Master Closet

Joseph has been complaining recently about not having enough space in our master closet. I had 2/3 of the closet, so I was fine, but I felt kind of bad for my poor boy.

I went online and found a couple websites where you can input your closet measurements and design your own closet. It will do different kinds of hanging space (you need more space to hang dresses than shirts), add shoe racks, drawers, etc. It was going to be $1000, and we were going to have to tear down the existing shelves and install the new shelves ourselves.

We took a closer look at our closet and decided that it really wasn't too bad. There was just room for improvement. We have a double row of hanging rods and shelves to the left, and one row to the right, but the back wall is completely bare. What a waste of space.

It is so hard to take a picture of a closet. That is the back wall we decided we would build on. At first I started with a grand scheme of extra hanging space and then a shoe rack, but Joseph told me our current shoe rack was just fine, and he just wanted extra hanging space. So I drew out a plan and we headed over the Lowe's.

Just like we did for our pantry closet, I sanded down the edge of the shelf (you can see the pantry shelf blog here).

Then we put up the shelf supports.

I caulked all the gaps.

While we waited for the caulk to dry so we could paint it, I told Joseph about how the rods really needed to be changed out. Whoever installed our closet just spray painted over everything, and as the hangers would slide across the bar, it would scrape paint off. I was really tired of brushing paint chips off my clothes.

So we changed the rods out.

Do you see the paint chip mess?

Paint fumes give me a headache, so I try not to help when I can. Good thing my sweetie is so good at painting.

We cleared everything out because I didn't want my clothes smelling like paint. Afterwards, I put our air purifier in there, thinking it would take care of the smell. It has a sensor for smell and dust, and it turned out dust was more of a problem than smell, which was interesting.

I have a new rule for something being level. We measure with the level, but we had a hard time getting the shelf perfectly level, so I put a screw on top, let it sit for a second to make sure it didn't roll (forwards/backwards and left/right) and if the screw stayed put, it was level.

It's weird how much better our closet looks now. You can't see it because the door jam is hiding it, but I have a huge empty space. Joseph should be worried...anyone want to go shopping?

This project went very smoothly. Almost too smoothly...it made me a little suspicious. I'm actually considering putting in the shelves I have been meaning to add to the TV room...