This is a photo I took of our closet right after it collapsed. We disliked our IKEA closet for a long time, but we never hated it so much as that moment. It was time for a new system. Click below for the "after."
(We redid our closet during the Fall Cure, but sharing your closet space isn't the easiest thing to do, so we waited until bedroom month to finally get up the nerve. All available sources are included at the end of the post.)
We had no budget for our unanticipated makeover, so we tried to keep things low-cost. We bought a wire ClosetMaid organizer that has held up well, although it was a huge pain to install.
We decided to go with a lot of color in our new closet. I hung an old red curtain over the weird interior window (it looks out onto the building hallway). The curtain reminds me of the Red Room in Twin Peaks.
We salvaged the Antonius Drawers from our old system and used them to store folded items. We added a Componobili storage unit (bought at the DWR warehouse sale) to hold ugly items like my hairdryer. We also found 8 FLOR tiles at the warehouse sale that we used to make an area rug.
We hung an IKEA Flan hook and a floor-length mirror on one wall. Our ironing board was hung on another wall.
Notice our grungy walls and trim. Although we love the old, original trim, we can't stand the way our plaster walls are falling apart. Repairing them is a huge job that we're not willing to take on as renters.
Before setting up our new system, we did a lot of decluttering and donating. Boxes on the top shelf hold photos, mementos, and other things we just didn't want to get rid of.
This is the gross part of our closet that we still need to re-do. It's the only "real" closet in our whole apartment, and it stores cleaning supplies and sports equipment. We also store the bike in here.
We use tub trugs for our laundry. They're cute so we don't mind having them out in the open (although our dirty laundry is another story).
Shoes are stored on a wire rack on the floor. (My high heels are in good shape since I never wear them.) The IKEA boxes hold extra blankets and pillows for when we have overnight guests.
Our Source List:
• Chocolate Froth Paint by Behr at Home Depot
• ClosetMaid Organizer from Home Depot, $109
• White Stockholm Boxes from the Container Store, $12.99 each
• Lingo Boxes from IKEA, $3.99 - $4.99
• Fran Hook from IKEA, $3.99
• 2 Antonius Frames from IKEA, $6.99 each
• 8 Antonius Drawers from IKEA, $6 each
• 2 Antonius Worktops from IKEA, $6.99 each
• Bumerang Clothes Hangers, $3.99/8 at IKEA
• Componobili from Design Within Reach, $160
• FLOR Thick and Thin Tiles in Persimmon/Cherry, $10.99 per tile
• Sky Blue 11-Gallon Tub Trugs, $16.99 at Gardener's Supply
• Orange 11-Gallon Tub Trugs are available through the AT Store for $14
• Curtain (Similar to Shown): Cayenne Vintage Velvet from Restoration Hardware
The Ultimate Used Furniture Cleaning Kit
Ana Creates a Community at Home
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Z2 iPod Dock and Wi...
Soda Recipe: Homemade Ginger Ale
Recipe: Spring Fruit and Nut Tabouli
drool worthy :)
i have those ikea designy/baroquey/swirly brown/white boxes, and they all fell apart in a matter of minutes. i hate them. so much. they can't handle anything, anything at all. i still have many of them, barely held together, but surviving. i want to buy good strong plastic ones, but that adds up.
i'm totally on closet-redo mode. and paperwork-filing mode.
yours is pretty!
http://www.rosswalker.co.uk/tv_sounds/sounds_files_20071111_43071896/twin_peaks/wonderful_strange.wav
Nice closet.
I used the elfa system from container store. It looks pretty similar to the closet maid system.
this is inspiring! i have closets that are unbearably small, and have illogical sliding doors on them. i think i may remove them, but i'm scared that i won't be able to put them back on when i move (i rent.)
I redid my closets about a year ago. When I bought my house, each of the bedroom closets had one wooden plank for a shelf and one wooden dowel for a rod. I used Rubbermaid Configurations, which were really easy to install and have stood up to our abuse very well. It's amazing what a difference a closet upgrade can make.
Saya, I hear you on your struggle with sliding doors.
When I was living at home with the folks my room had a small closet (the width of accordion doors X 14" depth) where the doors really made it hard to access the contents. I tried, on more than one occasion, to take the doors off myself but only succeeded once I took a sledge hammer to the railing. Probably not the best way to go about it though.
why have i never noticed antonius before? what an economical drawer system. are those "drawers" canvas or plastic? How much can you stuff in them? I'm thinking of getting one set for our closet and maybe another for the playroom.
theninthcloud: my boyfriend would love to have a sledgehammer in the house... but i don't want to encourage his habit of collecting sharp pointy hurt-y things!
You guys have so little "stuff." Congrats on the de-cluttering step. I can't use the wire shelves. Seems that I always over load them. We need a serious de-cluttering. Do you make house calls?
Wait, so the actual shelving only cost you 108???
Im moving into a rental in about a month that has no closet and I was thinking of getting one of the closet caddies that rolls around...
Are landlords generally cool with doing this, because if its in that price range I would love to.
Love that strappy travel bag!!!!!! Where did you get that?
We did a closet up-do with wire shelving from Lowes with hanger friendly edging--avoid the kind with the 2" sections for the hanger edge---you can't move the clothes on the rod to get anything in or out! We used the continuous length hanger edging and I really like it. Formerly we had an "adjustable one size fits all" shelf over some odd sort of closet rod that hangers would NOT fit on. It was----square. Who DOES that?
I think the large closet shelf cost something like 30$ and installed very easily. They now have a "utility color" shelf which I actually like MUCH better than the official closet white. And it costs less. I have also used this for storage for my business and it was easy to cut to fit and make custom sections and hang one high and one low section. Now going to use a large piece to help get garage more organized---also going to hang the brooms and other garage cleaning items from it. "S" hooks are a wonderful thing!
Until we add a second level of shelving with no hanger edge above the shelf we got Rubbermaid bins for storage and have a large tote stashed in there with family pics and other stuff I need to sort thru and a suitcase with out of season clothing.
We have the super annoying "bi-fold" doors that stick out into the room and block all access to the sides of the closet--which of course continue beyond the actual door opening! On the three other closets in the house these doors fell off instantly and we did replace one but I really cannot remember WHY we thought this was a good idea. The matching closet in our bedroom lost it's doors years ago and is waiting for it's up-do but at least I can REACH the stuff that is in there on a metal garage type storage shelf and some modular storage pieces. To see the two of them side by side is--sobering! Another winter project to add to ALL of the others!
These same style doors are on a small entry coat closet---which fits about--one coat---and our kitchen "pantry" which as built had--nothing. Not a shelf, not a hook, not a cubby--nada. We have no idea why a fairly large space was--empty. We built shelf cleats and laid unfinished pine boards in there and it now holds a ton of stuff. These doors--we did replace them as it now holds al of our packaged foods and larger pots etc and was not really visually pretty---but since THOSE doors are now coming apart we have to re-think this AGAIN. Saw a cool re-use of an old farmhouse screen door for a pantry--hmmm.
Stuck in the 70's in---not a good way!