OUR FIRST DIY CUSTOM CLOSET
When planning our current house, we spent a lot of time rearranging the 2nd story layout to make sure we could have a walk in closet attached to each bedroom. In our city, it is very common for a house to have a walk in closet off the master bedroom and small traditional closets attached to the 2nd and 3rd bedrooms. After many hours and sketches we were able to fit in 3 good sized walk in closets. The builder spec was to have 1 wall with a double rod and shelf, and the other with a single rod. We knew we wanted something more custom than what was included and opted to not have any rods or shelves installed at the time of the build. This meant a temporary garment rack was set up in each closet until we could figure out what we wanted to do with the space. Our daughter's closet was the first one we wanted to create.
I spent an hour taking measurements, making drawings and referencing the internet for information on how high to hang the rods etc. After I was done I showed the plans to my husband (who would be doing to actual construction), we made a materials list and were ready to start.
First step was clearing out the closet which was filled with a garment rack, doll clothes, Shopkins and whatever else a 6 year old could fit into an empty room (ha). We removed the carpet and built a base all around the room where the shelves were going to raise it off the ground and look built in.
Next we built each section of shelves in the garage using MDF and then installed them in the closet.
After the shelves were all installed we added crown moulding, built a window seat (my childhood dream) and re-installed the carpet and trim. We filled any nail holes or small seams with wood filler and sanded these spots. Then wiped everything down to remove the dust and filled in any remaining seams that were visible with painters caulking. I applied 3 coats of Chalk White by Benjamin Moore in a Semi Gloss (this took a week to get done - I'm still getting over how sick I am of painting shelves, ha!). Once the paint was completely dry we installed the rods and were able to start filling it with everything. Luckily my mom was in town visiting the following week and she was able to help me (okay she did it all) with making a seat cushion for the window seat. As usual she knew exactly what I was wanting and finished it in 1/10 of the time it would have taken me, thank goodness for talented moms!
I designed the closet to be big enough to grow with her, the rods are hung far enough apart for adult clothing and the shoe shelves are a standard shoe shelf size. I incorporated book shelves to free up space in her room and create a reading nook with her window seat. These shelves also hold baskets with all of her American Doll clothes and accessories, in the future she can use the shelves to display accessories or hold extra baskets. Another change we made was buying enough baskets to hold everything from her dresser and remove the dresser from her bedroom. I was surprised to see that she has been keeping her room so clean in the 2 1/2 weeks since this was completed. Having proper storage really does help keep a 7 year old girl's bedroom in order!
Next up in customizing the linen closet and then possibly our son's closet.
