Master Bedroom Closet Makeover!

Yesterday, David and I finished the makeover on our Master Bedroom closet!! We are so excited about it and love it so much. It took much longer than we expected, but that is the way it always goes, isn't it. This was our first real DIY Home Improvement/Remodel project. We learned a lot, and actually had a lot of fun! Now David says he  is thinking of other projects to try our hands at. :)

Since the point of this post is pictures, let's get to them! This is what our closet looked like when we moved in (technically what it looked like when we cleared it out for this project, but you know, technicalities):

 View From Doorway/entrance to closet

 View Looking to the Right from Entrance

View looking at left side of closet.

Okay, so let me tell you about this closet. When we moved in, it looked like heaven. I mean, look at it! After years of apartments with terrible/inadequate closet space, this looked and felt amazing!!!! Walk-In! Tons of space! A double hanging bar! This was the solution to so many years of "just dealing with it". We started filling it right up!

This is the closet a year later:

So, the closet doesn't look like a total wreck. I tried several methods to make better use of the space, organize, rearrange, etc. But we were noticing some issues. David's clothes were on the top rack and they would hanger longer than the lower shelf and bar, so I was always fighting them to get to my clothes. The upper bar was just placed too low. Along with that, there was a lot of wasted space above the upper shelf. Most storage solutions suggest a foot of space between top shelf and ceiling. There was over 2 feet between our shelf and ceiling and the space just went un-utilized! Then there is the weird shape of the closet. If you look where the towel is hanging, that little segment is actually duct work for out A/C/Furnace. But the nook that it created to the right of it was difficult to get into and, again, wasted space.

We just knew that our closet was not living up to its full potential (and I realized that what I want for the Master Bedroom would require a more functional closet--more on that in another post). So we started measuring, planning, researching, etc. After several drafts we finally came up with a plan that we felt would maximize the space available in the closet and give us what we need and want. Let me tell you, I was a bit obsessive about looking for ideas and researching. I went online to websites where you can "design your dream closet" to get ideas. But, our closet is odd shaped. It doesn't fit the model for a "Walk-In Closet" for a lot of the online custom design closet system websites. It isn't deep enough and has the odd nook. So we had to do some playing around to get good ideas for what we wanted. But, like I said we finally figured it out. Then we started tearing out the old stuff.

Little Tan-Man wanted to help too!

Holy cow! Tearing out these old shelves was not a piece of cake. The 1x4's that supported the shelves were attached to the wall with 3 inch nails! My first attempts to take off the supports were only damaging my walls! Thanks goodness for YouTube and blogs for how to go about the whole process better. Like I said, we learned a lot! But, we got it all out. We actually found a kit, for the closet, we liked at Lowe's, though we did modify it a bit to fit our design plans. The was the Estate by rsi closet system, for those curious.

Here is the after:

We raised the top closet shelf to be at about 15 inches from the ceiling. We turned the odd nook by the duct work into our long hanging section, with room below for the laundry basket. We used pieces from the old shelves and bar to make this section. We have 2 sets of double hanging bars, that actually have enough space between them. The section on the far right is all done with the kit's instructions. The section on the left (directly in front of you as you walk in), we had to improvise a bit since the bars wouldn't be going into the wall. So we used rod-hanging shelf brackets to make that section work. Then the kits with drawers and more shelves, of course.

Here is the closet today, with all our clothes:

We love it! Seriously! We just want to go in and stare at it, ALL THE TIME! We are so happy with how it turned out, and exactly as we were hoping! Yay!!!

Check back for our master bedroom makeover (once we get that finished)!