Walk-In Master Closet Remodel

We had been wanting to “fix” our walk-in master closet since the day we moved to this house. We believe that whoever designed it thinks that people only use their closets to hang clothes. He or she forgot about shoes, towels, bed sheets and other everyday items, there was no space for them!

The shoes on the floor were a big problem. They looked disorganized and it was a pain to move them out of the way before vacuuming the carpet. The bed sheets and comforters were way up high in the top shelf, hard to reach and difficult to organize.

While working on many other projects, we kept thinking that we had to work in our master closet, we had different ideas, and layouts in mind to fix it. At the same time, we were overthinking the “inconvenience” of working in it. We kept asking ourselves, where do we put everything while we work in it?

One day, we said, enough! This has to change! So as part of our house’s organization efforts, we decided to get it done!

 

 

WALK-IN MASTER CLOSET REMODEL

Although it may seem like a lot of work, completing a walk-in master closet remodel like this one is actually a pretty easy project. Most of the work is cutting, priming and painting the boards. There’s NO SANDING involved, so as far as woodworking is concerned, this is one of the easiest ones to do! Once the boards are ready to go, all it takes is a level and the nail gun to put it back together.

The complete list of tools and materials we used includes:

• Screw Drivers & Hand Tools
• Measuring tape
• Primer, Paint & Painting Supplies
• Wall Paper & Wall Paper Adhesive (Optional)
• Level
• Wood Glue (I don’t remember what we used it for, but you can see in in the pictures)
• Shelving Boards
• Table Saw & Circular Saw
• Stud Finder
• Air Compressor, Pneumatic Nail Gun & Finishing Nails
• Oscillating Tool
• Screw Gun (There’s always some good use for them!)
• Caulking & Caulking Gun

STEP 1: DECIDE YOUR NEW WALK-IN MASTER CLOSET LAYOUT

We knew we wanted lots of shelving for the shoes, we didn’t want them on the floor anymore. We also needed shelf space for the bedsheets, blankets, towels, and other items.

As you can see in the pictures, the only shelf we had was way up high, so it was not easy to access and organize the items up there.

Because of the number of shoes, the left side wall that is in front of the door was the best option for the shoe shelving.

Since we were somewhat reducing the length of the hanging rods, we decided to use the longest wall available for them. Using three hanging rods (high, low and one for long items such as pants) we were able to fit everything with some room to spare.

This only left the shortest wall to the right of the closet for the rest of the shelving.

STEP 2: DEMO THE EXISTING MASTER CLOSET SHELVING, SUPPORTS, HANGING RODS

Once we were happy with our plan, we took everything out of the master closet and proceeded to demo the existing shelving, supports, and hanging rods.

This gave us a “clean sheet” to start working on the new walk-in master closet!

 

 

 

 

STEP 3: PAINT, DECORATE THE WALK-IN MASTER CLOSET

After clearing everything out of the closet, the next step was painting the whole room, including the ceiling. As you know from previous posts, we have painted almost every room since we moved to this house (we hate the original color), this closet was one of the few rooms that had not been painted yet.

The ceiling is now white. For the walls, we used the same color we have been using in the rest of the house, “Whitewash Oak”, or in other words, a very light gray.

 

 

 

Also, Carla insisted that we used some wallpaper to decorate part of the closet. We used it on the “shoes” wall. It made sense as it is the most visible one and also to avoid getting the wall dirty with the shoes over time.

 

 

 

 

STEP 4: MEASURE, CUT ALL THE NECESSARY SHELVES, SUPPORTS, AND DIVISIONS

While waiting for the new ceiling and walls paint to dry, we also worked on measuring and cutting the new shelves, supports, and divisions for the new walk-in master closet.

Because the shelves come in 12 and 15 inches wide, we only had to cut them to the right length. Most of the cuts were for the supports which we cut at 2 inches wide by the length of the shelf they are supporting. Some of them were cut a bit shorter to use some leftover material, however, at some point we got some more material to add extra shelves so we didn’t have to use many of the short supports.

STEP 5: PRIME, PAINT ALL THE NEW SHELVING, SUPPORT PIECES

Right after cutting them, all the new shelves, supports, and divisions for the new walk-in master closet were primed and painted the same color of the walls (a common practice).

We applied a coat of primer and two coats of paint.

 

STEP 6: INSTALL THE NEW WALK-IN MASTER CLOSET SHELVES, DIVISIONS, HANGING RODS

After letting the paint dry overnight, we started installing the new shelving in the walk-in master closet.

As you can see in the pictures, we installed the supports, then the shelves, one by one using the nail gun.

 

 

 

 

 

Once all the shelves were in place, we added a couple of divisions. These were later used to support the hanging rods.

 

 

 

 

 

With all the pieces in place, we caulked all the edges, corners, used wood putty to cover all the nail holes and then touched up the paint where required.

STEP 7: ENJOY YOUR NEW WALK-IN MASTER CLOSET!

After letting the paint dry overnight (again), we moved and organized everything back in the master closet!

We could not be happier with the amount of space we have for shoes and everything else!

 

 

 

 

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