Tales of A Not-So-Master, Master Closet

Once upon a time there was a Master closet. A master closet so small that it really should have been called a “Step-in” closet, because as soon as you open the door and “step in”, you are right before your clothes. But the saving grace lies in there being not just one closet in the Master, but two. There was the closet that the builders built as the “Master Closet”, and then there was the linen closet, of which it’s identical twin was just outside the Master Bedroom door in the hallway. The small size of this Master Closet was quite disappointing at first visit because I was used to larger Master Closets, walk-in closets, even back in the day when I was renting. This is the story of my two closets. Pictured below is the Master Closet in my last home…

I loved this Master Closet, and I wish I had more pictures of it. You can’t see it in the photo but there was a beautiful, floor-to-ceiling fabric swag over the vanity shelves, and a full length mirror on the wall next to the door with a step stool, and my favorite part, an ottoman for seating that fit nicely in the center of the space. Me: deep breath, sigh and swoon… Ok I’m back. The first time I saw the closet in my new home I knew it could potentially be a deal-breaker. I loved most everything about this home except the size of the closet. No hall closet on the first level? Ok, I live in Arizona, I can deal with that. Smaller bedrooms? No worries. The master bedroom was large enough and I don’t have consistent out of town guests that require any more accommodations than provided. But a small Master Closet? (Needle scratches across the record) Potentially the smallest closet I’d had since my college dorm years? I had to think for a  few minutes. Could I live with this? Would I always regret buying a home with such a small Master Closet? Or with stairs? Oh, sorry, wrong post. I’ll get to that at another time, haha! Once I committed to this purchase, deciding it was the best choice for me overall, I knew I would have to do some customizing if I was to be happy with it. I like so many other women, have seen the swoon-worthy dressing rooms on Pinterest and Instagram. It was a Pinterest post that even had me considering turning the 2nd guest bedroom into a dressing room. But I still needed and wanted a home office, and when all was said and done, I didn’t want to have to come out of the Master Suite and walk down the hall to get dressed and undressed every day. Please forgive me, I’m still sort of new to the decor-reveal-before-and-after thing, so I neglected to get a good shot of the closet prior to the work being done, but here’s a couple not-so-good ones taken from the bathroom.

During construction…

Almost move-in ready…

There’s more room on each side, but doesn’t it look small? I mean I have to close the door once I walk in it to get to anything on the right side! I was determined not to move a single item into that closet until it was customized, I got right to work researching closet customization companies, and I settled on Closet Factory. A wonderful designer named Lauri Marsh met me out at the home just after the dry wall had gone up to discuss options. She was so thorough and gave me really honest options. Because I’ve been known to consistently gravitate towards everything at the higher end of the cost spectrum, I set a budget of what I wanted to spend, and I was so thrilled with what she came up with. Here is the rendering that was drawn up for me…

As much as I tried to have the work scheduled the first week in the house, I couldn’t make it happen. So I did in fact have to move everything in there initially. As I shared in my Master Bedroom Stories here, the Master closet is the first room I set up because I absolutely hate having to repeatedly step over items and dig through boxes to get ready in the morning. I had to live with it for exactly 29 days. And while the rendering was pretty, and I was excited about it, I also knew I was going to struggle fitting all my clothes and shoes in there. And I don’t have a lot of clothes! But what I had wasn’t going to fit in this little space. So I did a huge purge, and a big chunk of my wardrobe went to charity organizations. Then at the last minute I had a bright idea. I had two linen closets, each the same size, one in the hallway right outside the Master Bedroom door, and the other inside the master bathroom. I didn’t really need two linen closets, so why not turn the one inside the master bathroom into a shoe closet? Myy budget wouldn’t accommodate customizing the entire closet and now a shoe closet. A pow-wow call with Lauri and a revised paperwork-to-sign email later, the new plan was to customize the back wall only, move forward with the linen-to-shoe closet conversion, and leave the two side, builder-grade, full-length, hanging systems in place (for now). Because one, I needed that space; Two, the difference in customization for those additional areas would be minimal; and Three, I knew I had a bit of my own customizing I could do in those side areas that would suffice for me. So I was happy with my decision. I’d wanted shelving for my shoes instead of the plastic-shoe-box-and-lid system for a while. AND… they could install everything at the same time. Yay! Once again, with everything happening so fast, I neglected to take a photo of the linen closet prior to the conversion, but it was your standard linen closet. Nothing fancy, just very deep with 4 shelves. The day of the install I couldn’t take off work so my Mom filled in for me. I must’ve called her at least six times for updates, reminding her to have the installer text me pictures when he was finished. Here’s what he sent me…

I couldn’t wait to get home to get started on moving into my new Master Closet. But before I could “move in,” I had to paint.  I’d just completed painting the bathroom, which you can see here, so I got started that night. You can read about my paintscapades also in my Master Bedroom stories post here. It only took me two nights to finish painting the closet and shoe closet, and get everything set up in both. And by two days I mean, two evenings after getting home from work at 6:00pm. Here’s how it all turned out…

That little open space is where I usually sit my purse. And one of the nice things about using Closet Factory was that they would add any hardware I provided at no additional charge, as long as I had it all to them when the order was submitted. These are Martha Stewart Living drawer pulls from Home Depot. You can check them out here.

