Amazing how getting an early start can really add hours to a day...

Yesterday I had pretty much decided that if I didn't do SOMETHING constructive this week I would feel like shit. The closet seemed like the obvious choice. On my way to P's I stopped in to The Home Depot to just kind of price things out.

I would love to have a fancy, custom, designer closet... but until that big sweepstakes win comes in I just don't have the spare dough to pay for all that. You can easily spend $1000 on a closet the size of mine. My budget is less California Closets and more Alabama Armoire.

P had to go out of town for work today, and so he had to be up hella early to catch his flight... I would usually stay in bed, but something told me that today I should follow his lead. I can't remember the last time I saw 5am when I hadn't STILL been up from the night before. I figured I was up, have the whole day ahead of me and am already feeling kind of inspired to do something with my closet so I might as well bite the bullet and git'er done.

I think I did really well for a first time closet designer! Here's the before shots:



Notice there is only one shelf/rod thing in there. My plan was to buy a similar shelf/rod system and install it up high and then recycle parts of the old shelf/rod system to use as a second level underneath.

Of course once the old shelf/rod came down I had to spackle up the holes it left behind and paint the walls (using the touch up paint my builder provided).

As it turned out, two pieces of the new shelf/rod things I bought were cut too long. They cut them to order for you right there in the aisle at The Home Depot by the way. I don't know if it was his mistake or mine, but I anticipated this and bought a hacksaw along with my new closet shelving. Took a little bit but I got em cut down to the correct lenghts.

So here's what the empty closet looked like before:


and empty closet After:



I really thought I was making good time! I was done with all that by Noon... but as I started to put stuff away I realized that while I had increased my hanging space area quite a bit, the shelf space really didn't grow. Mostly because the area up high now is QUITE high now. So I chose to store boxes I never need up there. So all the space where t-shirts and sweaters and stuff like that would have gone before had disappeared.

Ultimately I had to return some leftover things to The Home Depot. That errand seemed like a good enough excuse to head over to Atlantic Station and check IKEA just to see if they had SOMETHING that I could use for more storage. And they did. And it was only $40!

So here is the finished product:



The recycled lower shelf should have been about 5 or 6 inches lower, and then I could use the shelf space it provides, but as it is there's no room for anything because the clothes hanging above are just RIGHT THERE. Guess that's why I'm not a closet designer.

I MAY decide to lower that bottom shelf, but not today.

The whole thing cost me about $150, which I think is a bargain.

Now I'm off to have an adult beverage or 4 and enter some sweepstakes!

By the way, if you'd like to see the whole process from beginning to end you can check out the photo set at flickr. Why you would want to see all that I'm not sure, but if DIY is your porn, knock yourself out!