Half Finished House Tour: Master Closet Makeover

When our house was being built, we had to choose between a master bathroom with no tub but a sizable closet, or a big soaker tub and a smaller closet.  We went tub, but that left us with a closet that was way smaller than we had hoped for.

And of course, like everything else in the house, it was as basic-builder-grade outfitted as it gets.

What a mess

The light was the first thing to go.

I really loved the Allen + Roth closet systems at Lowe's, but the price tag gave me pause.  We looked into the Ikea closet organizers, but they all seemed to eat up more room than we had to spare.

So, I improvised.  I grabbed a bunch ClosetMaid stackables from Target and tried to get the same look for a little less.  I added shelves all around for extra storage, stained wooden closet rods and hung them at heights designed to maximize the vertical space I'd created, and switched out the hardware for a nicer finish.

It's a little hard to see in pictures, but I picked 3 different lavendery-purples, the darkest on the 2 walls with the closet organizers, the lightest on the ceiling, and the middle color on the bare walls.

I hung some hooks for belts, and my favorite family photo.  I finished it off with a big mirror, and tossed in an ottoman that has a little storage in the seat (and that acts as an impromptu step stool so I can reach the top shelf).

All in all, it took about a weekend to get everything assembled and installed.  I made sure to anchor each stacked unit to the wall with strong anchors, so they're nice and firmly attached.  The only thing I would do differently next time is to consider the weight of the entire structure on the drawers I put on the bottom of the stack - those drawers close, but it takes more effort than I'd like.  My husband's middle drawer set works much more smoothly.  Otherwise, they've held up well, and we've really enjoyed the extra storage and organization!