Master Bathroom Remodel: Closets

We decided to take the plunge.

We are updating the Master Bathroom and getting exactly what we want. Since we didn't get around to fixing up the bathroom at the old place- other than taking down wallpaper/popcorn and painting- we wanted it to be the first major project here. 

Besides- we are the two people who will live here the longest, so why shouldn't we have a nice space first?

So here goes!

We jumped in and started 2 weeks before our contractors since we still want to do a fair amount of the work ourselves. Bean will be doing the demo, I will be doing the painting, and they will be doing everything else... mainly tile, framing, plumbing, and re-texturing the walls. Our closets were so gross to begin with, and impossible to organize. 

Here's my closet before. Notice also that we don't have anywhere to hang towels, so they always end up draped over the doors.

No holds barred- this is what it really looks like every day. Stuff all over the floor. Tons of wasted space and piles of clothes.

And piles of shoes. There's also an entire medium sized shipping box filled with my shoes that I haven't bothered to unpack.

Also both closets had tons of DIY organization by way of large nails screwed into the wall. Hideous and specific only to whoever put them there.

Here's Bean's closet. His is better because the space is easier to use for him.

And hey, the 80's wooden hat hangers were pretty helpful for his collection!

First, we took all of our stuff out. Put most of it upstairs in the guest closet and set up wardrobe boxes in the bedroom for the stuff we are currently wearing. Then, I took the liberty of getting closeups of the gross wood built-ins so you can see why I didn't want to put my stuff on them!

The caulk is separated from the wall and the texture is very rough and dirty and impossible to clean.

And everyone loves these shoe holders at the bottom. If I were to put my shoes there, Brooklyn would have a field day dragging them all over the house!

So here's mine without all of the stuff. Bean started by ripping out all of the shelves, carpet and carpet tacks, and loading it up into the truck to drop off at a dumpster. Abby and I went to lunch with a friend.

Bean's closet after.

Before Popcorn removal.

And then he spent the afternoon removing popcorn from both closets. Yay for a clean slate!

The next step was tedious and not fun: several coats of mud to fix the drywall where the shelves came down. 

The hardest part was fixing the areas with the cubbyhole built-ins. Too many lines to smooth out, and if I could go back we probably would have just floated out the entire wall. I'm not an expert at this. And I knew no matter what, it would look a million times better than it did, so I wasn't super concerned with getting it perfect.

That right there is the difference between a professional (they are paid to get it done perfectly) and a homeowner- I want things looking great but also don't want to waste my time stressing about something that's not that important and will mostly be covered up anyway.

Here she is with a coat of primer evening out all the mud work.

And now here's an interesting study on paint color. I have made some serious paint color mistakes at our old house, but I still have confidence in choosing color. The mistakes I made happened when I went against my gut instinct and went too dark/yellow on a green and did orange because I liked it in someone else's house- I'm not an orange person! Lucky for me, Bean trusts me choosing color and pretty much lets me do what I want. I do run it by him first!

So here's my closet painted with SW 6206 Oyster Bay. It's mostly dry and looking great- muted, grayish green.

Here's Bean's closet painted in the exact same color but it's wet. Notice how yellow and bright it looks. I do not like this color at all!

And there's the back wall of my closet again, it's a little more dry than Bean's closet was. The color just changes so much as it dries that you have to trust your gut instinct. Wait until you see the bedroom- it's the same color and it's amazing!

I was so excited about these awesome light fixtures for the closets. They start the general theme off so we can carry it through the whole space. They give off so much more light than the old fixtures.

Side note: every time Bean and I decide to update something, we go all out. Details are so important. So we ended up replacing every light fixture, and changing the old yellow switches and outlets out for white, and painted all of the switch plates. It makes it impossible to stick to (or even pay attention to) a budget, but we know we will have it taken care of soon enough.

So after several weeks of focusing our attention on the rest of the bathroom and bedroom, we were finally ready to turn our attention to one of the first things we purchased for the space: our Elfa Closet system! Our expectation was that hanging the top rail was the hardest, and everything after that was easy and wouldn't take more than 4 hours total.

Hanging the top rail was indeed fairly easy. Measure out the correct height, then hold up the bar that's pre-cut to your space. (I helped hold it up and mark the holes). Mark the holes, and pre-drill holes. Then screw the bars into place. We easily finished that during one of Abby's naps- about 1 hour. I was working on paint touch ups and cleaning in between helping Bean.

Then you slip in the background rails and you are ready to start hanging! We were feeling very excited at this point. It was about 9:30am, we had already finished some other tasks in the bedroom and we were well on our way to moving all our stuff downstairs by lunchtime!

And then, NO. It took us all day long, in between figuring out the pieces, to needing to get the baby something to eat, getting her another nap, and dealing with all of the small pieces- it took forever. My background in retail helped a little bit with knowing how to space out shelves on those bars. It's easier to count the openings than to use a measuring tape. It's also best to start at the bottom and work your way up because it's easier to adjust as you go.

We figured out I was better at the weird things like the pull-out hampers and sliding baskets, and Bean was better at the shelves and the hanging racks. So we decided to divide and conquer. I had a little helper.

So here's Bean's finished closet. He has 2 pull-out hampers, 4 pull-out drawers, and a shoe rack, plus plenty of hanging space.

And here's my finished product, looking like they do in the store with approximately 5 items hanging. I have short and long hanging space, 2 pull-out hampers, 6 pull-out drawers, and tons of shelving for my shoes. I've always wanted my shoes in clear plastic boxes, and I finally have it!

Here's how mistreated they were before. All thrown in a box together and they stayed that way for over 6 months until we got around to this. I didn't want to unpack when I knew we would be updating. Double work, you know?

And finally, my lovely shoes packed away in their boxes, looking so lovely. Don't be alarmed, I do have more shelves, and more shoes and more boxes, I just need the time to get it all organized!