Closets deserve to be beautiful too! This walk-in closet makeover has completely reshaped my morning mood. I’ll share all the details how I turned my small, basic closet into a dressing room of my dreams!
Your closet is where you start and end your day – I think it should reflect YOU. There is no worse way to kick off your morning than digging through a mountain of cascading clothes unable to find anything or ending your day contributing to that same clothes mountain.
If your closet is in need of some TLC and you’re hoping to create a beautiful, yet functional, closet then this walk-in closet makeover post is for you! I hope to inspire you to dive into a closet refresh project and gain closet makeover ideas for yourself as I show you how to create a closet you’ll LOVE.
With a thoughtful closet design and some simple organization tips, you’ll get the most use our of your closet space and actually look forward to getting up and dressed in the morning. Heck, I’m even enjoying putting away laundry now!
Jewelry Tray // Velvet Hangers // Rope Baskets // Gold Pant Hangers // Acrylic Dividers // Grasscloth Wallpaper // Floral Wallpaper // Custom Closet System // Wooden Drawer Dividers // Light Fixture // Hardware Knobs // Harlequin Rug // DIY Vintage Mirror
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We moved into our home, built in 2002, about 3 months ago. While some may focus on the areas of the house that visitors see most, our approach was quite the opposite. We first refinished the primary bedroom because it was important to me to have an oasis that reflected us. The primary closet makeover was second on the list because we wanted our day to start and end in a comfortable and inviting space. I initially had planned to use the IKEA Pax system, but unfortunately, multiple pieces have been out of stock for a year (yes, I’ve been stocking and planning well before our house purchase). So while this was a semi- DIY closet makeover, it was well worth the extra cost!
CLOSET MAKEOVER BEFORE:
We started with a long narrow walk-in closet with very limited storage. The single white wire shelf and hanging rack was leaving so much wasted closet storage space both above the top shelf and below our hanging clothes. And let’s be honest, those mismatched highlighter color hangers weren’t doing this space any favors.
PREPPING FOR CLOSET BUILT-INS
1) Remove Clothing
First step, remove everything. Luckily, we had an open guest bedroom to throw all our clothes in temporarily. We plan to go through these later and only bring what we absolutely love back into our closet.
2) Remove White Wire Shelves
Can I just take a moment and talk about how much I despise white wire shelves? These things are SO NOT functional for a closet space. Smaller items fall through, you can’t slide your hanging clothes much more than a few inches, they are nearly impossible to clean (a real problem for a neat freak) and especially with only one single shelf around the closet there is so much wasted space above and below the hanging clothes. Ok, thanks for listening! Moving on…
3) Patch Holes and Sand
Using fast drying spackle, I filled and sanded the holes left from the wire shelving.
This is sander is a Surfprep 3×4 Electric Ray. Enjoy 10% off with OAKANDGRAIN10
4) Wash Walls
Yes, call me crazy! I wash walls before I paint. I just used KrudKutter and a wet rag. This ensures a clean surface so you don’t have any paint or wallpaper adhesion issues.
5) Paint Closet Walls
Next, I gave the entire master closet a fresh coat of paint. We installed board and batten in our primary bedroom using the color Behr Sculptor Clay (very similar to Smokey Taupe in my mood board) and I just extended this as our closet paint color to keep it cohesive.
6) Hang Wallpaper
Hanging wallpaper in a closet is such a dynamic closet design choice. It gives the space so much life! The beauty of wallpapering a closet is that you don’t have much surface area to cover which keeps costs down, but the little addition even makes an impact in adjacent rooms, in this case our primary bedroom. I even had this off the wall idea (hehe, kind of literally) to wallpaper the ceiling! I loved the idea of adding some subtle texture with this coordinating grasscloth wallpaper.
CLOSET BUILT-INS:
Here’s why I call this a semi-DIY closet… I actually hired out the built-in closet system aspect of the project. Sure, I probably could have fumbled my way through a DIY built-in closet, the problem for me was the disorganization that would take placed during the process and a very tight turn around to hosting guests.
For us, a full on DIY closet makeover just wasn’t realistic. The IKEA Pax units estimate for this project was about $1500, but I would have had to wait who knows how long for all the pieces to be in stock and also have to install it all on my own. The professional closet build-in was about double the IKEA price, but in contrast, was completed in a few hours so we were able to get our life back in order rather quickly.
