Finally, we finished the closet remodel project! No more living out of suitcases and diving into boxes on a quest for shoes. I eventually gave up on the effort of matching my shoes to my outfits after about two weeks of moving in, it was too much effort for a non-morning person. If flip flops or being barefoot were acceptable at the office, that probably would have happened.
Anyway, back to the closet remodel; this was a project that absolutely
had to be done. This was #2 on the home improvement list when we first viewed the house (#1 was removing the partitions in the dining area). I forgot to take a before picture before we started tearing down walls, but I'll try to explain the previous layout.
Basically, the original entry to the closet was through the bathroom. The closet space was not that much, as it was just using the back wall and small space in the corner, with a single wire shelf/rack. It was cramped and there was definitely not enough room for all our clothes and shoes. The linen closet was also kind of odd and very deep; there was already a nice sized hallway closet for linens and towels, and we could also utilize the guest bedroom closets to store extra linens if needed. So, we decided to create a new entry through the master bedroom and break down the existing wall, and re-purpose the linen closet as additional space to create a walk-in closet. This created more wall space for shelves/racks, and other closet storage, while we ended up shaving off a few inches in the bathroom by the new angle of the wall to the left, it was worth the extra room to be able to walk through the closet, if we kept the same wall structure, it would have been too narrow to walk to the back of the closet which would defeat the purpose of a walk-in.
So here was the process:
 |
| Cut out a new entry through the master bedroom, and took out the door frames for the linen closet and original closet entry. The original wall frame was also removed along with the drywall. |
 |
| Built a new frame and installed to fit the new floor plan - Meghan and Liz rock! They used a powder load nail gun to fix that frame to the cement foundation - it was LOUD. |
 |
| New drywall was applied, and Meghan did the tape and mudding on the joints and corners, and sanded for what it felt like, literally 3 months to do both sides of the wall (bathroom/closet). When the sanding was done, we then primed, painted, and installed baseboards and trim. |
 |
| Here is the view while walking into the closet with the new drywall. |
The hard part now was choosing what type of closet system we wanted without spending a lot of money. We knew we didn't want the traditional wire rack system, so we started looking at natural wood options. We liked the look of the wooden slats, but whoa, the price (about $500+)! I was searching for some inspiration from IKEA, and came across a cool hack using benches (found on
ikeahackers). Yep, you read that right,
benches:
We also added shelving for pants/jeans using IKEA shelf brackets, and also made our own "floating shelves" using small L brackets and lumber from Lowes for the shoes. Here is the end result!
 |
We've got double shelves/clothing racks, and one for dresses and long sweaters.
I also made a rack from dowel rods for scarves and belt storage. |
 |
| IKEA shelving brackets applied to wooden shelves for pants/jeans storage. |
 |
| Progress of installing "floating" shelves for the shoes |
 |
| All done! |
This turned out really well. It took a lot of weekends to complete, but we are so happy with it and the extra room and better use of space for our needs was much needed. I love that the entry is now through the bedroom and that all the shoes can be organized. This entire project with all building materials to re-frame the space, and all items for the closet system and shelving came roughly at $250. That sounds like a lot, but to provide perspective, the closet system we found and liked online was price at $265 for the racks only, the shelves would have had to be purchased separately at $150 for the shelf frame and then $50 per pair of shelves (for pants/jeans storage). We not only saved money by doing the wall framing and drywall work ourselves, but we also didn't have to spend $500 or more for the size of the closet system, and that is not even getting to the shoes or the scarf/belt rack! I'm sure if one tried there might have been an even cheaper (and more creative) alternative, but at the end of the day, we achieved the look that we wanted for the budget we wanted to spend. This is definitely a win and a huge improvement for the master bedroom.
We also took the same concept for the shoe shelves and installed more in the foyer closet. Previously the shoes were all piled on top of each other, then we got one of those expandable shoe racks, but every time you reached for a shoe, the rack would wiggle and all the shoes would fall off. Every. Time.
Now, everything is nice and tidy!
