Wednesday, September 2, 2009

#68...closet solutions

My early 1900's bungalow has only one closet in the whole house, and the door to it is just under 60 inches tall and looks like something out of Alice in Wonderland. Needless to say, we've had to be creative with storage. I turned this old Ikea bookcase into a wall closet in my spare bedroom. Granted, it is open storage, and I am always hurrying to tidy it up before parties, instead of simply stashing stuff in a closed closet, but overall I like how it looks, and it stores a ton of stuff!
To add hanging space, I used a wood dowel with round wall holders from Home Depot. I painted them white and attached one side to the cabinet and one side to the wall (using anchors.) Next, I added the shelf above the hanging rod, where you can see I store my bags and totes. Underneath the closet rod area, I decided to use the floor space, and added this valet from West Elm, in which I store jewelry.

The most functional part of this system are the door fronts that I created for the bookcase to give myself some closed cubbies.

To make the door fronts, I cut squares out of a 1/4" thin wood veneer panel sheet. I attached this drawer pull to the back of each door panel using clear Liquid Nails. Then I attached a magnet to the inside of each cubbie and to the back of each door panel atop the pull using Liquid nails. (see photos for detail)





I created the striped pattern on the door fronts using painters tape and some white acrylic paint that I wiped onto the wood with a rag, as if I were staining it.

1 comment:

  1. Love the white snail on top on the storage unit! Very clever, you are.

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