Many people thought I had lost my mind when I told them of this project I kept thinking of doing. I was confident it would work, and you know what? I wasn't wrong.
We had the standard closet everyone has in their house. The "Monica Closet" if you will.
Ours, unlike Mon's, was a large-ish walk in. It measures 5.5 feet by 6 feet.
All I could see was wasted space. Junk up to my thigh, and wasted space. I began to look for ideas online and I found some, but most were not for a closet the size of this, so, I just decided to wing it.
The walls up to the door are only 18" deep, which makes it tricky for cabinets. Enter laundry room cabinet... and the angels sang. The cabinets I purchased are 16.65" deep. Wooo!
More on those later.
So, we started with your basic, oversized, Monica closet.
Ignore the framing on the side there. That is for a project hubs never got around to finishing. He did reuse all of that wood for my desk though!
We ripped out the shelving and the carpet. Spackled & painted.
The first thing we did after that was hang the high cabinets. These needed to be quite high to allow for the tall cabinets. I require a small ladder to reach them, so they obviously do not house things I need often.
These actually have 3 doors, but since we had to go so high, the middle door wouldn't open because of the light. We removed them and I use them to display my nerdy collectables.
All of the cabinets were purchased at Lowes. These are ESTATE by RSI and are 53.75 in W x 20 in H x 16.625 in D.
After that, we did the floor. We purchased an inexpensive laminate flooring (also at Lowes).
Next is where a lot of money could come in for many, but, fortunately, my handy dandy husband is actually a journeyman electrician by trade. He installed shallow depth surface mount receptacles instead of cutting into the walls.
After that came the tall cabinets. These are also ESTATE by RSI. We put in two 23.75 in W x 70.375 in H x 16.625" D cabinets.
This closet was, and still is, the main storage area in our house. It houses all our (many) board games, and my (many, many) scrapbooks along with crafts, some seasonal decor, etc. It now also houses office supplies, of course. So, I needed a LOT of storage.
The next step was the desk.
We reused the shelving that came in the closet for the base of my desk. Then, we covered it with the leftover laminate flooring. It is mostly a floating desk, but we did add one leg in the corner for extra support.
After that it was just added shelving, installing the doors on the tall cabinets, and decorating (aka 'geeking up' in my case).
The cubbies to the side of the tall cabinets are for office supplies. I just realized this photo was before the second cubby shelf was installed, so imagine that here, ok? Ok.
And finally, a view from my family room into the office. (Please note Fang standing sentry beneath my desk).
While it is a small, it's actually a MUCH larger space than my old desk was. I like how everything is tucked away neatly & my tiny little office is bright and happy and filled with my favorite things.
This entire build ran us around $800, which isn't cheap, but was WELL worth it. 3/4 of that price was the cabinets alone.
Monica would be proud.
