Nearly two months ago now, I started my bedroom walk-in closet renovation. It has actually been 99% finished for the last month, but I have a bad habit of procrastination when it comes to finishing the last 1%. (Anybody else have that problem?) It’s much more fun to move onto the next project (like um, tearing apart my kitchen pantry and cutting a hole in my wall, which is what I did this week. More on that in a later post.)

In case you’ve forgotten, here’s what it looked like when we moved in:

I’ve done a ton of work on it, starting with tearing out the carpet and repainting, and then most recently, moving the closet rods (a challenge due to the sloped walls, and I didn’t chronicle it here, but I moved the closet rod on the other side, too), and adding built-in Ikea drawers to one side. And I also revamped my jewelry storage pegboards and hung a shelf, which I used as an opportunity to write up a tutorial on how to hang a floating live-edge shelf.

The hanging plant holders were a revamp of cheap planters from Target.

The tassel-trimmed basket is also a DIY project.

As are the crystal curtain tiebacks.

 

In addition to all of the projects I’ve already mentioned, this room actually has a bunch of DIY projects that I’ve never even shared, like the ceiling light:

The actual light is a porcelain light socket that I put in to replace the live wire sticking out of the ceiling (story in part 1 of the closet saga.) It’s surrounded by a wood embroidery hoop, which I drilled holes in, painted, hung crystals from, and mounted to the ceiling. I covered that up with some pretty brass lamp banding I found at my favorite salvage store. If you’re looking for something similar, before I found that banding, I almost ordered some from here.

I wanted a storage ottoman for my purses and bags, but couldn’t find one with fabric I liked, so I ordered an inexpensive faux-leather one from Target, and re-covered it with light blue microsuede. The idea was that my cats don’t like to scratch our microsuede couch, so they’d leave this alone. Unfortunately those little jerks still occasionally scratch this, so I usually leave this vintage coverlet on top. They love to sleep here, so it’s also good protection from cat fur.

I keep thinking I’m done adding DIYs I’ve done in here, then I remember another! This little table is from the as-is section of Ikea, but it originally had a square top. I didn’t like how much it stuck out and blocked access to the curtain, so I swapped the top out for one I made by painting the top of the Ikea lazy Susan I replaced the top of. Here it is before:

And after: 

Waste not, want not! It’s actually still slightly bigger than the ideal table for this spot, but I haven’t found that yet, so this one will do the job for now.

 

One other problem I solved in here was the lack of light in each side. There’s only one outlet in the room, and it’s on the porcelain light socket. So while I theoretically could string a cord from that light into the closet area, that would leave no outlet for the air conditioner we put in the window in the summer. When I say one outlet, I literally mean it accommodates one single plug. If I really wanted to, I could have come up with some kind of solution with extension cords strung through holes in the wall, but eventually we’ll have some electrical work done on other parts of the house, so I’ll leave it for a professional someday.

So to solve the problem in the meantime, I bought some battery-operated stick-on LED lights. They’re motion-activated, and they only turn on when there’s low light, plus they’re actually rechargeable via a USB, so no replacing batteries. Will wonders never cease? I was really excited when I discovered that these exist, and then even more excited after I’d put them up in my closet and tried them out. I bought two different types, this one, and two of these. The bigger one is brighter, but so far they’re all great, and even after a month, I haven’t even needed to charge them. I’m definitely going to put more in other unlit closets and cabinets in my house.

I think that’s about everything you could ever want to know about this closet. Except maybe for the source of the rug, that’s from Ikea. I think I have sufficiently tricked this closet out, so no more closet projects for a while, I promise! At least not this closet….