Organizing & Storage Before & Afters

This bedroom was described as “so sad… but there is so much potential,” and one intrepid DIYer brought out all that and so much more. The stars of the new bedroom are a stunning accent wall made from ordinary board and batten, and some seriously cool rustic wood sliding closet doors. This makeover was completed by Angela of Angela Rose Home, and though Angela refers to it as The Boy’s Room (it belongs to a son), it’s beautifully gender neutral.

Thanks to a blush of color and a clever installation job, the ubiquitous blank-slate PAX wardrobe from IKEA gets a major upgrade in a graphic designer’s Copenhagen apartment. Four IKEA PAX wardrobes are now painted the same pink as the surrounding walls, giving them the appearance of a built-in closet. Michella Laura has turned pink into a sophisticated neutral that sets off the white bedding and trim to great effect and allows the stunning white-and-blue vintage Murano light to pop.

This Redditor’s pantry was impressive, both in terms of its size, but also in the amount of food, kitchen supplies, and cookbooks he had stuffed in there. For $250 and some DIY power, he completely revamped the space and made it so much more functional and appealing. I think we can all relate to what this pantry looked like before: Standard wire shelving, jumbled up goods, the works.

This guest room closet was due for an update—it was originally dark brown—but its owner didn’t want to drop a ton of cash on it. After spending a few weeks and $76.69, this closet is now practical and super cute. The makeover by Jessica and Brett of The Mountain and Moon is darling. The new shelves add a ton of valuable storage, the accordion rack is as pretty as it is helpful, and that dotted wall is eye-catching!

This shoe storage had its issues — scuffs, unpainted areas, general ricketiness — but it’s still better than my Heap O’Shoes. Can the less-than-ideal but serviceable shoe storage racks be improved upon? Is attractive, accessible, adaptable, practical shoe storage actually possible? We shall see. This is amazing! It looks incredibly cool, and the shoes are within easy reach of both the door and the shoe-putting-on bench.

This is another in a series of bravely honest closet photos that have been submitted lately—such as this one—and we cherish each and every one. Keep sending your unfiltered closet pics so the rest of us can be wildly inspired by your brilliant closet makeovers! But before we admire the closet now, let’s get a full-length view of the closet before . . .

Other than the John Malkovich/Narnia door in the back, this was a totally ordinary closet. Thanks to a clever vision, some spatial strategizing, and a bunch of affordable accessories from IKEA and Target, this closet is now a super-handy mini-mudroom — and the whole makeover cost less than $100. For such a small space — just 3’x3.75′ — this room now contains an enormous amount of super-smart storage.

Evygenia from Foxy and Brass has a small desk that’s tucked inside an alcove in her apartment, and it’s surrounded by built-in shelving. To get herself organized, she hacked an IKEA SKADIS pegboard to fit the space. Not only does the spot look ten times better, but the project solved more than one small space problem. First she cut the pegboard exactly to size [note: the SKÅDIS pegboard isn’t currently available in the U.S.

Medina and her husband Vince inherited this built-in closet when they moved into their current rental, and had to find a way to make it work — especially since the tiny bedroom doesn’t allow for much more storage. They removed its ugly outdated doors early on in their tenancy, but that just left them with this awful view of red faux wood grain, which Medina especially couldn’t stand.

When you’re only working with 366 square feet of living space, chances are your closet’s on the not-big-enough side. Combine the lack of available storage square footage with sharing your studio apartment with your partner and needing to fit in a laundry room, and you’re looking at a potential closet catastrophe if you don’t seriously maximize your space. Thankfully, designer Mary Lee excels at both style and organization.

Vanessa’s second floor den space was a bit of a puzzle. The layout was a little odd and they didn’t need anymore general space, but she tried it out as a den and then an office. One day her husband had a stroke of genius and decided to flip the place into the kind of walk-in closet storage dreams are made of. From Vanessa: Our home has a second floor den that I could never render useful.

We’re all about the goings-on inside of your closet, but sometimes the outside needs a little love and attention. Anne hits all of the functionality & beauty buttons with her new closet. She not only had the closet fixed to fit the space and her needs, she added some gorgeous color and pattern to her spare room. From Anne: My old closets had ugly doors, and too much space behind walls. I wanted to open up the access and have sliding doors.

When you find the perfect apartment, but it doesn’t have a closet, you have two choices: You can either A. throw away all your clothes, or B. get creative. I chose B. Finding an apartment in New York is not easy. In fact, it is damn near impossible.

IKEA’s KALLAX storage is so versatile as is, that it just makes hacks all that more wonderful. Astral wanted closed storage for her craft room and office, but also needed it to be modular in case her space requirements changed. The after adds a little height and a lot of personality: From Astral: The plan was to make a modular credenza for storage.