And I absolutely love my jewelry drawer. I’m not a big jewelry girl so this was just enough space for me to house everything.

I am still so giddy about my shoe closet, and so happy Closet Factory was able to do installs in both areas on the same day. Next thing I have to do is have a baby chandelier hung in there and get a little seat. There’s room!

Here’s how the left side of the Master closet space turned out…

I needed just a little more storage for items like my hats, clutch bags and sweatshirts. I didn’t have much of a preference for these except I didn’t want baskets, and I wanted something white. I found these at one of my happy places, The Container Store. You can check them out here. They fit nicely beneath the hanging items.

Speaking of storage, I actually use a white lacquer serving tray to store all my scarfs on the very bottom of the custom built-in. It’s also from The Container Store (here). I told you it was my happy place 

For as long as I can remember, in all of my closets, I’ve used the space above the hanging items to “store” my purses. I just keep a step ladder close by so I can easily reach them.

On the opposite wall, the right side of the Master Closet, there is more long-hang items; evening gowns, pants, dusters, as well as my belts. I found a cute laundry basket at Home Goods that fits under the shorter hanging pieces in the center, along with my hair dryer in the corner, which you really can’t see. And those are my pj’s hanging on a little hook by the door, haha!

You may be wondering, what is up with all the mismatched hangers? I feel some kinda way about them too when I look at this picture! Being the recovering perfectionist that I am, I almost decided not to do a Master Closet post at all because of them. So let me tell you about my mismatched hangers. First of all, I really don’t like to see the metal hook part of the hanger. I know, strange, right? I will either figure out a creative way to cover/hide them, or implement Phase II of the original Closet Factory design. But I won’t do any of this until I’m able to switch out ALL of my hangers. Now I’m not really crazy about the hangers most everyone else on the planet seem to love. You know, the velvet-covered, no-slip ones? For a long while I consistently used the basic, clear, plastic ones. Then I purchased several wooden ones for the guest rooms and hall closet in my last 2 homes. Right now I will just live with my mismatched ones until I can switch to these…

Bow added by me of course. I love these Lucite hangers from… you guessed it, The Container Store! Even though they take up a tad more space than the popular velvet-covered ones, my plan still stands.

Now let’s talk chandeliers… I’d been looking for the perfect light fixture for a while but hadn’t found anything I really liked, and that would work in the space, until just recently. Considering the limited space, and the not-so-attractive crawl space door in the ceiling just a few feet away from where it would hang, the lower ceiling height upstairs, keeping in mind the door height, made selecting something stylish a bit challenging. There was only about a 12″ hang to work with. But I found this little cutie at Lowe’s with just enough bling and sparkle for this glamour girl.

It had just the right dimensions, style and price. I was so excited to have found it that I wanted it hung right away, but my electrician wasn’t going to be able to come out for at least a week or two. So I thought about the multiple light fixtures I’d hung before and decided I could do this myself. It turned out to be not so easy of a task. I detailed the frustrating event on Instagram. The light box was installed in the ceiling incorrectly, wires were crossed, one of the holes was stripped, and so what I thought would only take about an hour and a half, took four. Ugghhh!!! And for the next two days my shoulders were so sore from extending them upwards for so long. In the end it was all worth it, because when I look at it I hear Stevie Wonder’s “Isn’t She Lovely” playing.

Hallelujah, that’s one more boob light gone! But five still remain. One by one, I plan on getting rid of all of them throughout the year. My goal is to have a boob light-free home by like, August.

Even though I’ve always been blessed to have larger spaces to house my clothes and shoes, I’d never had anything custom. I’ve always creatively come up with something that translated into a functionally glamorous dressing area. I’d only dreamed of something like this before now. It actually makes me feel convicted in my spirit for speaking so poorly of the original little closet. I am reminded that for some, my not-so-Master-Master Closet would be quite large. So I am very thankful and grateful, and really happy with how it all turned out; looking forward to how it will evolve. Thanks for sharing this journey with me. Leave me a comment below and let me in on some of your closet tales. I’d love to hear them :)xo