Grand Little Place

Sometimes the best projects aren’t the ones you expect.  This closet makeover proved that point to me (again) when I gave myself the challenge to use only what I had to bring style and function to our shoe closet.  See how far $0 went on this DIY custom closet!

I went to grab my shoes one day and realized that our shoe closet was an absolute disaster that just wasn’t working anymore.  Our master bedroom has his and her closets in the master bathroom and also a weird little closet in the actual room.  Our real closets aren’t huge so we’ve always used the small closet for shoes, purses, and accessories.  We stuck a random shelf and a shoe organizer in there when we moved in and never touched it since then.  The shoe organizer wasn’t ever my favorite, I couldn’t really reach the stuff I needed from the top shelf (that we seem to need often) and it was just a mess.  So when I pitched the idea of custom building shelves to my husband he easily agreed and we added it to our ‘to do’ list.

The shoe closet is the unassuming door behind the chair.

I haven’t had the energy to go into the sad and frustrating project that has overtaken the last 5 months of our lives (and moved really fun and rewarding projects to the end of the list), but in a nutshell we had new cracks in the basement that led to foundation work, that led to more foundation work and a whole series of uncovering old crummy work.  All of that is to say that all home funds are on a hold until that situation is finished (it will be great to have walls again).  So when we had a few extra hours one day I lightly brought up doing the shelves in the shoe closet.  Hubs was about 25% on board.  When I went on to explain that I thought we should just use whatever scrap wood we had in the wood pile he got a little more on board.  By the time he got back from his run he was DIY ready and we dove in.

My Instagram followers have seen progress of this project but not the reveal yet.  I wasn’t thinking I’d blog this project so I didn’t bust out my camera until the end – WHOOPS!  I’m including some pretty crummy before photos from Instagram in this post but definitely click over to my account and check out the $0 Shoe Closet highlight on my profile to get the full play-by-play.

Initially I hadn’t set the parameter that this would be a 100% free project, but after we successfully hobbled together enough wood to build out the closet I was up for the challenge and began scheming how I could pull off a complete DIY custom closet using all stuff I had around the house. I tend to be a bit of a collector when it comes to home items so I was able to shop the house and come up with everything I needed to complete this project for FREE.

First I used left over paint from our bedroom and was able to blend in all those weird wood widths and sizes.  Our closet hasn’t been painted since the house was built in 1979 so I ran into a little snafu with the paint.  The walls and wood were sucking the paint up like crazy.  Not to mention that the walls were white.  So I skated by barely having enough paint to finish the closet.  Actually that’s not true, I had enough to paint the closet minus the two top shelves.  I was about to admit defeat and just leave the two shelves unpainted when genius struck!  I realized that I had bought a roll of vintage wrapping paper a few years ago without knowing what I’d do with it.  The wrapping paper is a green on green leaf pattern that is PERFECT for this closet.  Thank heavens for hoarding!  I wrapped the top two shelves with the wrapping paper and will likely go back and do the other shelves at some point as well.

(Full disclosure on these pics – these were a nightmare to try and photograph!  This is the darkest corner of my house and it gets nearly no natural or overhead light.  I used my pro-gear and they were still super hard to get.  I hope you guys will give me some grace on these pics!)

At this point the closet is looking pretty good if I say so myself, especially for a $0 makeover!  When I originally conceived the closet plan I knew I needed a few hooks on the sides for purses and backpacks.  I looked through my stash of hardware and found these perfect lucite and gold hooks.  These are another situation where I bought them for cheap (they came from the Habitat for Humanity ReStore and were somewhere around $1 at the time) not knowing where I’d put them but knowing that they would eventually find a home somewhere.  Truth be told they are the ends from a toilet paper holder, ha!  Since the closet is already so dark the second I spotted these in the hardware drawer I knew they would be perfect for this closet!

The last part of putting together a DIY custom closet is outfitting it to fit your needs.  We’d already done the hard parts by building in the shelves and painting, but I needed a few containers for smaller items too.  I scrounged the baskets on the top shelf from our storage room (previously used in our son’s nursery and various places since) and they hold clutch purses, wallets, and misc accessories.  (Do you spy the wallpaper covered shelves above?) The brown bins under my shoes were also from our storage room (they used to organize napkins, votive candles, etc in our buffet) and they now corral flip flops, sandals, and other thin soled shoes.  I opted to move our duffel bags to the very bottom of the closet instead of the top so I could reach them without the step stool.  I don’t change my purse out very often so it made more sense for me to store purses on the very top.

Guys, I am so happy with this project.  Once the ball started rolling and I accepted the challenge to spend $0 it was like a well spring opened and I was on the hunt, in my own house, for what I could use.  In a perfect world I’d install a light fixture and have different baskets –  but do I love the finished product? YES!!!!  $0 for a DIY custom closet!!!  This was my favorite type of project and I really believe it was because I limited the scope of what I could and couldn’t do.  As someone who often gets overwhelmed by projects it was freeing to know my limitations and to work within them.  It also brought out some pent up creativity that I’ve been needing to channel lately.  This project is a 100% WIN in my book and has me wondering what else can I do if I just put my brain to it?!

So what project do you have in your house that you could tackle today?  Are you ready to accept a $0 challenge?!  If you do please post it on your favorite social media channel and tag me.  I’d LOVE to see your $0 makeovers!