We are officially empty nesters – now that my mom (who lived with us for 12 years) has passed away. Even our last little doggie passed away. It’s just the two of us and we have extra rooms.
Our master closet was getting tight with my things, my husband’s things and the things I had just inherited from my mom. Hmmm, ideas started to flutter around. My 11′ x 12′ office was just across the hall from the master bedroom. I could move my office upstairs. Then turn that spare room into a closet/dressing room.
At this point, out came the tape measure and notepad 😊 Unfortunately, I didn’t have this blog at that time. So I don’t have detailed photos for you. But I’m going to attempt to describe it. You can always send me a comment if you have questions or need help for your own planning.
My First Step for How to Convert a Spare Bedroom Into a Closet: Planning
First, I needed to define all the sections/areas I would like in my new closet/dressing room. Even though everyone will obviously have different needs/wants – I will list out my sections here. Perhaps it might help you make your own list.
- Pants/jeans
- Tops
- Jackets
- Long Dresses/Skirts
- Hats
- Handbags
- Scarves
- Belts
- Casual Shoes
- High Heels
- Low Boots
- High Boots
- Under Garments
- Tank Tops/Camisoles (I wear one under most outfits)
- Socks/Tights
- Leggings
- Work Out Clothes (I rarely open that drawer ☹)
- Jewelry
- Large flat surface to lay things out
- Seat where I can sit to put on socks and shoes
- Trashcan
- Mirrors
Utilizing Existing Elements in the Room
When the home was built, this room was originally a bedroom. So it has a double-door closet with a single rod.
I used this bedroom as an office. And I used the double-door closet for storage. However, it was not enough storage for my office. Soon thereafter, I put in this wall of storage cabinets.
Here’s what the wall of storage cabinets looked like while it was still an office.
Eventually, the cabinets above became my shoe storage. And the double-door closet is where I hang my long dresses/skirts.
But first – these storage cabinets went through a makeover. I added lots of trim: small, fluted case molding and decorative pieces from BomarDesigns.com. Bomar pieces are like WoodUBend but you can buy pieces a lot easier through Bomar. And they have hundreds of options.
Then I painted the cabinets and trim with a metallic champagne paint. And added gold leaf to the handles which came from Hobby Lobby.
I will eventually write a post detailing this process. However, if you want details before then, just send me a comment. Here are the finished cabinets for my shoe storage! Aren’t they fabulous?
When Planning How to Convert a Spare Bedroom Into a Closet: Think Long Term
I really like the natural window light from this bedroom to light up our hallway. So I had to plan the room in such a way that the door could remain opened when the room was not in use.
And I didn’t want to make anything too permanent because we may eventually downsize. In which case, changing that room back into a bedroom could be a selling point.
Open clothing racks would be the least invasive option for the space. That way, we could easily remove the rods and brackets if and when it’s time to make it a bedroom again. But how was that going to work if I planned on leaving the door open?
I really had to think through this. Because I didn’t want to see hanging clothes from my other rooms. My solution to that problem. A PARTITION. Now with a solution in mind, I could proceed with the next step of the closet overhaul.
NOTE: Although this Partition problem had to be addressed early in the process, it was not yet time to install the Partition. I’ll show you the Partition in the correct order 🙂
Planning the Clothing Racks
I needed 3 racks for clothing. And for my topmost rod, I knew that installing a pull-down closet rod was not a good idea for me. I had done that in our old closet. And after it was full of hanging clothes, it was just too heavy to push back into place. Perhaps someone sells a version with good hydraulics??
Anyway, I did all 3 of my clothes rods – old school. And purchased a hanger retriever pole (like they use in department stores 🙂 But firstly, I had to decide how far apart to place the rods. Here are the measurements for my 10′ high walls
- my lowest set of shelf rod brackets are installed at 36.5” from the floor
- the middle set of shelf rod brackets are at 73” from the floor
- the topmost set of shelf rod brackets are at 110” from the floor
Installing the Clothing Racks
I made my marks on the wall then used a long level to mark 8′ horizontal lines on the wall. Next, I used a stud finder to mark the studs. Then I attached the 1″ x 4″s along my level lines, right into the studs using #10 – 2.5″ star-drive screws.
Next I attached the short vertical 1″ x 4″ pieces, also at each stud. I used 2 screws per vertical piece making sure to put the screws in a place that would not interfere with the holes of the shelf rod brackets.
Finally, I attached the shelf rod brackets to the 1″ x 4″s with #10 – 2.5″ star-drive screws. (I used 3 brackets per 8 ft section). Those clothes rods are not going anywhere!!
I set in the laminate shelves. Then to attach the shelf rod brackets to the laminate shelves. I used ¾” screws to come up through the bracket and into the underside of the laminate shelves. I also used my brad nailer to secure the back of each laminate shelf to the horizontal 1″ x 4″s.
Lastly I placed the white clothing rods into the brackets. The photo below shows a closeup of the shelf rod bracket; the horizontal 1″ x 4″s; the vertical 1″ x 4″s; the laminate shelf; and the rod all in place.
Then in the next step, all this is hidden away behind a Partition wall.
Finishing the Clothing Racks Portion of this Room Conversion
Hanging all my clothes in there was so satisfying. As you can see in the photo above, all my clothes were hanging even BEFORE I put up the Partition, lol.
And here’s the view from my hallway, WITH the Partition wall in place! My open clothing racks are hidden behind this Partition. It works great! I have a separate post for how I solved the multiple challenges that I faced with this particular Partition wall. That post is here.
The next photo shows what is hiding behind this Partition wall. Let me add an IMPORTANT NOTE: if you have lots of clothes, get yourself some thin velvet hangers! They take up so much less room.
