I’m super excited to share this makeover with you all! Before I get into it, some background. One of the things about our house that I truly hate is the size of the closets. They aren’t actually that small, but they are a super strange setup. They are probably the same width as a typical closet, but don’t have a sliding door. There is just one door in the center and there is a long rod spanning the full width, which means there is lots of hanging space, but you can’t actually walk into the closet and get anything. Things get shoved into the corner and are never seen again. It’s a real problem, and I’ve been wanting to rethink the layout for our closet for a while, but I hadn’t really got around to it. But then I saw an adorable kid’s closet makeover on Apartment Therapy and was totally inspired. I decided to first try a new layout in Florence’s room, before committing to an overhaul of our closet. And OMG it looks amazing. Here is the before.
The paint was an ugly shade of beige and it was always a disaster area. But look at it now! What a world of difference.
The first thing I did was take everything out, including the shelf and rod. Because our walls are lath and plaster, a ton of plaster actually came down with the shelf. I had to re-plaster huge chunks of the wall, which was something I hadn’t expected, but ended up being less painful than you might think. Once that fiasco was fixed,I painted everything a bright white color. I had Joey reinstall the original shelf, but he moved it up a bit so you could actually walk into the closet without bumping your head. Then I installed two adjustable clothes rods, one above the other. Instead of them going lengthwise, I put flipped them and installed them on one side. The dual rod system is Florence’s favorite part because I keep her dresses at the bottom, which is the perfect height for her.
She likes to dress herself these days, so this is a good solution. On the other side of the closet, I installed the Boaxel Shelving unit from Ikea, which gave me tons of storage space. With all the new space, I was able to reorganized her toys. The toys she uses less often were put in a basket on a higher shelf that only I can reach. I put her little piano on the second shelf. It’s the perfect height for her to play while standing.
The toys she likes to use on a regular basis are on the bottom shelf where she can grab them. I put her rocking chair next to the toy basket so she can sit and go through her toys. Fun fact, that rocking chair was mine when I was a kid. My grandma gave it to me.
As the finishing touch, I hung a gallery wall. The pictures are actually from a 2017 Rifle Paper Co calendar. I’ve been saving them, but hadn’t figured out where to hang them until now. I framed them in inexpensive white frames, but they look like a million bucks.
I am so happy with the end product. It’s cleaner and much easier to access. Since it was such a success, I think I’m going to try to tackle our closet next.