If you've noticed the dates of my last blog entry, you'll see it's been about 5 months. Truth is, I got busy. School. Work. Kids. Life. I've had some free time this summer so I began finishing up various projects. One of my favorites is the my new master closet. This was such a labor of love but was worth the blood, sweat and tears. I absolutely love it. First, let's start with how I actually built it.

I began by making a base using 2 x 4's and then covered it with a piece of 3/4" plywood. Always make sure your base is square and level or your whole system will be off.

Next I built the towers. They were just basic bookshelf design at the width I needed. I used fixed shelves so I nailed AND screwed them in.

Because the walls in our home are so out of plumb, I had to put braces behind the towers so they would be even.

Next I worked on the sides of the closet. Again, just a basic bookshelf design.

If you notice, I opted to have the shelves extend behind the main tower. I liked the idea of a little "hiding" place for a few items and it also gave us extra space for our clothes.

When everything was put together, I added lattice to the edge to hide where the towers came together. Next I primed and painted and that was it!

And the before/afters? Check them out!

Builder basic closet - The view from the door

Builder basic closet - My side (and the only shoe storage option)

So there it is! The results of months and months of work. Although this project wasn't hard, it was a bit time consuming - mostly because I did the majority of it by myself. If you had a helper you could easily knock it out in a couple of weekends.

Cost: The cost was between $400 - $500 for everything except the light, knob and wallpaper.

Materials:
I used 3/4 plywood to build it and lattice for the edges. This is our forever house so I wanted quality products. You could do the same project with MDF and cut $100 - $200 off the total cost.
I used Ikea kitchen rods for hangers (attaching them to the top of the shelf instead of the sides).
The wallpaper was from Lowe's.
I scored the storage baskets from Home Goods.
The knob is Emtek and was ordered online (affiliate link) while the light was from Light's Fantastic.

UPDATE:

I've been asked a lot about the amount of space I have for clothes. Although it seems like less space because of the shoe/bag wall, we actually added 8 feet of hanging space. We only had single rods previously on the back and one side wall. I added double rods during the remodel. Also, yes, I have more clothes than this. In the past I rotated clothes by season because of the lack of hanging space (I put them in storage boxes and slid them under the bed). When I took these pics, I hadn't taken them out of storage yet. And really, those side shelves extend pretty far behind the main tower and provides tons of hanging space.

Two years later, I still love this closet. Sure, there are things I would do differently in how I built it, but the design has been great. Hopefully I've motivated some of you to take this on at your home!