A Little Closet Demo and Possible Designs

Sorry it's taken so long for me to post some progress shots of the closet.  But in reality, up until last Saturday, there was no progress.  I wanted to put thoughts to paper and really figure out what I wanted in the space.  Plus a side trip to Florida took me out of commission for a little bit. Damn you sun and pool.

I still don't have a final drawing for the entire closet, but 2 of the 3 nooks are finalized so that's what I'll show you today.  One of my major delays aside from vacation was not wanting to have my clothes lying all over my floor for months while I figured out what the heck I was going to do.  Then it dawned on me one night that I own a house with 3 bedrooms that all have empty closets.  Ummm duh.  I could just hang my clothes in THOSE closets rather than put them on the floor.  Sometimes my blondeness amazes me.

So back to what it looked like before- not paying attention to my color coordination obsession.  Or the mess.  There are 3 nooks in this closet- the right side, back and left side.  See below:

 [right side]

 [back]

[left side]

So Saturday I started removing the clothes and finished emptying it on Sunday.  This is what it looked like after that.  So bare.  And blah.  And ugly.  But you get a better idea of the nooks I'm talking about.  

I really think I'm an expert at removing the horrible wire shelves now.  I should have timed myself, but I think I removed all three of them in 20 minutes.  Seriously- they are the worst invention ever.  I'd like punch the person over at Closetmaid who came up with these craptastic shelves.  I've voiced my dislike for them before when removing them from the laundry room, linen closet and the pantry.  I talked about the easiest and least damaging method on those posts but if you have questions, just ask me.  Seriously- expert status.   I've come a long way from standing on my washer yanking them out of the wall with all of my might, cursing up a storm.  I kind of know what I'm doing at this point.  

Once it was empty, I decided that I needed to take off the baseboards as well to have the sides of each unit sit flush against the wall.  I won't bore you with pictures of that process but below is what the back section looks like without the baseboards.

Now on to the not having a clue as to what I'm doing portion of the post.  I feel a bit more comfortable with my "building" skills since not a single shelf in the pantry has come crashing down after a few months.  But this is going to be a huge project.  It'll probably take me a LONG time to finish- depending on my initial success.

I based my designs off of a few of the photos on the last post that you can see by clicking here

Here is the design for the right side of the closet:

  The plan is to have an upper and lower bar to have double the hanging space that was originally there.  To the right, there will be open shelves for purses and such with a pullout laundry bin on the bottom.  Since the ceilings are 8 ft, I'll more than likely have some additional open storage above the top bar.  There will be two sections each with an upper and lower bar so that there isn't a lot of weight on a long bar- it'll be spread out between two.  

The design for the left side of the closet is the more complicated of the three sides:

Yup.  Those are drawers that you see there.  I'm out of my flipping mind.  The bottom part I have been looking for a dresser but with the odd dimensions, there wasn't anything out there that 1) I liked and 2) that fit the space.  So my solution is customer drawers.  Cuz apparently I think that since I can put up one shelf, I'm a furniture makers now.  This is where it's going to get interesting.  I might never have a finished closet if I can't get these damn drawers made.  Above the drawers will be another bar, split between the two sides.  The intent is to basically install two units and make them look like one with moulding.  So top to bottom is one unit and next to it will be the second.  Again, since the ceilings are so high, I'll probably put an open shelf up there since there will be space.  

Lastly, the back- where I'm not quite sure about the design.  It's the area with the longest depth, unlike the sides which are only 17" and 20" deep.  So here is where I could really build something.  But it would also be where I need shelves for my shoes and those aren't that deep.  Hence my problem.  But for now, the tentative design is this:

The shelf height will be based on the height of the shoes going in so they won't look even and exact like the drawing.  Plus I might not need as many shelves.  I thought adding in a mirror to one side could work as well.  Who knows.  I'm really stumped on this one.  I could also use the sides of this nook rather than the back wall and put a long mirror in the space left on the back.  The design as is just seems to be a big waste of space.  Or do the shoe shelves on one side of the nook and have a bar on the other side for longer clothes- like dresses and jackets, still keeping the mirror in between on the back wall.  Ooooh I think I just talked myself into the design.  I was looking at it entirely wrong.  Yes, the more I think about it, the more I like that idea.  Woo hoo!

So now it's time to really get into the nitty gritty of dimensions and buying the wood and getting started.  I'm obviously going to start on the right side, since that looks to be the easiest.  At least on paper.  Then the back, now that I know what the heck I'm going to do there- pending it all fitting in the 45" space.   

Oh and I'll also be re-installing the base moldings once it's all done to make it look more customized and built in.  Gotta be fancy up in this bitch.  Plus I just bought an air compressor and nail gun that mama needs to test out!

Well.... what do you think?  Am I biting off WAY more than I can chew?  I'll probably end up putting the house up for sale before I get this project done.  Just mark my words. HAH!