A Closet Transformation For The Princess.....

When we selected which bedroom would be our future nursery, I knew one thing right away……the closets that came with the house HAD TO GO!!! I tried for months and months to be okay with them, due to our impending budget constraints with me being on maternity leave for a year, but I finally hit my breaking point. We couldn’t afford to fix all of the closet doors in the house (there are three bedrooms with this same style), but we were going to fix THIS ONE prior to the arrival of Miss Madeline.

P.S. It was probably just the pregnancy hormones, but either way, I got my new doors! 🙂

Here is what the doors looked like when we first bought our home (we had already painted the room and installed new molding and base boards when this picture was taken):

There was the obvious issue with the gold knobs and the light brown doors, but I could fix all of that with a little paint. However, I could not deal with the fact you could only open half of the closet at one time! I tried and tried to get over it, but I simply couldn’t. I also couldn’t contend with the fact that the shelving didn’t have a solid bar that you could slide clothes across. Having a new baby in a new home is stressful enough, so I decided that this closet HAD TO GO!

Although I am very happy with the final result, this was surprisingly NOT CHEAP to fix – BOO!!! Once you take into account the shelving, new framing that went around the door, the additional drywall, the longer baseboard and the doors themselves, this added up to a fairly hefty price tag. However, my stress level has drastically reduced since the work has been completed, so I am okay. 🙂 Below is a picture of how the sliding doors blocked half of the closet. Also, take a peak at the old shelving:

Our construction team started working, and the whole process took about a week. This is what I was speaking about in my other renovation posts…..everything will take MUCH LONGER than it seems! One would typically think that changing doors on a closet would be an easy fix, but even they took five to seven days to change. There is always MUCH more work that goes into a project than it seems at first glance, so make sure to account for this time when you are deciding on if it is worth it to renovate!!!

One thing that we did screw up on was the baseboards that we had JUST INSTALLED on the bottom right (they had already been ripped away in the picture, but you get the point). Since the standard bifold doors were not as wide as the doors that were in the room previously, the wall had to be extended, which decreased the size of the opening by about eight inches. We were so proud of how we had painted this room, installed the new crown molding, as well as the base boards, but we didn’t account for the fact that the baseboard to the right of the closet now had to be longer. Therefore, the baseboard that had been installed the week before then had to be ripped back up and a longer piece of baseboard had to be reinstalled. This wasn’t a huge deal, but it probably set us back around $25. It is important to not do this often, because $25 a hit can really start to add up over time. I would much rather spend that money on decor than I would constantly redoing projects. Oh, well. We will chalk this up as a “learning experience” and move on with our lives. 🙂 The dry wall is what took the longest amount of time, but once it was completed, it looked like the wall had always been that way:

Below is a picture of the finished product with the added casing going completely around the door. You can also see our new and improved base boards. YAY! I am not typically a huge fan of bifold doors, however, we didn’t have a choice due to the configuration of the room. If we had chosen standard doors on a hinge (like a french door style), then you couldn’t have the door to Madeline’s room and the closet opened at the same time, since they would hit each other. That would have also driven me CRAZY, so we went with this style door instead. What do you think???? 🙂

Below is a picture of the closet with the new shelf that we installed with a clothing bar going across. Now, we can slide hangers back and forth, which makes this mama very happy! We also added another shelf above it, for additional storage. I typically keep the left area open, so I have a location to easily store extra diapers, wipes, etc that I buy in bulk. This way, I can always take advantage of couponing and/or any major sales at the various stores! 🙂

I will do a later post on an update of how I organize Madeline’s closet, since the above picture was actually taken a few weeks before she was born. Stay tuned for more posts on Madeline’s room, because it has most definitely evolved over the past year! 🙂