How a Random Space in My House Turned into a Problem I Couldn’t Ignore (Part 1)

Come gather round the campfire my darlings, because I’ve got a story to tell you. Grab a snack, put your feet up, and let's have a kiki. This is the tale of how after living with a random space in my house for over a decade, I finally discovered its true purpose and turned it into the walk-in closet of my dreams. It’s a tale of epic highs and lows, a reminder: function is the most important part of any space, and a lesson: you should always give yourself the same energy you are willing to give to others. Ready? opens popcorn Let’s begin. 

There is a space in my house that seemed like it was built for one purpose. Upstairs, in between two bedrooms, is a weird hall with shelves and a desk. The ceilings are sloped, as the front of my house was never dormered, and it looks as if the builders of the house squeezed in a bonus open concept office space, as the area itself is too small to close in to make an additional room. So for years, this was my office. I was working in the city so I didn’t need a large space, and this was tucked out of the way, which allowed the other bedrooms in my house to be used as spaces that we needed instead of a full-time office for me. 

Quick layout infodump: my house has four bedrooms. One is the primary, with a bathroom attached, and one is for my daughter. These are both upstairs. The two downstairs bedrooms were my husband’s office, who worked remotely since before Covid, and a playroom/den, which allowed us to close the door and hide all the toys, and keep the living room a hosting-friendly grown up space. As insane as it was that my family of three was blessed with four bedrooms to use, things got crazier a few years down the road, and we finished off our 700sq ft basement, providing us with even more space. The playroom/den moved downstairs, my husband took over that room as his office/guest room, leaving us with a spare room to utilize. A whole spare room in your home to use? I’m fully aware of the privilege here and know this is not a problem that resonates with everyone. I ask you to bear with me and keep reading.

At this time, I was working remotely, and my book collection grew larger than the small shelves in the upstairs office could handle. It only made sense that I took the now available downstairs room now as my office, seeing as how I needed more space to work, and would be using the office daily. This left me with the open space in the upstairs hall office. Due to the sloped ceilings and the built-in desks and shelves, I was pretty limited with what I could do with the space. 

Thanks to TikTok, I had really gotten into makeup and figured I could turn my former work desk into a makeup vanity and create a glam room, like those that influencers sit in and do their full beat. Here’s the thing though, the makeup hyperfixation did not last very long, my bank account really didn’t appreciate my accumulating all these products that I couldn’t even use at the same time, having only one face and all, and I was no longer spending an hour each day getting ready, mostly because I absolutely did not have that time to spare. I kept my makeup in some freestanding Ikea drawers that slid under the desk, added storage for all my beauty type products, hair, nails, perfume, etc, and thought I could make the room an extension of my bedroom. Like a closet. Great idea, but terrible execution. I hadn’t done anything to change the function of the room. So this one-time office, then makeup room and now closet area became my worst nightmare: a dumping ground. 

This sordid history leads to today’s lesson: Space without purpose leads to chaos and clutter. If you do not define your space, and then set it up to successfully function as that space, it simply will not work. This will become the space where half opened packages get forgotten. Clean towels and sheets that have made their way back upstairs but weren’t put away will make this space their home. Spare storage boxes with random electronics will adorn the shelves, and you’ll let it slide because hey, at least everything is contained in a box, right? Things that need to go into the bedroom will make it as far as this hall, surrender, and submit right there in that room. It didn’t function, it didn’t look good, and I hated it with the burning passion of eleven suns. 

Meanwhile, not to sound too dramatic, laundry was ruining my marriage. The drawers of our dresser were too shallow, and it became impossible to put clothes away. The closet bar was overcrowded, and small everyday items were getting lost in between special event dresses, never to be seen or worn. Clean clothes were coming up faster than space was opening  to put them away, so we were getting dressed out of clean hampers each morning. Our everyday clothing items went from being worn, to dirty hampers, to laundry, to clean hampers, to being worn, and never saw the inside of a drawer. 

Finally, one day I stood up and said, “I am a grown up, this is dorm room nonsense, something has to change”. My husband didn’t hear me say this, because he was busy doing laundry and producing even more clean clothes to never get put away. I went on an epic wardrobe purge. I got realistic with my size, and the size of my clothing, and the style I dreamed of having versus the style I actually had (and could afford), and donated 70% of my clothing. The fact that I was still left with plenty of items may be a clue that I might have something of a clothing problem. 

