Every old apartment or house we've lived in - even when the rest of the place is updated - has had terribly neglected closets. Be they coat closets, bedroom closets, or pantries, the closets of older homes often just make you want to keep the door shut:
But don't! A closet is such a small space that a weekend of work can really turn one around. Here are the steps we've taken ourselves when faced with crumbly closets:
- Pull up any carpet that may be covering wooden floors. We often find carpet remnants covering the floors of closets that have nice wooden floors to match the apartment underneath. If there isn't a nice floor underneath, replace the carpet with new (be open to rubber sheet, Flor tiles, or something else).
- Clean the floors and walls, vacuuming up any debris and wiping the surfaces.
- Fill any cracks in the wall surface and corners.
- Give a coat of paint to the walls, ceiling, and trim. For simplicity, we often just use a single color in an eggshell finish for closet interiors - even if the outside of the closet has contrasting trim. Consider a playful color for some fun (dark colors will better hide really bad imperfections, too).
- Replace any shelves or rails if necessary. If a coat of paint will suffice, paint them with something durable and cleanable.
- Consider a light if there isn't one already. There are lots of battery-operated options out there if you aren't in for having something hard-wired.
The gallery above contains some inspiring closets from Apartment Therapy's past for a little inspiration. Take a look, and please tell us about your own closet-fixer-upper experiences below!
(Images: Flickr member Jeff Moss licensed for use under Creative Commons, Apartment Therapy reader Cathy, Sarah Coffey, Apartment Therapy reader Elizabeth, )
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Comments (24)
In pittsburgh, it seems as though every closet is a teeny narrow passageway that can't even fit a shirt in it! we have added new rails so that you can put a few items in, but usually you have to just build shelves and call it a wardrobe or shoe closet!
We painted our small bedroom closet a deep red and installed a "system" to make more room. It actually makes me happy every time I go to get clothes out. I should do the same for the hall closet...
When we moved in, we had two what I call "stupid closets." The closet in the vestibule is 7.5 inches deep and 6 feet wide. You can't even stick a shoe in there properly. I rehabbed it by installing a second shelf, half a dozen hooks, and a hanging shoe rack. Had my electrician wire it with a plug and now it's the world's largest charging station.
Upstairs, the second bedroom had a closet that was 16 inches wide and 6 feet deep. Totally useless. We demolished it and built an ample 5x7 master closet.
In my last place, I had two closets that weren't quite deep enough for regular hangers, so I bought child hangers and they were perfect!
My bedroom closet is (size-wise) like the first picture. I have a bathroom rug on the floor, rail to hang things and two shelves above. Barely fits it all, and I've purged plenty, use skinny matching hangers and have to keep coats elsewhere. Always a bit jealous when I see beautiful, customized systems (and the space for them).
Curious what battery operated lights people have had success with. My closet is very dark and has no light. I've tried two battery operated ones to no avail. The light up a few inches in front of them but not the whole closet - I still cannot see my clothes especially because there is not surface to mount them on that is right in front of my clothes. When I put them on any wall surface by the vary nature of a closet, those walls are not facing my clothes.
The bedroom closet I share(!) with my boyfriend is identical to the one in the first photo above, too. I spruced it up when we moved in and became ruthless about purging unloved and unworn clothing. We keep coats, dresses, and suits elsewhere (zipped up in the hall closet, also pressed for space). I cleaned it, removed an unanchored/wobbly shelving system, patched holes, painted it and installed a new rod up high. Then I added a doubler so shirts hang above and folded pants/skirts hang below. We even have a shoe rack.
We both have a separate dresser for casual clothes, and again, by keeping our wardrobes edited down, it works.
I actually think that after a year the little thing has grown on me. Huh!
This is a GREAT article. I'm moving into my new apartment (the first one completely on my own, sans roommate, sans boyfriend) on Wednesday, and it has very odd closets. There is a small closet in the bedroom, similarly sized to the one in the first picture. Then, there is a HUGE closet in between the living room and the bathroom. This closet is kind of like a very skinny room, running the entire depth of the apartment, with a door on each end, and about 5 feet wide. I've been thinking a lot about what to do with these spaces. I'm not sure the examples shown in the article will work out for my spaces, but I'm hoping I can get some good ideas from the comments.
I'd be interested in an article about how to spruce up kitchen cabinets. The kitchen at my new place has a TON of cabinet space. It is almost overwhelming to think about what to do with all of it.
our 2 kids share a room, and although they are small, they still are both clotheshorses who have defined ideas about what to wear. Inside their fairly standard small closet (18"x36") we put four sets of 1x8 boards on all three walls in a u-shape, with a hanging rod beneath and baskets for socks on the floor. put a chair underneath for them to climb and get the clothes they want and a clamp-on shop light so they can see.
