This is the most drastic transformation I've every shared. Honestly, I'm a little embarrassed for you to see my before pictures, but you need to know where this closet started to understand just how far it's come.
When we moved into our house, this little hall closet quickly became a dumping ground for things we needed to have available, but also tucked away from the kids. We don't have a garage so the closet became home to tools, paint, and other things related to whatever projects we were working on as well as normal stuff like cleaning supplies, umbrellas, pet supplies, etc.
The opportunity arose to partner with The Shelving Store and I thought it would be the perfect chance to finally straighten out this mess of a closet and turn it into a functional space.
I started by clearing everything out including the standard, little wire shelf already in the closet. There was really no point to keeping this shelf because it was installed so close to the slanted ceiling that it was too shallow to set anything on. I plan to add this shelf to Isla's closet instead and give her another rack for hanging clothes.
While the top priority was for this closet to become an organized, functional space, I also wanted to make it aesthetically pleasing. It's in a very visible part of our house and gets opened a lot in front of company. I didn't see why this little space couldn't be spruced up a bit to flow with the rest of our decor.
I repainted because the walls were pretty scuffed up and added dark green stripes to the back wall. (Here's a tutorial for painting stripes) The stripes on the angled ceiling kind of gave me vintage circus vibes which I didn't mind and definitely created the illusion of a deeper, taller closet.
I selected The Shelving Store's white wire shelves for this redo and they were probably the easiest install I've ever done! I started by placing one shelf on the floor of the closet and adding the four poles to the sides. Then I raised my shelf and fastened a shelf clip to each pole at my desired height. I lowered my shelf onto the clips and gave a little push down so I knew it was sitting evenly then repeated the process for my other shelves. After my shelf was built, I added all my accessories and started organizing.
I'll list and link each product I used so you can get a good look at all the accessories and details.
My closet contains...
Four White Wire Shelves Another reason our old closet shelf was so useless was because I never trusted it to hold much weight. We have some heavy things in this closet so they all piled up on the floor. These shelves can hold 300 lbs each easy so weight is never an issue now.
Four Posts These are fully adjustable in 1" increments which was a dream when it came to storing some of our larger or more awkward items.
Four Black Poly Liners Keeps smaller things from falling through the shelves and helps everything to sit nice and straight.
Two Wire Shelf Dividers I use these to separate my paints, stains, etc, but I love that I can pop them in anywhere I might need them!
Two Accessory Hooks perfect for hanging up the dog's leash and a couple umbrellas.
One Wire Utility Basket we used to have dog toys, harnesses, and accessories scattered throughout the closet and we'd always have to dig for them. This is now "Riley's basket" and holds everything she needs. Nail trimmer, brush, travel bowl, toys, they're all in one spot!
To add some additional storage and tie in the green stripes on the back wall, I painted and distressed a couple old drawers I'd salvaged the same green. They're super deep and are the perfect way to keep similar things grouped together in a stylish way. One houses large tools like drills, saws, and sanders, and the other holds cleaning supplies.
As a finishing touch to maximize the storage potential of this space, I added an organizer to the back of the door to hold our brooms, mops, and other things. Everything we need fits so nicely in this space now with room to spare! It's such a great feeling to have things so organized and has taken a lot of stress out of the day.
I still can't believe what a change this little hall closet went through and what a difference it's made in the functionality of our house! No more digging and searching for what we need or cramming more stuff into this space. Everything has a place and we know exactly where to find whatever we're looking for.
I'm so pleased with the durability and simplicity of The Shelving Store's products, but my favorite feature is how customizable they are. This is an awkward little closet so being able to have a shelving unit that fits perfectly and is completely customizable to our changing storage needs is the biggest win! If you have a space you feel is underutilized, I highly recommend checking out The Shelving Store and seeing how you can get the most out of your space.
