Because my closet reno took a few months and I took a LOT of photos along the way, I decided to break this up into 2 (maybe 3) posts so it’s not too overwhelming . So for part 1, I’ll be showing how I actually built the frames, or shelves, for the entire closet. Take a deep breath, here we go!
A lot of people ask where I bought the closet shelves from. I laugh because I actually tried to buy the frames/shelves first. I honestly had no intentions of building this 100% from scratch myself. I tried for several nights to make the IKEA bookshelves and closet frames fit into my closet on paper. But there were lots of gaps and unused space because they didn’t fit the dimensions of my closet exactly. Who knew. So, I decided to heck with IKEA, I’m going to make my own because there wasn’t going to be one inch of unused space in my closet – I can’t afford to give up that space!
Here’s the oh-so-embarassing “before” photos.
The very very first step in this closet reno was to figure out how I wanted the layout. My closet is approx. 63″ wide by 84″ long. I knew I was going to be removing all shelving from the back wall and leaving it open/empty and make more of a “galley” shaped closet. I thought that would make it feel bigger (longer), plus I could add something pretty to it. (Ahem.) So since I was losing that space on the back wall, I knew I needed to double hang one of the galley sides to make up for it. It took lots of evaluating and literally taking “inventory” of how many shirts/pants/dresses/shoes etc. I had to determine how much space I needed for each thing. Seriously the KEY to this y’all. Here is what I came up with on my first sketch. The top of both sides have room for baskets to store things I don’t use on a daily basis – sweaters, boots, memorabilia etc. The right side of the right wall has a jewelry mirror, 3 drawers, and hooks for purses underneath.
Once I decided on the sketch, I finalized all the measurements. I took the tallest pair of heels I own to see how much space I would need for each shoe shelf, used a shirt to see how much space for the hanging spaces, tall boots for the shelves, etc. Here are the drawings I took with me EVERYWHERE during this reno.
The next step was to remove all the current wire shelving and toss it. Then patch the holes and put a nice fresh coat of white semi gloss paint on the walls.
The next thing I did was wallpaper the back wall. Most of you may think I’m crazy, but I wanted this to be MY space. Something very glam, very ME, and something the husband probably wouldn’t approve of anywhere else in the house! This is Candice Olsen’s Palladian wallpaper.
Then I bought the building material. 4′ x 8′ sheets of MDF. That’s it. I got these from Lowe’s for $34 each and had Lowe’s cut them for me for FREE. I had them cut into 14″ wide pieces. Their 8′ height worked perfect because that’s the exact height of my ceiling (and probably most of your ceilings). Each 4′ x 8′ board got me 3 pieces of 14″ wide strips. In total I probably used between 6 and 7 full sheets of MDF, because I used the 14″ wide pieces for the vertical framing as well as the shelves. You’ll see below.
Here they are after Lowe’s cut them for me and with my paint supplies, which is just a pure white semi gloss. I gave every single piece 3 coats of white paint. I know that’s a lot, but you want them to be durable and the MDF just seems to soak the paint up.
Now for actually installing them. I cut out the baseboards where the vertical pieces were up against the walls to give it the “built in” effect. I used my multitool from Harbor Freight which is an awesome tool to own! My anniversary gift last year!
I put the board in it’s slot and used the nail gun and compressor to put a nail in every 12 inches or so to attach it to the wall. There was a slight gap at the ceiling, but that’s no big deal because I was going to cover it up with moulding later on.
Now for the shelving. I used basic white quarter round shown below, cut into 13″ pieces and put them at the height I wanted each shelf. I used the level to make them straight, and nailed them into the vertical boards. I cut the shelves out of the same 14″ wide MDF using my table saw and laid the shelf on the quarter round. And then nailed away.
I kept repeating those exact same steps as I went.
Once I had that first section done, I put up another vertical piece to start the middle section. And then repeated the steps again to make all the shoe shelves shown below.
Then it was on to the other side. I put up 2 vertical boards (cutting out the baseboards where necessary) and put in more shelves.
And that’s how I built the main frames and shelves for my closet. I hope this helps and if you have any questions or want more details, please comment and let me know! I’m excited to share the next couple posts with you guys where I will show you how I added a lot more moulding to make it look “built in”, made a custom belt rack, felt lined jewelry drawers, and of course the fun styling and decor at the end!