We have had a bit of musical bedrooms happening at our house! Our kids are at the age where they really need their own space and privacy. However, what started as a goal to give our kids their own bathrooms…became our son switching bedrooms with the guest room…which resulted in a complete overhaul of his new closet! But honestly, you see the before picture…this just couldn’t stand!
As you can see…chaos. The original goal was to simply clear out this closet, sort through it all to either toss or keep, and then move Harrison’s clothes into his new room. But, I am the embodiment of “if you give a mouse a cookie”. When it was completely cleared out, all I saw was potential!
I started sketching out some ideas and chatting with Harrison about what would work for him. He basically just cared about colors so I let him pick a few things out (from a small selection of options!). This kid loves black and black with a little more black but I swayed him to consider some blues and grays so it wasn’t too dark. Instead of painting the entire closet, I wanted a pop of fun in the background. Because he is eight and likely to want something fresh in a few years, I opted for a temporary wallpaper for the back wall. With a plan in mind, away we went…
I started painting the trim white, the doors a deep gray, and the side walls a dark blue. I found this really inexpensive rustic shiplap wallpaper that offered a fun pop without being too overwhelming. It went up like a dream! However, when I went to do a second coat of paint on the trim, I noticed it had started to peel up in the corners. I don’t love that…but I knew what I was getting into with a temporary stick on. Whether or not I’ll be happy I did this later, I’m not sure…but I grabbed some Gorilla Glue and got those corners down! 😉
Originally, I had planned to wallpaper above the shelf as well. However, I couldn’t find a way to squeeze my body between the wall and the shelf enough to be able to get it up without losing my mind! So I went the easier path of painting instead!
Once the painting was finished, the fun part arrived…organization! 😉 I wanted to maximize storage opportunities without getting overly complicated because, again, he’s eight! I wanted to make sure he was set up for success so he needed a system that he could maintain, which meant I got to purchase storage buckets and labels!
I found a hanging closet organizer with five pockets which perfectly replaced our Monday-Friday clothes buckets. Each Sunday evening, I put everything he’ll need for each day in those little compartments so he is good to go each school morning. It’s clutch for us non-morning folks!
For the other side of his closet, I repurposed a shelf from his old room and replaced the cube storage with fresh gray bins that could store things like swimsuits, cold weather items, and athletic apparel. For the top of his closet, I found larger bins that can store his extra bedding and bags. I also have his keepsakes and school items stored here as well. All of which is labeled so there is NO EXCUSE for messiness! 😉
While we still need to tweak the order in which his clothes are hung, I’m really pleased with how this project came out! And now I’m motivated to tackle more of our closets so stay tuned! As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts! Comments welcomed!
Project Links
- Behr Paint (Home Depot): Legendary Gray (for the doors), Pure White Paint (for the trim), and Skinny Jeans (for the wall)
- Rustic Shiplap Peel & Stick Wallpaper (Amazon) (I used two rolls for this closet space): $22.99/roll
- White Label Clips (Amazon): $19.99
- Label Stickers by Talented Kitchen (Amazon): $14.99
- Storage Bins for the top shelf (Amazon): $27.99 (for three)
- Cubed Storage Bins (Amazon): $23.06 (for six)
- Hanging Closet Organizer (Amazon): $24.99 (for two)
- Filing Organizers (Amazon): $39.49 (for two)
- Large Storage Bags (Amazon): $29.99 (for six)