Our son’s closet got here collectively even higher than I might have imagined! I like each final element, and the perfect half is that every one it took was some easy DIY and some off-the-shelf organizers to create an entire lot of storage.
Our nearly 14-year-old son presently has the smallest room in the home. However we do not need it to really feel that approach so we’ve got been making lots of adjustments to open it up and add good storage.
I believe two totally different actions completed that feeling of openness we had been after; portray the partitions a stable gentle blue-gray (nearly white colour – Sherwin William’s Nebulous White) and widening the closet opening to create extra storage that may finally reside behind a closed door (see that publish right here).
And a fast reminder of the closet the day earlier than we cleared it out for a makeover:
And right here it’s right this moment!
Though the final make-shift closet system served us nicely for fairly a while, the most important drawback all of us had is that our son had outgrown the bins they usually had been actually bursting on the seams. He wanted some precise drawers and to maintain his bed room flooring space good and open, we wished so as to add these drawers within the closet. I additionally wished to make certain he had a spot for his footwear off of the ground and that we made the many of the Eight ft of vertical area, so after taking a look at quite a lot of choices, I made a decision on the IKEA PAX wardrobe body (measuring in at 29 half” broad x 22 7/8″ deep x 79 1/4″ tall). This unit presents greater than sufficient area and I respect that there’s loads of room for him as he continues to develop.
This kiddo is the beneficiary of lots of hand-me-down objects. Not solely does he have an older brother that has at all times taken fairly excellent care of his belongings, however we’ve got a number of pals with older boys that wish to go on their garments as nicely. We attempt to restrict the variety of clothes objects we preserve basically, however it’s also good to have some choices. The up to date closet not solely offers sufficient storage for his present wardrobe, but in addition for the plethora of hand-me-downs ready for when he goes by means of one other development spurt.
So let’s discuss in regards to the hand-me-downs for a minute. Now we have three boys so we do our greatest to protect and reuse garments as a lot as doable. They develop at totally different charges and are at all times totally different sizes, so there are occasions we have to retailer these additional garments that they simply have not grown into but. Twice a yr we do a fast closet purge and stock and rotate out their closets (spring and fall). I want to maintain their hand-me-downs saved on the highest shelf of their closets, and on this room, these medium Elfa drawers had been the proper answer. Do you know that though they’re meant for use with the Elfa drawer system, they may also be used as stackable bins? Thoughts. Blown. I like that they’re frosted and durable and include slim lids that clip in. They’re a very nice measurement and by utilizing two, we had been in a position to simply match them on prime of the IKEA tower in our son’s closet.
These two bins maintain 10+ pairs of denims in quite a lot of sizes, in addition to gown shirts/pants, shorts, sweats, t-shirts, and so forth… I discovered that I had loads of room to roll and stack the objects inside.
To maintain observe of the contents, I created and printed out a fast stock tracker that I crammed out and tucked beneath the lid. I’m able to see by means of the lid simply sufficient that this labored out completely, however the sheet might additionally slide into a transparent plastic sleeve on prime of a stable bin as nicely.
You too can obtain the trackers free of charge if you want!
Now, again to his present clothes…
Bear in mind how we DIY’d the simplest customized drawer dividers ever? I can not rave about them sufficient! They labored out so nicely in these drawers and provided us lots of flexibility.
I divided the highest drawer into three slots; one for pajamas, one for socks, and one other for underwear.
Fast Tip: I usually buy a special kind of sock for every boy, one to 2 packages of white and one bundle of black. This makes it simple to establish which socks belong to which boy, and likewise permits them to simply toss their socks into their drawer with no matching vital. Prior to now, I’ve additionally used coloured Sharpies to mark the bottoms which helped in figuring out and rapidly sorting all of their socks after washes (or when they’re laying all around the home).
The subsequent drawer down divides his cumbersome hooded sweatshirts and shorts.
Then his quick sleeved t-shirts, sweatpants and sweatshirts, and lengthy sleeve t-shirts are divided into three narrower sections.
