When I started designing our main closet my dream was to find a way to store all my accessories using principles of ADHD Organization which led me to reinvent the humble garage storage into an acrylic pegboard! I have to say that I am elated with the results, in my mind it was such a brilliant idea and the real life version is exactly how I envisioned!
The Acrylic Pegboard is my final project in this Fall's One Room Challenge. The ORC is an 8 week challenge in which anyone can participate with the goal of finishing one space in our homes. Please be sure to hop over and check out the many amazing projects that are in the works for this year - I promise it will not disappoint. Previous posts on the ADHD closet; ADHD Storage Wall, ADHD Friendly Closet Design, Organizing an ADHD Closet, & ADHD Closet Tips, Finding visual dopamine, & Project completing hack. In the past few years I have tackled our kitchen, patio,vestibule and our boys shared bedroom.
I talked in previous weeks about the need to use as much vertical space as possible in the closet, vertical was available, floor space was not! I initially tried to find a tall and slender dresser for the space but quickly realized that even if the depth was shallow the act of opening the drawers would eat up too much floor space. That is when the idea of creating a giant pegboard came to mind, I had seen many lovely iterations online and felt that this was the ideal solution. I planned to glam it up by using brass fixtures and wallpapering it to match the wall. Then as I discussed last week I became a bit concerned about how the wallpaper would stand up to the wear and tear of moving around the dowels because I wanted to be able to reconfigure the board as needed.
I thought of the idea of using acrylic when I was staring at the beautiful wallpaper and thinking about the installation logistics; was I going to wallpaper behind the pegboard as well as the pegboard itself? That felt wasteful, I was confident I could find a better solution, that is when the idea of lucite, one of my favourite finishes (when used judiciously) occurred to me!
I have discovered over the years, through trial & error & through research in the last 2 years since being diagnosed with ADHD, that for me great storage needs to include the following principles; Correct, Corral, Contain, Clear,
Compartmentalize and Customizable. I’m working on a post to explain this in more detail, stay tuned! I have used these principles over and over and stuck to them in designing my acrylic pegboard.
I already had lucite rods from my DIY curtains in the office so I set about researching the cost of plexiglass to DIY the pegboard and shelves. In the end I called a local fabricator to quote buying the plexi sheet directly rather than from a big box store and also because I wasn’t sure what thickness would be best for the pegboard. I knew it needed to be stiff enough to support the dowels and to attach easily to the wall. I decided to have the fabricator quote cutting the holes as well. In the end I had them make the sheet, cut the holes and create the shelves and I fabricated all the hanging fittings.
I’m really glad we didn’t try to DIY the main part ourselves, it would not have been much of a cost savings and it is super tricky to do which I discovered when I was making my first prototype - as the lucite is being cut it both melts and cools quickly and you need to move fast!
I’m still in the process of making a few more of the fittings and I am waiting on clear lucite jewellery trays to arrive that I ordered 6 weeks ago from the UK, fingers crossed they arrive before the final closet reveal next week!!!