Walk in Closet Renovation

When we bought our current home I knew right away that A) I loved our walk in closet and b) I hated our walk in closet. So let's stay postivie and start with what I loved about it. It was big, and the entry was in the bathroom. And thats basically where the love ends. It was very clearly just a room with one wire shelf in it that was trying to pass itself off as a closet, and failing miserably.

Here is a before picture so you can understand my love/hate feelings.

Lots of potential but just neglected. So I first had to decide if I wanted to go full DIY on this or just buy most of it and DIY some. As it turns out IKEA was having a closet storage sale, so it was cheaper for me to buy.

I used two units from the Pax collection by IKEA. I loved how versatile they are. Even now if I want to add more drawers or shelving I easily can as my needs change. Assembly went as most IKEA assembly's do, first one takes 5 hours and the second one takes about 5 minutes.

Once I had them in the closet I decided I wanted them to fit flush against the wall, which meant cutting the baseboard. Here I had two options. Either take off the whole baseboard and cut it into two separate pieces, or try to remove just the piece I didn't want. I went for the latter.

If you have a multi tool I would recommend using it as it would be much easier than what I did. I didn't have anything that would easily cut the baseboard away so I used a good old fashion hammer and chisel. I started by scoring the baseboard with an exacto-knife and cut it as deep as I could.

Then I went in with the chisel and hammer carefully.

Having them flush against the wall made them feel more like a built in and not just something that was stuck in the room.

Once the IKEA Pax units where in place I started on the shelving. The hooks and rod caps are from Amazon, and the rods and shelving are from Home Depot.

The shelf top attached directly to the hooks, and the hooks attached to the wall. Sadly the placement did not line up with any studs so I ended up using some tough drywall anchors to attached it to the wall and liquid nails along the back of the shelf against the wall for some extras strength.

The bottom shelf I kept a few inches shorter than the top so that I could hang long items.

I also added a tie rack ( although I'm using the one on my side as a belt rack) on each side of the Pax cabinet. These where made to go on the inside of the cabinet but I wanted them on the outside. To place on the outside I just drilled through the holes inside to out and the allowed for the placement on the outside.