Our master closet freaks me out

It’s just weird to me. And as much as I’ve rearranged things in my head I can’t really come up with a way to make this space more efficient. I’m always bumping into things when I’m in here, it feels really chopped up, and it just, well, gives me the heebie jeebies.

Our bedroom is huge. And I realized there was a lot of space on this wall where I could store things

I don’t really have too many clothes and I thought if I really maximized some closet cabinets on this wall I could get all the clothes from our closet and my dresser packed onto this wall. So I set about doing that.

I love Pax closet systems from Ikea. LOVE THEM. Both the girls have them in their closets and I was dreaming of one myself. We have put MANY of these in for clients. In all of my organizing I have found them to be the best closet system in terms of money, simplicity, customization and quality. The only kicker is that they only come in 3 different widths (19″, 29″ and 39″ ). It’s a bit of a bummer if your closet is not a width that is flexible with those sizes and you want a built in look, but you can always add fillers like you would with kitchen cabinets. They come in 2 depths (about 13″ and about 23″) and 2 heights (I think 78″ and 93″).

I measured the width of the wall on either side of the window and on each side a 39″ and 19″ cabinet fit just about PERFECTLY. I opted to go for the full length ones and get doors on them to make them look more built in (the tall ones go just about to the ceiling of a standard height room). In order to have clothes hang inside the cabinets and have doors you need to get the deeper cabinets or else the hangers will stick out.

I went through our closet and measured how much space my day to day clothes, work out clothes, work clothes, “fancy” clothes, shoes, pants, etc. all take up. Then I went through my dresser and figured out how many drawers I needed to better organize my PJs, socks, underwear, bras, etc. After calculating things and laying it out I came up with a pretty good plan

I wrote out a list of all the items that needed to be stored and checked them off as I went along to make sure that everything made it in here. I think it did with a little room to spare, so that’s good.

The nice thing about making a plan with the Pax system is that if you print the list, it gives you an option to tell it what store you’ll be getting everything at, then it tells you where in the warehouse it’s located, as well as the likelihood that it’s in stock. Pretty awesome.

We took the girls over 2 separate trips (the wide units weren’t in stock the first time we went) and got everything purchased (minus the doors because we weren’t quite sure which ones we wanted to get yet). I have become a bit of an expert at putting the cabinets together, so I decided it was time for Merritt to figure it out too

After I put each one together Chris helped me move them into the room. After all the cabinets were together I built all the drawers as well

And then the progress stopped. Why? Well, I really want these to look built in, so because of the larger-ish gap along the top we need to raise them up a bit, then attach them to the wall and then install some trim. After that we can install all the organizing systems, put in the clothes and then install the (still yet to be purchased) doors.

Then comes that little window area. When I posted about the bedroom before a couple of you guys had a great idea about bringing a chair into the room. And I LOVED that idea. I’m not sure if there’s going to be enough room or not, but I really hope there is. I want the space to feel comfortable and lived in. If the space is too small I think I’ll go with a bench (still practical for putting shoes on, etc.) I’m really hoping a smaller chair will fit, but either way this wall will now be full.

The room is still big enough that the giant cabinets don’t feel like they pour into the room, so that’s really good. But there is definitely balance now, whereas before I felt like this end of the room felt so empty. It might not be the plan that would work for a lot of people (having giant closet cabinets in their bedroom), but I like the practicality. And I like the idea of soon not having to go into the heebie jeebie room to get my clothes 🙂