I've hated our bathroom closet ever since we moved in our house. It feels as though the contractors had some leftover space and said, "Hey, lets throw some shelves up there and call it a closet." It's an awkward space since it's narrow and deep. Think 3 feet deep. The worst part is the wire shelving that they put up is about 12" long...so there's almost 24" of wasted space, per shelf. At any rate, here is my before...
There are three girls in our house you know! And here's another photo after I cleaned it out:
You can see how far back the shelves sit back from the door. So I removed everything from the walls and proceeded to fill all the holes I left behind. I spackled the holes, sanded, primed, and painted the walls a white color that I found out in the garage. You can't really tell from the picture, but at the bottom of the closet is brown carpet that ran across the bottom and down to the floor. I ripped that out, swept the closet really well, and put some self-stick tiled on the bottom that I had leftover from a laundry room project from a few years ago. That alone was a huge improvement! I like the cheapo drawers that I have in there, perfect for throwing in the hair dryer and various irons (curling, flat, etc.) So I measured out the shelves with intentions of leaving those drawers. In total, I was able to fit five shelves. And I increased the depth from the 12" to 24" so I went from 36" of storage space to 120"---tripled!!! I had everything I wanted on the shelves in a laundry basket, so I grabbed the biggest items and made sure my distance between shelves would allow them to slide easily on the shelf and stay upright. After I had my measurements marked and leveled on the wall, I screwed in my slats. (I used five 3/4" by 2" by 48" boards, and just cut them in half.)
When they were in, I painted the boards, and while they were drying, I went downstairs to cut my shelves, prime them, and paint them the same color as the walls and slats. Here it is with my shelves inserted:
And here it is with some 'stuff' on the shelves. Again, they are 24" deep, so bulk items like hand soap, toothpaste, and body wash are in the back. Overall, I'm really pleased with how it turned out, as it's added so much function to the closet and has cleared the clutter from the rest of my bathroom. I was able to put the items from three other bathroom storage units (vanity and two wall cabinets) into the closet!
