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Small Closet Makeover

This small closet makeover was a treat because it was for my sister.  She had purchased her first home and needed some help with the closet.  The description she had given me with about her closet had me for a loss of words.  I really couldn’t grasp what she was talking about until we FaceTimed and I saw it.  “Ohhhh that is interesting” was my exact response.

She had kept talking about this angle in the wall and two doors connecting in one space.  I visually couldn’t understand it.  I actually thought she didn’t know what she was talking about because it didn’t make any sense.

After seeing this space, it finally clicked and all I kept saying is who in the world would design something like this.  Clearly a man, haha 😉

The angle in the closet put restrictions on this closet because it wasn’t very high and she has quite a bit of dresses.  You can see in the picture below on the right of the closet, the dresses were hitting the ground.

The left side of the closet had a double wire shelf.  Also on the left side (not shown) was a corner wall space.  Again, very unique.

In her previous apartment, she had the Elfa system from The Container Store.  The beauty of this system is it can go with you when you move and that’s exactly what she did here.

BEFORE

CLOSET DESIGN

After I had the dimensions, I worked with the designers at The Container Store to create a functional system that would work there.  The first design broke up the closet into two sections one on the left and one on the right.  

With the limitations of the width and height, we wanted to maximize space and breaking up the sections would waste the space in the middle of the closet.

Long-hang was also a primary focus as well as space for shoes.

Once the design was complete, we took the design from her previous closet and figured out what pieces were needed.  The Container Store has the ability to copy a previous design to a current design and determine the missing components.  

That’s why this system is amazing, she didn’t have to purchase an entire new closet.  She only need a few additional pieces.

We ended up reversing the closet design and putting the shelves on the right side to make it easier to get to the corner wall on the left side.

SHOES

The right side of the closet was for the shelves.  It made the most sense to organize shoes, sweatshirts and handbags here based not the product she previously had.

These drop down front bins come in two different sizes, she had the tall version and the short version.  When organizing shoes, keeping them by usage (how frequently worn) and type is the process I use.

The tall bins went on the floor as this allowed her to see what was in there and created space for shorter shoes to be stored on top of them.

Boots went on the bottom, the sneakers went on top of the bins.  From there, we blended in taller boots (that didn’t fit in the bin). The leopard print boots went on the outside with the black boots in the middle.  This provided a better visual and blended them nicely together. 

Above that row were the remaining solid colored boots and the leopard print sneakers that went in the middle to blend this row together.

The next row was for the flats.  These clear shoe bin drawers stack, creating more space.  In the middle went a pair of sneakers.  These sneakers provided the symmetrical balance and blended with the flats because of the pink trim on the bottom of the shoe and the tongue.

SWEATSHIRTS & HANDBAGS

Above the shoes on the next two shelves were these drop down front boxes used for sweatshirts.  These bins are from the same line as the shoes.  These were added to the shelves to blend everything together.  The sweatshirts were all different colors.  The gray trim on the outside of the storage bin provided consistency.  Our brains are attracted to symmetry and we were able to make our brains happy by moving the bins here.

The top shelf has the handbags and pants.  With this unique layout, the creating balance was important. Putting the handbags on each end achieved this goal.

DRESSES 

The dresses and long hang items where centered in the closet by color. Color coding is a very important tip when organizing your closet.  It not only makes it easier to find the shirt you want, it looks better too.  Let’s be honest, we like to look at nice things, we gravitate towards them.  Gravitate to you closet by using the rainbow method of arranging items by color. I like to put white at the front, followed by pink and then red.  From there follow it with orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, brown, gray and black. 

All the items were on matching velvet hangers.  I can’t stress the importance of matching hangers, it’s SO important.  They are slim, provide warmth and give that cohesive look and feel. 

SHORT HANG, SWEATERS & HATS

The left side of the closet consists of the short hanging items, sweaters, and sandals.  Jackets and blouses consisted hung on the bottom of this closet while the sweaters and sandals went above them in the drop-down front bins.

Usually I would keep all the shoes together in one area but there are exceptions to the rule.  Who’s seen “He’s Just Not That Into You?” This scenario is the exception to the rule because of the bins.  The remaining gray front bins would not fit on the right side of the closet and they wouldn’t fit on the top row because of the angle. With the stacking capability, we were able to create a uniform look and store away the remaining items that weren’t worn as frequently.

The last thing that was done was adding the hats to the wall. Hats are pretty annoying to organize, not going to lie, mainly because of the options available and the shape of them.  A simple command hook got them off the shelves and made them accessible from the wall.  

We were able to create a system in a space that was not very functional.  Using matching hangers, shoe bins and of course the Elfa system with the trim pieces beautified this closet. The trim pieces are an upgraded feature that make the closet look sharper and chic.  

The right products can transform any space and in this scenario, it did just that.