While this made things easier, it still wasn’t perfect. My bedroom closet set did not allow for the kind of function I needed on an everyday basis. And I still had that dump zone of a hallway right outside the bedroom driving me mad. If only there was a way I could solve both problems…

I was determined, I was going to turn that hallway/office/makeup room into a walk-in closet. But this time, I wouldn’t fail as I had done before, because this time I was going to set myself up to succeed. To change the room to function as a closet, I was going to have to restructure the room to allow it to function as a closet. This was the tricky part. I couldn’t dormer, so I had to make everything fit in this tiny area with its sloped ceilings. I started by thinking about what I would do if I didn’t have any limitations. I would create closet bars on the wall to hang clothes, and turn all the built-in cabinets into dressers. So I worked out how to do this within the existing space. I would take out the built-in cabinets and put in dressers instead. Above the cabinets would be custom built closet rails, and the open shelves would be reworked to allow for display items. I got a quote from my contractor/woodworker, and allocated the funds. 

And then everything tanked when I lost my job. My 9-5, on-site, salaried job in the home fashion industry was gone, and half of our steady stream of income was no more. 

With the instability of income from side interior design projects, those allocated funds could no longer be used on something as frivolous as a walk-in closet, when we needed them to pay bills, or our mortgage, or everyday living expenses. My closet project had to die. 

I was devastated. I tried to compensate by purging even more, but the flow and function of the current set up just didn’t work for how my brain operates. There is no linen closet upstairs, so I still had to make closet space for sheet sets and bath towels, not to mention out of season storage. There wasn’t enough room function wise to store all my shoes in the space, so I tried to store everyday shoes in one area, and put the rest in my closet. Well, you know what they say, “out of sight, out of mind”. Those closet shoes never got worn. I wasn’t putting myself in a position to utilize my full wardrobe. 

I was lamenting this to my mother one day, when she just laughed and said, “So you’re giving up? What if a client came to you with this space and said they wanted a walk-in closet, you would just tell them to forget it and walk away?” She had a good point. My design philosophy is that there is always something that can be done, regardless of space and budget, that can improve your living situation. If I were given a space that couldn’t be changed, and then a budget, all for someone else, I would find a way to make this work. Why shouldn’t I put that same energy into myself?

I crunched the numbers, and gave myself a strict budget. I gave myself rules: no demo, no professional custom work, and I was going to do everything myself to keep costs down and restructure this room to become a walk-in closet. Now, a small caveat, when I say “work on this myself”, I mean that my husband would be assisting me. I needed the extra pair of hands in order to get this done on time.He helped paint, cut MDF with the jigsaw, screwed in handles, and more. I gave myself a very short time frame, because if I had all the time in the world to get this done, it would never get done. That’s just how my brain works. One project in a month, I’m missing the deadline. The same project in a week? Gold star, A+, done.

Anyway, the transformation began. I made mood boards, renderings, and a list of every single item I would need to pull this room together. I shopped around until I could get everything I needed within budget, compromised in some areas while holding my ground in others. This wouldn’t be a Pinterest-perfect walk in closet, it couldn’t be. However, this was going to be the best use of my existing space- functional, aesthetically pleasing, and a net positive impact on my living and storage situation. 

Once I got the ball rolling, everything fell in line pretty quickly. The hardest part honestly was choosing the right shade of blush for the walls and built-ins, not too neutral, not too bold. But maybe kind of bold, just not distracting and overpowering. I put feelers out on social media to get some color feedback, and I’m as surprised as anyone as to where I ended up. 

Decluttering is a necessity, but you’ll find yourself unhappy and lacking the space for even your most minimal items if it isn’t set up to properly function. My hall wasn’t just messy because I had too much stuff, it was also because the space itself made no sense. To make this a success, I would have to change the function of the space, without drastically changing the space. 

I’ve spun quite the yarn here, and I’m aware that at this point you’re probably thinking, “Okay lets see the space already!”. That is not this post. This post is to share with you a little more about myself, my home, and how I ended up here. In Part 2, I will indeed be sharing my completed space with you, including a breakdown of what I did, how I made everything work between storage and style, and what I would do differently next time.

My DIY walk-in closet is almost ready for her grand debut. Now that you have some backstory, I’m hoping that when you see her, you will have the same deep appreciation for the new space as I do. This closet came from humble beginnings, and was created out of desperation. Function was the main focus, but we didn’t forget about form. The final result wasn’t what I had originally pictured, but there’s no denying how things function much more efficiently now. The perfect solution might not be attainable, but there is always a way to create improvement. When you prioritize the function of a space, and then go in to create the aesthetics, you end up with a longer lasting, successful solution. 

Stay tuned!