I removed the doors to my own closet and put up a curtain made from using cyanotype blueprint fabric. The image is of my husband and I with lots of branches and leaves falling. I also made one for my niece when she was wearing her fairy wings. LOVE blueprint fabric.

I am warming up to the idea more and more especially after seeing this post from one of my fave home decor blogs YoungHouseLove.com

http://www.younghouselove.com/2010/03/nursery-progress-closet-quick-change/

It's a way to rid myself of the orangey-wood doors typical of the 50s (which is fine for those who like the aesthetic but I like more crisp and contemporary looks), introduce some color to the room and switch fabrics around easily, and it provides a softer and more cozy feel to the room.

Grace Hester Designs
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Shop my designs at http://gracehesterdesigns.etsy.com

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We just moved and I removed the closet doors in both of the bedrooms. In ours mainly to inspire me to "clean out the closet" more often and keep it neat/organized. And in our sons for more floor space.

My question to those that have removed the doors.. Do they go back up later? What happens when the infant becomes a toddler and starts pulling stuff out of the closet? They grow up fast!

All well and good, but the curtains in the pic are too short. why not move the rod down so the curtains skim the floor? they look odd suspended above the ground like that.

Overall, though, I'm a fan since many closet doors are cheap and ugly and a curtain may make it softer and allow for more floor space.

We removed the closet door before converting the office/junk room to a nursery, and use curtains instead. The curtains add texture and absorb sound. They also add some softness to the room. My daughter is now 2 1/2 and the curtains make it very easy for her to get out her own clothes, put dirty clothes in the hamper, and put her folded laundry away.

The toddler years are when you definitely don't want doors! A toddler will figure out how to open them and pull stuff out anyway, and then get his fingers pinched, or worse--knock a sliding door off its track. I find that removing the closet doors also makes the room seem larger.

I like this! Great way to add color AND our doors are a pain to clean and a couple areas are cracked. This is a great, easy switch out idea.

Anyone know where I can get the curtains shown in the picture?

Hm. This intrigues me. My kids don't have a closet in their room, but the closet in my room is uuugly. And slatted. I was thinking about painting them, but I bet that will be a huge PITA with all those slats.

(I agree with the poster who said these curtains are a few inches too short.)

I would love to do this but we don't have the storage space available to stash the door until we're ready to sell the house and put it back on its hinges.

beebalmj - good point about pinched fingers. I must have a curious child I guess. Everything in the house has safety latches on it. LOL If her closet was without doors she would probably be spending time rummaging through it rather than sleeping.

I think it looks great. I begged my parents to let me take off my closet doors, but they wouldn't let me. I dont understand why, lots of people seems to like the curtain thing.

Hey ennah,

The curtains can be found here,
http://foxyurl.com/Qno

daffodiljill,

They won't let you do it even with the promise of of putting them back when it's time to sell the property? The "safer" route when staging your house for sale is still to have the doors in place.

Grace Hester Designs
Silhouette- and typography- based artwork and prints
Shop my designs at http://gracehesterdesigns.etsy.com

Experience my blog at http://gracehester.typepad.com
Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/gracehester

This is a very beautiful room. At least for my 17 month old, this wouldn't work, though. When her closet door is open, she does like to pull her clothing and shoes out! For this closet, I would suggest not using the lower rungs to hang clothing (until the curious stage is over) and put some childproofing latches on the lower drawers if they slide open very easily.

We have always replaced our doors with curtains and yes, the babies do get in the closet more often but I am always willing to pick up a little more and have a beautiful room:) I have found it really makes a difference in the feel of an infants space.

Yes, we have done the same thing. Our closet actually looks quite a bit like the one on the younghouselove blog mentioned above. Our 2- and 4-year-olds are sharing a room for the first time and we weren't sure how to divide the very small closet. In the end, we added a tension rod (meant for shower curtains) below the built-in rod. My younger child's clothes go down there with the idea that she can look through them and take them out herself. I admit that it was a nuisance for the first few days since she enjoyed that freedom so much that there were frequently clothes all over the floor! But she grew tired of that fast and it never happens now.
We removed the door so that they wouldn't pinch their fingers, bang the door all the time, or smash the closet door into the room door (they are side by side). I am so glad we did it. They are in the larger bedroom in our house and it has a small ensuite bathroom. We removed that door too for all the same reasons. It really opens up the room and at the moment they don't ask for privacy in the bathroom so it works. There is a second bathroom out in the hallway in case they do wish to be able to shut the door.
We haven't hung curtains yet, but we may. I'm a bit worried about them being pulled down and I don't mind how it looks without them though.

That's a beautiful closet and I love the sweet little framed baby shirt.

I took off the closet doors, yes. I put the huge dresser in the closet and will build a shelf system around it to hold a few things.

my two yr old son has closet doors up. the clothes hang so high that we use the floor of the closet for storage and extra play space. he loves closing and opening the doors. he has yet to slam fingers in doors or drawers he is super careful and always has been.

Our house is quite small so we removed the doors from our daughters' closet to make an extra little nook for each.

When my son was small I took the folding doors off his closet to keep his fingers safe, it ended up working so well we took them off in various houses until now (he's almost 8) Boys, in particular, don't have a lot of hanging clothing and we used a standard book shelf turned on it's side for storage (looked built in, tall, skinny shelves made it easier to keep things straight than a wide shelf, plus they big picture books fit in it that way) and hung the few things he did have above (and out of reach) His closet now is still not really used for clothing, it's tiny and has ended up as more of a fort (so the doors are a must now :))

We took off the closet doors because they were broken when we bought our house. Our son is 4 months old and it's great because the curtains are quiet and I can put things away while he's sleeping. We used plant hooks screwed into the ceiling to hold up a curtain rod...hope it holds up as he turns into a toddler.

I took my daughter's doors off her closet shortly after we bought our house. The previous owners had put in those mirror doors...not a good idea with a hell raising tomboy...

I've yet to put up curtains, though that was the intentions. I just try to do too much at once...but eventually it will have curtains....before she graduates...hopefully

We removed the doors on ours sons wardrobe to allow more space in the room. There are built in drawers in the bottom, then a row of baskets, then hanging space then another row of baskets.

It works really well. I have thought of a curtain but have never got around to it.

My 2 and a half year old has pulled the clothes out of the drawers once or twice... but he'd be able to open the doors anyway so no big deal really.

The room we're moving our daughter in already had the doors removed and curtains hung up. We're thinking to make it a mix of storage and hiding/play nook for her.

I hung a tension rod inside because I did not want to hide the beautiful molding. Much cleaner look.

I like the look of the curtains, but I need to keep my toddler out of the closet. We have bi-fold doors and use these to lock them. http://www.onestepahead.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId=7771

We took the doors off the closet in the boy's room and in the girls' room ever since they were babies and it has been fantastic. The Boy's closet has boxes on shelves for his folded clothes and a rod for hanging shirts and overalls, etc. He does on occasion pull clothes out and try to put them on (he's 22 months) but the thing he loves most is the reading nook at the bottom of the closet with a mirror, pillows and big basket of books. Actually, everyone has a turn in there at least once a day! The Girls have a big dresser in their closet so having the doors off allows them to easily pull out the drawers but it also lets us have more floor space in their room. No curtains yet, but it's something I've thought of for a few years!

I was just thinking about this the other day when Wren was inching her way into the closet. I could just see her tiny fingers getting squished. Easily! Plus, I've been wanting to make some curtains out of some fun fabric for her room. So this is my answer. Thanks, Ohdeedoh, for always having something for me when I need it. Always inspirational.