirrors. When he finished my room I was so blown away! I mean for a girl that never had a room I felt like I won a million bucks.

I was inspired by this 80’s movie Pretty in Pink. I decorated my room with antique furniture and hung my Breakfast Club poster by my bed. I had huge mirrors as my closet doors, the inside bars were white and I had so much room to lay out my clothes, shoes, and that was the beginning of my love for closets. To me, my clothes look like pieces of art. Since I was still discovering my style and myself I was just excited at the fact that my room had a makeover, so it felt like I myself had a makeover too.

We've come a long way from wicker baskets and wooden boxes to huge walk-in closets. As clothing and textiles evolved, more people began to own more than one or two sets of clothes and the need for storage was born. This varied throughout different cultures. For example, ancient Egyptians stored their clothes in baskets made of reeds, the very wealthy chose alabaster chests and the ancient Greeks, who had plentiful access to wood, stored their clothes in chests, which is a practice also followed by Roman civilians.

Roman soldiers however, took the first step towards inventing the modern walk-in-closet when they invented the “armorium.” For the next few hundred years, these chests gradually evolved into the “armoire” that is a tall, free standing wardrobe with shelves and drawers enclosed in an ornate upright box with two doors. By the 18th century, these pieces had become the most common way for the wealthy to store their clothes along with shelves and drawers. Through out the years drawers changed to closets and finally developed into walk-in closet of today. If you've seen MTV Cribs you can see the obsession celebrities have with the walk-in closets, it looks almost like a shrine!

Someday I'll have a huge pink walk-in closet in my own big house or Loft (can’t decide). As for right now I’m living in a tiny apartment and it's not easy fitting all these clothes of mine, but I always make it work. I'm lucky to have a landlord that let's me do whatever I want with the apartment so I sometimes make sketches and build my ideas in this tiny apartment. Even though it's not a huge walk-in closet it's still my work of art...thank you IKEA!

I leave you with some awesome photos I found of closets of past to the walk-in closets of now…. Enjoy!