The best closet transformation I did took place a couple of months after I moved into my own home in late March of this year. But didn't involve any renovation. Instead, inspired by Josh Becker's ideas on Becoming Minimalist, I went through my closet (which, although a small walk-in, doesn't have anything beyond necessary basics ) and removed one third of my clothes to donate. The rest now have plenty of room to breathe. They all hang on nice wooden hangers, which I purchased over several years at great prices at my favorite thrift store. The floor has three 3-level shoes racks, and the folded sheets and a bed fan sit there next to them. I am a fashion hat person so hats are sorted by color and in neat piles on a shelf above the rods. It still seems quite spacious, and it certainly works for me.

In our small primary bedroom, which is like 12x12, we pulled out our simple barely 5’ reach in closet for something that spanned the whole 12’ wall and 5’ corner, going from 60” of hanging space to 210” of hanging and 6 built in drawers as well as 6 cupboards above the bed. The photo option is being finicky right now for me to load images. The real space add comes from going right to the ceiling to use all vertical space and leveraging pull down hangers.

I repurposed a hall coat closet (that was hardly ever used) into a mini pantry for my larger kitchen appliances (does anyone ever have enough counter space for these things?). The clothes rod and shelf are tucked away to the side of the shelving unit, so that should I ever move, I just take the shelfing unit out, pop the rod and wooden shelf back into place, and the coat closet returns! The only cost to me was the shelving unit and the plastic liners for each shelf. It even has room for my step stools!

Great idea @Patty. I did something similar too for our front hall closet- a standard 5’ reach in, but with 2 kids and loads of stuff it’s not practical. I doubled up the top shelves for more vertical space, and instead of using the traditional bar for hanging coat, I put pegs across the back, upholstered a bench to sit on which stores all the shoes. To the sides beyond door opening are more shelves, and for the few long coats we have I have pegs on the front side of the wall.

To go with my previous post about the closet- found a photo in my camera roll.

Love this idea @Johanna Kozak! And I love the long mirror, too! Would love to see how you accesss the cupboards over the bed.

@patty - we stand on the bed. We keep stuff that we don’t need often from like seasonal things. We have ikea bins in some of them. Or folded sweaters that don’t make the regular rotation or paper towel and toilet paper storage. And the bed is a loft up hydraulic bed where we keep extra linens and stuff.

Before:

after:

Love it!

Our foyer closet and pantry were side by side. We ripped out the wall between them and made one large pantry with barn doors

This is half the pantry.

This is my updated hall linen closet…

I used the woven baskets to store linens and the tempered galvanized bins to store toiletries…

@KR - WOW!! What a transformation!

Beautiful space! Who did the work?

Would you be willing to share the make of the closet units and cost?

Took an office not really used, made new doorway from master bath to new closet. This was part of a whole house remodel. I think client used innovative or California closets.

Repurposed an awkward mirror-doored closet that was too close to the entrance door. Used IKEA Liatorp shelf and tv bench.

Mine was about $15k and custom done by my contractor (he also owns a cabinet company) during a full home renovation.

It's beautiful KR. Enjoy!

Before and after of the extra bedroom remodel 3 years ago. Absolutely love it!

My "walk-in" closet before and AFTER!! This expansion and organization by Closets, etc was life changing for us.

We remodeled our basement, adding a bedroom and put in a walk-in closet in an empty room adjacent to the bedroom. We added a full washer and dryer (the dryer is ventless), the closet system came from Lowe's - it is an off the shelf Closet Maid system (because I refused to wait 16 to 20 weeks for a custom system or pay that outrageous price!), and the island was purchased through Amazon (it is a craft table with the cubbies & drawers on both sides). Even had room for exercise equipment! Excuse the temporary changing table ... we are currently remodeling the main floor and my daughter set this up until that is finished.

I regret not taking any before pictures. But it was a standard wire shelf walk in closet with the same ceiling lamp. There was also a healthy purge of items from the before as well.

I did this reno from an Easy Closets online design and it turned out great. I added 12v COB style LED strip lighting to eliminate the little dots you get from normal LED strip lights.

The pull out hamper on an angle I would change to a drawer (you can see we opted to keep using the plastic ones).

DIY FYI - those big pieces of wood are heavy and can be tight to get into place like the top shelf running the entire length of the closet. Not much room to maneuver but can be done. You may scratch your newly painted walls a bit in the process. Get the spackle and paint ready.

I had huge spaces in my closets for hanging jackets or blouse etc.. but never used them for such so when I did have clothes folded in them, I had a lot of upper wasted space. I have added 2 shelves to both closets, and now have plenty of space to keep folded clothes.

We bought a different house in September. One of the first things I did was upgrade the master closet.

Before (listing photo):

After:

@K R Great job. Can you please tell me your closet dimensions....The first pic looks so small, it gives me hope. Did you affix full wall mirrors? thx!