These blah shutter bi-fold doors appear in many a rental, and Jessica’s was no exception. While she decorating her daughter’s room, she had an idea to transform them into something a little more glam: What a difference! From Jessica: While redecorating my girl’s room, I had a big Ah-ha moment.

Ewa and husband Andrew approached their new home’s balustrade in an interesting way. With only a tiny hall closet, they could benefit from some additional storage. See what they did with a trip to IKEA: From Ewa: My husband and I moved into this VA townhouse late summer. We knew we would be removing wall to wall carpeting before our furniture was to arrive in only 4 weeks. We had little time and not a huge budget. We decided to DIY the floors.

Having a whole closet right by your front door is amazing for storage if you’re a family with kids, but not if that closet comes with big outdated mirrored doors that don’t work well and don’t allow you to see what’s actually in the closet. Jen got to work, transforming this old closet into a very stylish — but most importantly functional — welcoming storage spot for her family. From Jen: This all started because this closet was not working for us.

How do you take a plain, bulky cabinet and turn it into a complete show-stopper? If you’re Miruna, you go the opposite of subtle. A few bold materials, an interesting pattern and this dresser gets quite the makeover! From Miruna: I’ve been wanting to use black chalk paint for a while, but could not find the right piece of furniture to stand up to the challenge. When I found this dresser online I was not very sure what to do with it, but I knew I loved it. So I bought it.

When you don’t have a closet, it might make sense to fill your bedroom with big furniture so you can pack away your clothes and accessories, hiding your apparel as a method to cut down on clutter. But what if those big, bulky and dark furniture pieces are doing more harm than good? Christina did away with her furniture, instead replacing it with a DIY clothes organizing solution that might be inspiration for folks with small spaces and little storage.

Ama had found this piece of furniture at a garage sale but wasn’t quite sure what to do with it for a few years. It had great bones, but the finish was in pretty rough shape. Though not a drastic change, the finished product came out stylish and sophisticated and is now the perfect storage piece for her dining room! From Ama: The cabinet cost me $50, dyeing, varnish and handles about $35, plywood for shelves, new door and feet cost me $23 and paper for background about $12.

When Griffin found this old shelf just “collecting dust” at a local thrift store, she knew there was some place in their home for it, perhaps the garage or maybe the playroom. But it was some creative thinking (and not even that much work!) that transformed it into a surprisingly sophisticated storage piece for a dining room! From Griffin: With the help of my husband we started by removing the base which was made up of 2x4s.

Potential can be a dangerous thing. Like when I sell myself on a fixer-upper accent chair from Goodwill, convinced I’ll watch a YouTube video one day and learn how to upholster it back to glory. “But it’s got so much potential,” I tell myself, while the chair collects dust in the basement. Bri of Emerson Grey designs saw similar potential in this laundry nook in a potential new home… Thankfully, her story ends better.

Seeing potential in this heavy storage piece from an old bedroom set, Carmina set to work transforming the blah beige finish to a handful of shades of just one hue. Now beautiful and functional, it’s got a modern color palette that updates its style and creates one unique addition to a home! From Carmina: We rescued this piece from a house being cleared out after an estate sale down the alley from our home.

The closet in my guest bedroom never hosted much clothing, and I decided it’d be a perfect tucked away spot for sewing and crafting.My workspace in my last apartment was a craft cabinet, so a closet was a step up. I painted the bottom portion of the wall with leftover paint and built a desk with wood and metal braces from Home Depot. I hung acrylic shelves on the left wall and added a custom corkboard, task lamp, filing cabinet, and calendar.

Harry Potter isn’t the only one with a cramped cupboard under the stairs. KariAnne Wood had a similarly awkward closet off the living room in her farmhouse. Previously it was just wasted, forgotten storage for random things, so she decided to make it a more useful and special spot in the house. See more of this project on KariAnne’s blog, Thistlewood Farms Thanks for sharing KariAnne!

While Anna’s mid-century house has a fair share of closets, they weren’t exactly outfitted to store much stuff. Faced with the predicament of storing two young boys’ clothes and other belongings, Anna decided to build out the closet herself.A lot of us have faced a similar problem with our own closets — one measly shelf and a long hanging clothes bar do not exactly make the base for an organized closet.

This snores-ville cabinet could definitely use a slap of paint to liven it up a bit. There is no question about that. But to give it even more personality, more pizzazz, what can you do?We’re reminded once again at the power of adding the right hardware; look at what a pair of mismatched, unexpected knobs does for this piece.Want to customize your cabinet in similar fashion? The brass finish Secret Key Handle from Anthropologie is available for just $4.95.And those lovely numbered knobs?