Our DIY Walk-through Closet

When we first moved to this house, we struggled to decide which bedroom we wanted to make ours. Moving into a house built in the 1940’s with an entire wing and second story that was added in the early 2000’s meant that we somehow lucked out with 3 master bedrooms (as in 3 of our 5 bedrooms are extremely large and have master bathrooms connected to them).

We ended up picking the upstairs master as our bedroom.

The logistics just all worked out best this way, plus, by picking the upstairs bedroom, we had our own private outdoor balcony off the bedroom – which we are currently in the process of screening in. YAY for finally being able to enjoy the outdoors without the mosquitos!

While the room we picked was marvelously huge, the closets inside weren’t. The hallway leading into the room has 2 very shallow and narrow closets that couldn’t hold my clothes, let alone the clothes for 2 people.

Once  we got everything arranged in the room, I just felt so inefficient having so much unused floor space in the middle of the room. I literally could have hosted yoga classes in our bedroom y’all! I toyed with the idea of incorporating a sitting area with a sectional couch, an office, a library nook, a mini-fridge/bar or even extending our bathroom to make room in there for a tub (since we only have a shower in our master bath). After finally getting everything unpacked and out of the moving boxes, it was clear that the best use of all of this unused space was to figure out how to increase the closet and storage space up here.

After brainstorming and researching all kinds of closet layouts/configurations and trying to determine the best spot for one in our bedroom, we decided to install a single wall to anchor our bed and use the space behind it to house our closet. With roughly $60 worth of 2X4’s, a saw, level, stud-finder and some screws, my dad and I built this:

We measured the length we wanted for the wall, keeping in mind the fact that the wood would be framed in drywall afterward. We cut the top and bottom 2X4s first and then cut all the interior supports to run between them.  We built the framing while it was laid flat on the floor. Once the entire wall was framed and the supports were screwed together, we hoisted it upright and attached it to the floor and ceiling studs. When we installed it, our original floor was still down. We just used a circular saw to cut the vinyl planks where the bottom 2X4 would sit so that the wall would be anchored to the sub floor and through to the floor joists underneath. Luckily I knew we would be redoing the floors with hardwood floors shortly thereafter, so the cuts didn’t have to be perfect.

Before wrapping it in drywall, we had an electrician run an outlet on either side of where our bed would sit for phone chargers/lamps etc. and we also had them install 3 can lights in the closet with a 2-way switch just inside the closet on either side of the wall so that we could reach in and turn the light on or off from either entryway. The electrician also helped us relocate our bedroom lights. Originally the upstairs master had 2 ceiling fans which had been demolished by the previous owners (when you buy a house that was previously foreclosed, demolished fans, graffiti on bedroom walls, missing doors/mirrors/lights/appliances are all standard expectations). We wanted just 1 accent light in the middle of the room and we decided on this brass/gold starburst light from Dot & Bo.

After the electrician, drywall and texture, we we’re about $500 all in for our DIY closet. However, I will say that pre-fab shelving closet units with drawers/shelves etc. (even from IKEA) are NOT cheap. After going in store and building our “dream” closet in their interactive 3D design shop, we ended up changing all kinds of things around because $3,000 for a closet was just not in the budget. We saved significant money by opting for no doors on the closets, choosing shelves and clothes hanger rods instead of drawers, configuring the widths and depths in such a way so that we didn’t have to pay extra for 2 corner units, and leaving off all the very cool, but mostly unneeded accessories (I.e. Pull out tie hanger, shoe holder, jewelry/accessory drawers, ironing board attachment, fancy pants hanger attachments etc.)

The wardrobes/closets from IKEA with the shelves, rods, drawers and delivery charges were roughly $1,000 by the time we had cut things back as much as we reasonably could although you could save on this expense considerably if you decided to tackle some DIY shelving and clothing rods made from metal piping.

When we put this wall up, we knew we wanted to maximize the space behind it and run the closets the full width of the room. One thing I wasn’t sure about is whether or not I would like being able to look into my closets (without being able to shut them off with a door on either side) but I also wasn’t a fan of any of the door options I came across. The pricing of doors and door frames kept creeping the cost of this renovation even higher and frankly, we are total amateurs when it comes to this stuff, so it was a bit intimidating to start thinking about DIY-ing a couple doors. Surprisingly though, since we opted for the black closets, when the closet light is off, you can hardly see into the closets. Here’s a shot of the room with the closet light on.

And here’s a shot with the light off.

With the closet light off, everything just fades into the darkness, and I love the clean modern lines sans doors almost as much as I loved not having to pay for and attempt the install of said doors.

Here are some shots from the inside of our closet. You can see how we saved money by organizing our shoes on shallow wardrobes on the sides with lots of shelves instead of purchasing the expensive shoe attachments. I used the extra wall space for my jewelry and some hooks for a scarf organizer and we incorporated a couple of our original dressers to have a few more drawers. We splurged on 3 drawers built into the wardrobe and used black boxes from IKEA on shelves for other things like socks and underwear. I also organized my fold-able shirts and jeans on open shelving instead of in drawers and it’s actually my preference to store them that way because it’s easier to see all of the folded items as opposed to only the top if they were stuck inside a drawer.

And now we have more than enough closet space to hold our clothes for every season! What creative closet solutions have worked for you? Comment below 👇 I’d love to hear your stories too!