Now, I'm not saying I have a lot of stuff in my closet, it's just that it's chock full of my and Wino's clothes, shoes that don't have proper homes, boxes still waiting to be unpacked (sadly) and a sundry of items stuffed onto the upper shelves because I honestly have no idea where else to put them. Add that even though we are in the master bedroom now, our clothes are still in the guest room closet, which is half the size. I really want to start the floor in the guest room but the closet must be cleared first.So installing the master closet must be done. It's not a terribly big closet, seven+ feet long, and the easiest thing to do would be a shelf and a rod, going from one wall to the other. That's what was there before but as I do enjoy torturing myself from time to time, I designed a closet that will give homes to homeless shoes, separate Wino's clothes from mine, and have space for those untouched boxes and random items. Did I mention that the attic opening happens to be in this closet so access to it must be maintained? And although I appreciate the effort made when the previous owners put a light in the closet, it's to one side and illuminates only half the space.
The access to the attic is being maintained through a combination of removable rods, folding shelves on hinges and step cutouts strategically placed. I've basically created a permanent ladder to access the attic. This is the MacGyver of closets. Of course it will take an hour to remove all the crap on the shelves and rods to get to the opening but it's possible, and that's what counts.
I've added four drawers under the center rod, this acts as a step up and adds much needed drawer space. There are two rods on one side for short items like shirts and pants, a center rod for medium length items and a single rod on the other side for long articles of clothing. The clothing rods are separated by skinny shelves that will house shoes, one side also acts as the step ladder for the attic. The upper part of the closet is a collection of shelves and cubbies for more shoes.
The easiest way I've found to start any project like this is to map the space to scale on graph paper and draw in different configurations. There are also free programs online that help to do this but I'm a bit old school when it comes to planning and find it easier to visualize on paper. Then I also have a tangible plan to work from and adjust while in the process of building the components.
The next step is to break up the design into pieces and build them in the right order to make the closet go together easily. Wish me luck.