Another IMPORTANT NOTE: this photo below is reality folks. You can’t believe those advertising photos of closet systems where they only hang 10 items in the closet. And 5 pairs of shoes. That’s false advertising, lol.
How to Convert a Spare Bedroom into a Closet: Making Pegboards to Hang Scarves and Belts
Typically, I will plan my dimensions around the standard sizes of building materials. Standard sheets of pegboard are 4’ x 8’. That helped me determine that the height of my pegboards would be 48”.
If you turn the pegboard in your head into a horizontal orientation (48”h x 96”w) the rest of this will make more sense.
Next, I measured the available width on my 2 closet doors (the closet within the closet room 😉). 21” per door would allow enough margin so that the doors would close properly. So that’s 42” from my 96” width.
That left me with 54” of pegboard width. Next, I measured the width of the door leading into the room. 27” would allow enough margin so that I would not interfere with the door handle.
That left another 27” of pegboard width. Which meant I could hang another pegboard on the wall behind the door. I used a circular saw to cut (4) pegboard pieces: (2) 21” x 48” and (2) 27” x 48”. You lose a tiny amount that the blade eats up. So these are rounded up measurements. But I do work hard to plan my cuts so I don’t have any waste!
To create shallow frames behind the pegboards, I cut down 1″ x 2″ fir boards. Then I made level lines on the wall and on the doors. I used drywall screws to attach the 1″ x 2″ frames to the wall and to the closet doors.
And I attached the pegboards to the 1″ x 2″ frames with particle board screws.
Then the fun part was putting the J hooks into the pegboards. More satisfaction! The photo below is the inside of one of my closet doors. And the following photo shows my simple pegboards for hanging my belts.
How to Convert a Spare Bedroom into a Closet: You Need a Center Island
I feel every closet “room” needs a center island. It’s where you can lay things out. Fold clothes. Store things, etc.
Although IKEA gets a bad wrap for having furniture pieces that are time-consuming to assemble. It’s hard to beat their prices and designs for simple functionality. I ended up using (4) identical IKEA Malm dressers to create my center island.
Not only am I able to be uber organized. The height creates a perfect island in the middle of my closet. The seam has disappeared in the photo below. But there are 2 facing one direction and 2 facing the opposite direction. My total island is 38″ x 63.5″ x 39.5″ high. Glorious 🙂
I just finished this custom “countertop” Summer 2024. My first time working with Epoxy Resin. You can find out how I did this in this post.
A Look Inside One of My Drawers (A Note About Folding)
I wear a camisole almost every day. So I have many colors 🙂
Whatever you’re folding, fold to the size of the space. Place your items standing on end. And make sure you’re folding in such a way that you take up the full depth of the space. This will allow you to fit it more items. This also allows you to see and easily access everything in the space.
Place items in a such a way that all the uneven sides are facing the bottom. Keeping the rounded part of a fold facing you, keeps things from looking messy.
It is heavenly having 16 drawers in my closet!
DIY Space-Saving Hanging Jewelry Cabinets for Lots of Jewelry
I’ve been collecting jewelry for years and I recently inherited my mom’s collection. That meant my little hanging plastic jewelry pockets were not going to cut it anymore.
So, I designed these space-saving, shallow, hanging cabinets. 2 of them hang on the closet doors. The other is hanging on the wall next to the shoe cabinets. They are each set up differently to accommodate different types of jewelry.
This post is already long enough. So this is just a tease for what is possible 😊 I will eventually write a detailed post. However, if you want details before then, just send me a comment.
Here is the interior of the hanging cabinet just for earrings!
The Finishing Touches to Convert a Spare Bedroom into a Closet
Phew this was quite a journey! My longest post so far. I didn’t even have photos of the “process”. But I hope this has inspired you and helped you to come up with your own ideas for converting a spare bedroom into a closet.
The last small details are my little settee (given to me by a dear friend); the pretty, crystal dummy doorknobs; the gold pulls on my jewelry cabinets; the snow leopard rug and mirrors.
Oh, I can’t forget my BRIGHT light bulbs! While natural light is best, our home faces North. I don’t get good light in there. But these bulbs are the BEST!! I can now see the difference between browns and blacks, lol.
Here’s another look at my closet/dressing room. All the things that make me happy.
Materials Used to Convert a Spare Bedroom into a Closet
(3) 8’ closet rods
(3) 11.75” x 8’ laminate closet shelves
(4) 1″ x 4″ x 8′ primed boards
(9) Shelf rod brackets
(30) #10 – 2.5″ star-drive screws to attach the 1″ x 4″s to the wall
(24) #10 – 2.5” star-drive screws to attach shelf rod brackets to the 1″ x 4″s
(24) #8 – ¾” particle board screws to attach laminate shelves to shelf rod brackets
4’ x 8’ sheet of white pegboard
(6) 1” x 2” x 8’ primed fir boards
(32) #6 – 1-5/8” drywall screws (to attach fir boards to the wall and doors)
(32) #8 – ¾” particle board screws (to attach pegboards to fir boards)
(4) IKEA MALM (4-drawer chests) 18-7/8″d x 31.5”w x 39-3/8”h
(2) Pack crystal glass (dummy) door knobs
8’ x 10’ Snow Leopard Area Rug
150w Equivalent LED soft white light bulbs (2700K!!)
Tools Used
Table saw
Metabo 18V 6.5″ cordless circular saw
Metabo 18V cordless brad nailer
Measuring tape
Take Away
A room conversion can be a daunting project. At the outset, I think it’s best to take the time to PLAN the WHOLE project. This helps to minimize re-do’s down the road. But then you can break up the work into phases. This allows you to keep the momentum going without getting too overwhelmed.
Here’s to Making it Fabulous!
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2 comments
Wow I love what you have done with the Place! – The Husband
Hahaha, ok it appears to be working now 🙂