Raleigh Doors and Closets did a fantastic job designing the custom closet system in a gallery style layout with the perfect combo of shelves, hanging space and drawers. It included 2 long hanging sections for long dresses and pants, 2 short hanging sections and 8 standard drawers on the left wall. The right wall consisted of double hanging section on the back wall and 2 scoop drawers and lots of open shelves for shoe shelves and tons of open shelving for baskets of accessories or off-season attire.
On each side, there is plenty of clearance on the top shelf for extra storage baskets or luggage. As for the details, we went with black hanging rods to compliment the feature wall of floral wallpaper.
I personally think this was the best built-in closet design! So good, in fact, we don’t even need a dresser in our bedroom anymore! You can see we didn’t utilize any corner shelves and kept the back of the walk-in closet open. I was hesitant at first, because I felt we weren’t maximizing our small walk-in closet, but I now love how open it feels.
One of my favorite things when it comes closet storage solutions were these scoop pull-out drawers. They are perfect for storing hats, belts, ties and jewelry organization.
CLOSET MAKEOVER AFTER + FINISHING TOUCHES:
1) Install Hardware
The closet system came with hardware, but to customize the space a little further I attached my own hardware.
Hickory Hardware Williamsburg Knobs in Satin Dover. Enjoy 10% off with code: OAG10.
2) New Closet Light Fixture
The original florescent tube light just wasn’t going to do. In search for a semi-flush mount, I found this beautiful light fixture for a reasonable price, which I thought was perfect for our walk-in closet lighting. I wasn’t necessarily going for a glam closet (think closet with chandelier and under shelf lights), but it did add an element of pizazz to the space.
If you purchase this light just know we had to do a little finagling because it didn’t fit on our electrical box. (I think it’s European made?). You’ll need a new bracket and wire cutters to get the job done.
DISCLAIMER – When working with lights or electricity I recommend discussing with a professional to be sure you’re keeping up with code and installing safely.
3) Wardrobe Purge and Closet Organization
After going through all our clothes and doing a major purge of items we didn’t love, we organized them based on season and function. I stole some tips from a few blogs on “How to Organize a Closet like a Pro” which included making zones for your clothing. We put all of our off-season clothing and accessories in large baskets above the built-ins (i.e. summer dresses, bathing suits, scarves, hat and gloves) so we can rotate through our seasonal clothings and don’t have off-season items gumming up our system.
The closet design offered us both 1 long and 2 short hanging sections, which I highly recommend when designing your closet. We categorized these into casual and dressy zones so there is less digging each time we go to get ready. It has been a game changer and really simplifies the process of choosing and finding outfits.
4) Closet Organizer Accessories
New matching velvet hangers were key to finishing out our primary closet makeover. Jewelry trays, baskets and acrylic dividers have been the perfect storage solution additions for our space.
I was on the hunt for the perfect vintage floor mirror for while without success. So I ended up taking my boyfriend’s IKEA floor mirror from his bachelor days and giving it a new vintage look in my IKEA Basic Mirror Hack.
The harlequin rug adds some nice geometric contrast to the floral wallpaper. Again, an addition after this post was drafted.
To add a little more charm, I exchanged the store bought stool for a thrifted piano stool. (Updated photo below). In this case “out with the new, in with the old” was the motto.
CLICK IMAGES TO SHOP
This closet makeover before and after still blows me away! Raleigh Doors and Closets nailed the custom look I was after! I envied beautiful closets on Pinterest for years, and now I finally have one of my own. My mornings just feel less chaotic now with a perfectly designed and well organized closet. I hope this inspires you to focus on those areas of your house that only you see, but probably effect your day in big ways!
Girl Behind the Blog
I’m Jess, the creator of Oak & Grain. A mid-west girl at heart who now resides in Raleigh, NC. I love finding old things and giving them new purpose by way of refinishing or incorporating unexpected, overlooked thrift store finds in the modern home. I work full-time in medicine and I love dipping into my creative side and in the process, keeping my sanity. Follow me on Instagram and YouTube to see more behind the scenes action.
3 responses to “Incredible Walk-in Closet Makeover: Beautiful and Functional”
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[…] say it also leads to less laundry around the room, but that’s not the case. Check out our Primary Closet Makeover for more details on this […]