The next drawer is all of his athletic put on, swim and additional area for future sports activities uniforms.
The underside drawer has loads of room for sheets and seasonal bedding.
And the smaller pull-out on the backside holds his footwear.
You might have additionally seen that I added some labels to the highest of every drawer, which might be seen when the drawer is each closed and open. I used this label maker with clear tape.
Our son prefers to fold his garments vs. hanging them, and this folding methodology was so fast and straightforward for him to study. He principally recordsdata his garments in order that all the pieces is seen and compact.
4 simple steps, the shirts might be folded in just some seconds every.
1. Shirt face down
2. Fold in each sleeves
3. Fold backside as much as the highest (in half)
4. Repeat and fold the underside up once more (in half)
Every part else is simply rolled or folded to greatest slot in every divided part.
For the garments that he does cling (basically something a bit dressier with a collar or buttons), we put in a stable oak closet rod which I stained a heat wooden tone. And as at all times, I like to recommend doubling up on the rods every time doable.
And used black closet rod sockets to go with the opposite black {hardware} within the closet.
We additionally added two stable white cabinets above every rod to supply a bit additional storage if wanted. We recessed them again a bit in order that we might place the hand-me-down bins up prime with none concern.
And these slim, no-slip hangers have been actually nice for the value.
Each the drawers and the cabinets within the tower are fairly deep, nearly two ft in actual fact. That is nice for the drawers, he has loads of spare area to proceed to develop. The cabinets, after all, show to be a bit tougher to make the most of. However, the highest shelf holds some heavier throw blankets that we use for sleepovers/friends, the following shelf holds a few lightweight woven baskets to hide his on a regular basis litter (nerf weapons, tech devices, and so forth…), and the decrease shelf has a number of doc bins for memorabilia and humanities & crafts.
I additionally added a small “valet” kind tray to carry his day by day objects and act as a drop zone.
It is humorous that this was certainly one of his favourite particulars, I suppose it made him really feel a bit extra “grownup” to have a spot for his pockets, change, watch, sun shades, and deodorant.
And that completes the closet tour!
With our boy getting into high-school this coming fall, this closet undertaking got here on the excellent time! The earlier closet functioned so nicely for therefore lengthy when the boys had been a lot smaller, however that is undoubtedly an improve match for an adolescent.
A couple of extra notes:
- I like that the IKEA tower is flexible and customizable. We added the pull-out shoe tray, 5 massive clothes drawers, and three cabinets to place collectively this configuration.
- I added this {hardware} to the drawers, which I sprayed in a flat black end.
- The entire drawers are gentle shut! So good!
- That is the paper I used to line the again of the tower (I simply adhered it to the again panel with double-sided carpet tape earlier than tacking it to the again of the body).
- Though we designed this closet for a teen boy, it’s versatile sufficient to work for anybody of any age! All the time a bonus.
- We plan so as to add a sliding door subsequent to hide all the pieces, which just about makes me unhappy as a result of I like the way it turned out a lot! But additionally, teenage boy.
- I thought of including a small step stool beneath his pants, however the boy is formally as tall as me and has no drawback reaching his on a regular basis objects. Sigh….
This set up has additionally offered us on updating our personal closet with the PAX system down the highway. It was really easy and versatile and the standard is actually nice. To not point out, I like that there are such a lot of methods to customise it to make it look distinctive, regardless that it’s off-the-shelf at IKEA (they don’t seem to be sponsoring me by the way in which, simply my sincere ideas).
Let’s finish the publish with a enjoyable earlier than and after to see how a lot was gained by eradicating the wing wall and putting in a totally practical closet system.
For reference, I rounded up all the closet sources under.
You too can make amends for all the different room posts right here:
Teen Boy Closet Planning
Patching the Partitions and Carpet
Bed room Progress: A Clean Slate
Fast & Straightforward DIY Drawer Organizers
Teen Workspace with DIY Wall Shelf
