Primary Bedroom Closet Redo Part 1 – Research & Drawing Closet Plans

Hello dear friends! Our final project for the summer before going back to school was to just put in a few wooden shelves up around some open space at the top of our closet… But then I realized the closet needed to be painted…

And you know how one thing leads to the next… I had repainted the primary bedroom in 2020 or 2021 (back when it was still called a master bedroom, lol!), during the big Covid pandemic years.

We had boxes sitting out in our bedroom which I have to vacuum around and they were unsightly and causing me stress to look at… I need our bedroom to be clean and tidy as it really helps me relax when things are in place. 😉

How about for you?

Closet Plans

So I mentioned this to hubby one weekend and said I’d like to add shelves up around the top of the closet so we could get some more storage in there. There was a good 2′ of open space along the back wall that could be better used.

I wanted to use our leftover scraps of wood that we had brought from California (get some of it out of the cluttered garage). He replied, “Draw up some plans.” So I did! 🙂 Which began with just shelves up around the ceiling and over the closet doorway.

Well…That evolved:

I had two versions of the back wall of the closet and this is the one I chose. We had installed custom shelving at our two former homes in California (no photographs, sorry!) with drawers, shelving, wardrobes and other parts from Home Base (remember them??), when it was still in business before the big market crash of 2008. It took running around to three Home Base stores to get all the parts as they were going out of business at the time. I think that shelving and drawers cost about $300 total.

We took that closet from our first home with us to our second home and reconfigured it there, adding more pieces to it. Mostly longer closet rods, I think. Oddly enough, all of our walk-in closets have been about the same size.

Mr. Ethereal didn’t have enough time to take it down a second time to go into the storage units as we were moving out and before the house went on the market. It would have been nice to have eventually brought it to Texas, but it stayed there at the Big House. You can see that home’s rooms as we put the house on the market in this post.

Research at the Big Box stores & Ikea

I went to Lowe’s. I went to Home Depot. I loved this tower (below) from Lowe’s… It’s what sold me on all-white for the closet.

I checked out Nebraska Furniture Mart, too, but NFB didn’t have any closet parts in amongst all of their furniture and home decor offerings. They have everything else, though! 😉

I liked all the towers and after reviewing my first sketch of the back closet wall, I knew we needed a closet tower with drawers to break up the expanse of the wire clothing shelves.

That was part of what was bugging me from the original closet:

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Can you say Idea?!!

Then I went to Ikea… (key the angelic hosts singing! “Aaaaaaaaaaa……..”)

This photograph above included some ideas I liked inside the 39″ wide box at 92″ tall.

I had already painted the ceiling the week before over one or two days. Then, I began painting inside the closet, taking the old shelving down as I went, and would let things dry for four hours while I went off on my research trips.

On Thursday a week ago, while Hubby was out of town on business (usually when I start these projects, like when I tore up the carpet at our Big House, lol!), I went and drove down to Ikea in Frisco, Texas, about a half-hour away.

Hubby came back with me on Saturday even though this was the weekend he ended up getting to bed at 2:30am due to his flight being delayed by the Microsoft update roll-out. At least he got home.

Pro Tip:

• I had a small tape measure with me and we used it to “see” what each piece would “look like” in our closet. Bring a tape measure with you whenever you go searching for furniture and pieces for your home.
• Also, it helps to know the dimensions of wall spaces you are trying to decorate. Keep a small notepad in your car glovebox or in your purse with those measurements. Helps you avoid purchasing something which won’t fit your space. 🙂

We ended up getting the slightly shorter tower version at 76″ tall. Our closet’s back wall is almost exactly the size of two 39″ boxes side-by-side (77.5″ wide).

This size wouldn’t overwhelm the space as much as the 92″ tall one would ~ plus Hubby wouldn’t have to cut the wooden brace up along the ceiling to fit it in and reconfigure the wood shelf for this space. This shorter cabinet would still give us room for storage boxes underneath drawers and space above to store lighter things on top, like suitcases.

This is the closet which sold us on the shorter version and we just got the wider 39″ wardrobe instead of the 29″ width.

We both liked the pullout pants hanger a lot but ended up going for wooden hangers. Mr. Ethereal was cute in that he kept helping the store clerk move hangers from one box into another box as she was emptying this particular box.

Saved her a bit of trouble. 🙂

He’s a keeper! <3

I loved the mirror idea from my drawing, but realistically we would never get dressed in the closet, so Hubby thought. Plus, we have the bonnetier/armoire already in our bedroom which has a mirror in its door.

This is also partly why we didn’t opt for the 29″ width closet version. The mirror would have fit, but wouldn’t have had much visual space around it from where my clothes hang and between the edge of this built-in closet wardrobe.

I loved its look, though! It has that French style I love ~ very 1930’s/1940’s, maybe earlier 1900’s period look. <3

If you ever find an original mirror over in Europe like this one which is painted black around the mirror, on top of the gilding, LEAVE IT! It’s very valuable as a symbol of resistance to the German Occupation during WWII ~ It’s a symbol of mourning.

Just an FYI. 😉

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Leave me a comment and let me know what you think of my closet design ideas,

Thank you! 🙂