This is SO much easier to keep organized (for me) and to use (for the kids) than the typical hanging rod-big bin of sloppy clothes or separate bureau for the kid clothes. and it cost around $20.
caiti, I know the narrow closets you mean (we used to have one), but that's only if you're lucky enough to HAVE closets in Pittsburgh. There are plenty of 2000+ sq ft early 1900s homes around here that don't have two closets to rub together. It's a problem.
We have a long, narrow closet with a weird layout. It's two feet deep by five or six feet wide, and the door is way on one end of the long side. Let's see if I can ASCII this...
_________
I````````I
I_____,,,,,I
The commas represent the door.
Two feet deep is about wide enough for a standard hanger plus an inch or a few. When we arrived, this was the setup:
_________
I________I
I_____,,,,,I
...One bar all the way down, leaving half the clothes hidden away and inaccessible. Plus, there was a bar 1.5 feet above the first bar. For hanging what, bikinis?
I changed the layout to this:
_________
I'I```````I
I'I____,,,,,I
Two closet rods with shelves on top, one at five feet off the ground, and one four feet above it. We lined the walls of the closet with hanging shoe organizers for socks, undies etc, and I wired up a lamp using an extension cord, a fixture, and a lightbulb. We had battery-powered lights but they were weak and annoying. I just got an extension cord the same color as our trim (brown) and ran it along the floor behind the bed to an outlet nearby.
PROBLEMS SOLVED
...dang it, commas!
Ah, that didn't clarify anything at all. We just swapped one long rod for two short ones way in the back of the closet. Plus some high shelves.
Sorry for the tl;dr and confusion.
Our house was built in 1903 & we have one tiny & one medium sized closet. So we have constantly edit our stuff or we would end up on an episode of "Hoarders". Also, I want to say that that first photo of the empty closet with a couple of hangers looks beautiful-- like an Edward Hopper closet.
In my last apt., my biggest closest was in the living room (!) and the smallest was in the bedroom (about 2' x 2'). The biggest closet was 2' x 4'. Hmmm... Being a clothes horse, my clothes were ALL OVER the apartment: shoes were in one of the kitchen's two closets (both 2' x 2'), pants and skirts and shirts in the living room, and dresses in the bedroom. I got my exercise running around in the morning!
Now I have a smallish walk-in in my apt., so I keep clothes I rarely wear in my coat closet with other things in my bedroom closet. There is something to be said for having all your clothes in one place!
ours is the same as architexas.
large closet in the living room, smaller in the bedroom...except i also don't have any 'closet' storage in the kitchen.
i'm slowly trying to persuade my husband to let us move all of our clothes to the living room (since we have a majority of those) and all of our movies/dvds/storage things to the bedroom closet.
as of right now, it's too narrow with 2 bars front and back. his clothes are on the front bar, and i have to go thru a curtain of clothes to get to mine in the back.
not so great when i also don't have more than rope lights to see my clothes =/
Ugh, what an unappetizing 'before' picture! Our house has no closets, so we installed Ikea cabinet-closets and it's been a revelation. It beats the heck out of any regular closet I've ever lived with, no reaching in, everything right there...never going back. Tear out the walls and absorb space into the room, then put in the cabinets where ever they fit best!
Anyone else see this link over at Ohdeedoh? I will never look at bifold doors the same way again...
http://www.ohdeedoh.com/ohdeedoh/inspiration/the-most-amazing-closet-doors-weve-ever-seen-125435
I think painting the insides of a closet is such a fantastic idea.
Ooh! Perfect timing. I just fixed up my closet. I used lots of thrifted elements. Next I want to add wallpaper and a skylight. I posted about it here: http://thelittlebig.wordpress.com/2010/08/25/thrifted-home-tour-closet/
Man I feel very lucky. Although our house was built in 1929, we have good sized to ginormous closets in each of four bedroom (the smallest closet is 2 x 4 feet; the two largest are 4 x 6 or 7 feet). I was surprised that 1920s houses in the Milwaukee area had such generous closets.
I don't have a closet at school but a wardrobe. I've added 3M hooks, extra drawers, and new ideas for shelving in order to fit not only all of my clothes and shoes but also all of my personal care items, dirty laundry basket, and full length mirror. And this wardrobe is smaller than any closet out there!
Thank God for Closetmaid. It changed my closet for the better in my 1960's fixer. I only had room for half my clothes prior to that. It was so affordable & easy to install that we put one In my husbands closet too. He balked at first but now he likes it. I did take the sliding doors off my closet because I could not get to my stuff and it made it so dark. The battery lights didn't help here either. Mine were a triple LED style from BB and B.
I spent Thanksgiving weekend painting and installing new shelving. It has brightened every day since to be able to go into that room and see everything organized in a bright yellow hue. Totally worth the labor and money!