DIY Closet Envy Transformation

Got a case of Closet Envy? Yeah I did too for a long time after we moved in to our house. I missed my old walk-in closet from my parent’s house before we got married. I had a decent enough sized closet and was lucky enough not to have to share it with my husband [love ya, hun], but it just seemed to be a huge waste of space. It had one bar all the way across, topped with a shelf. It ended up being a giant clothes dump with doors I could shut to hide the mess from company. How I made it four+ years like that, I’ll never know.  So I was determined to turn mine into a more efficient use of space (and easier on the eye, while I was at it). Keep reading to see my diy closet envy transformation.

Don’t think your existing closet is deep enough? You’re wrong! I have several tips for those tiny closet owners. Here’s how we did it (and you can too!) As with my Dresser to Vanity Conversion post, when I say “we”, I mean I dream it up then draw it out and my husband is stuck with the unenviable task of making something functional, safe and realistic out of my plans. Neither of us are professionals, but we want to be when we grow up!

In the spirit of full disclosure, I never took an actual Before picture of my closet, as this was before the blog was born, but this is exactly how it was configured: one bar straight across and one shelf on top of that. This closet is in another bedroom and is 24″ deep X 58″ wide, but it has the same size door opening as my closet. You can totally reconfigure a closet of this size and nearly double the storage and hanging space. I will cover that later in the post.

Now my closet is 38″ deep X 94″ wide. The extra depth in my closet is definitely part of what inspired me to change up my closet, but I think a closet that is less deep (at east 24″) could definitely be configured like this. The first thing that needed doing though was to pull out all of the clothes, shoes and purses I had taking up space. {SIGH}

Yes that is a king-sized bed completely covered in clothes. You can also see the new drywall and vanity for our bathroom renovation in the background. We believe in multiple unfinished projects around here. Then we tore down the bar and shelf.

Please forgive the terrible picture quality. As I said this was before the blog was ever thought of and you’re looking at camera phone pictures. So, in this pic we are standing inside the closet. Just imagine a bar coming right at you and you will be properly oriented. Also, the terrible over-the-door shoe hanger. Oh and how can anyone forget the paste color on the walls? Yuck! Moving on!

Time to put up new hanging rods. If you will recall, this closet is 94″ wide, so I originally had one rod across the length of the closet, giving me 94″ of hanging space. I had my hubs hang up three new rods along the depth of the closet (38″)- one on the left for dresses, suits and coats, two on the right for blouses, cardigans and skirts. If you’re keeping track, that equals 114″ of hanging space, 20 inches more!

But now what do I do with all that space in the center of my closet? Well for one, I added a shoe organizer, but I still wanted a mirror and some hanging shelves for the adorable fabric bins I found on clearance. I already had the mirror that was originally hanging in our renovated bathroom. It’s a skinny mirror, so you KNOW I needed to keep that baby. I had the hubs prop up the mirror, then one night after work, I started stacking the bins with shoe box tops between to work out a design.

But how to get the shelves, without sacrificing the mirror view? Super Hubs to the rescue again! He suggested hanging the mirror from the ceiling (attached to the support beams via suspension wires) and floating the shelves behind them. Smart, good looking and handy, that one. I think I’ll keep him! Oh yeah and the new color? Its about three shades lighter than our bedroom color and looks so good with the storage bins. It’s starting to look girly! It wasn’t until writing this post that I caught his notes on the board telling him which direction and side to hang the board. He really is an adorable genius.

Obviously I want to keep the shelf that was originally above my hanging rod before, but now its a wrap around. See? Oh and you can also see how the mirror backing and floating shelves are raised high enough so that I can still put more shoes on top of the shoe organizer. Yep, we’re all about maximizing what you got! And the little shelf unit on the floor under my dresses and longer garments? Its for my purse and hat collection. Girly geek out time!

We’re almost there! Next I had to carefully pry the mirror off of the previous bathroom door and have my husband glue it onto the board and frame it out. It was also imperative to get more light in there. What good is a skinny mirror if you can’t see it, right? I told myself I didn’t need that little crystal pendant, but my inner girly-girl bought it anyways…then we both squealed and clapped when it was hung. Many thanks to my dreamboat husband for making my dream closet a reality!

You might be thinking right now, “I thought you were going to tell me how to reconfigure my smaller closet!” Well, if you’re closet is closer to 24″ X 58″, you can reconfigure your closet like my husband did his. His was also configured like the “before” example: One rod and one shelf. He ripped both of those out and raised them high enough to put in a second row of each. He DOUBLED his hanging space and his shelf space! See? It may be a bit more utilitarian than mine, but that is just because it’s a boy’s closet. They don’t really think about prettifying much of anything.

So what do you think? Are you inspired to reconfigure your whole closet yet? Have you already renovated your closets? What ideas and advice do you have for me on the “Before” pictured closet? Did this post give YOU Closet Envy? Answer all these questions in the comment section below.

This project is linked up on: Remodelaholic August link up party, Frugal Crafty Home Blog Hop, the DIY’ers Link party, Hit Me With Your Best Shot, Enchanting Inspiration, Creative Spark, Worthwhile Wednesdays, Wow Me Wednesdays, The Makers Link Party, The Pin Junkie