It took us 14 days after closing to start swinging a hammer and making some real changes around here. First up was doubling the size of the master closet and making a home for my shoes!! We spent those first few weeks starting to unpack, switches and outlets throughout the house, and discussing the closet renovation. Lots of planning, research and ideas were being discussed and we could not wait to get started on our first major project!!! We always knew we would be stealing the closet from the adjacent 2nd bedroom and would be putting one back in its place. On our 2nd look at the house before we made an offer we had measuring tapes in hand to make sure it was possible and wouldn’t look too awkward. Here is the layout before renovations, it was always in our heads but I decided to draw it out. I made these layouts really fast using homestyler.com which is a totally free site and you aren’t limited to how many projects you can create!! It was super easy to use and I plan on trying out the 3D and furniture features in the future.
And here is a layout with the new larger master closet and new closet added back to the 2nd bedroom. We thought it made the most sense to have it remain on that wall because it keeps the rest of the room feeling open instead of chopping it up. And I think it will make for easier furniture layout, but ya never know we could change our minds when we get to that project.
Back to the master closet. Funny thing about closets, the last thing that goes in (which is the doors) is the first thing that needs to be decided on because it determines the opening size of the closet. All of our closets had sliding doors, which I personally don’t like and think it makes the closet feel smaller and cramped. I get that they’re space savers in smaller spaces but it’s still not my preference. We don’t have the space for swing doors due to how large they would need to be so I had big bi-fold doors in my head that opened wide and allowed you to see everything!! And I thought bi-folds would more impressive and make it feel like a master closet since we don’t have the space for a walk-in closet. Below are the 2 door styles that were contenders, but in my mind there was only really one.
4 Panel Bi-fold
3 Panel Multi Pass
So off to research doors we went! Mace had 2 requirements for the doors: they had to be solid doors and we had to get commercial hardware (these doors would be heavier than hollow-core doors and he didn’t want to mess with them going off the tracks, I’m sure we’ve all had experience with cheap bi-folds). We picked up pamphlets of door styles from 84 Lumber, Home Depot, and Lowes to narrow down what we wanted. It was a pretty big decision because we wanted the closet doors to match the doors throughout the rest of the house (we plan to get all new doors, door hardware, and hinges down the road). We went with a solid core Masonite door from Mohawk from 84.
Mace found Johnson Hardware which sells all kinds of door hardware for sliding, bi-fold, pocket, and wall mounted doors (he is much more familiar with quality and brands of building products than I am, home furnishings is my area of expertise!!). The hardware was a commercial grade I-Beam with ball-bearing rollers for smooth operation (Mace could barely contain his excitement about how awesome they would close… I’m not kidding!). In his research he also found that the largest 4-panel bi-fold doors we could get would be for an 8 ft. opening… we had been planning on a 9 – 10 ft. opening since our closet would be 11 ft. 8 in. wide. We were concerned the return walls might be too deep and bi-folds add some depth on the sides because they don’t open all the way to the door casing. We checked our existing closets to see what their return walls were and they ranged from 16 to 24 inches deep. I also scoured sites online to find information (which I really didn’t find much or I wasn’t using google right) and saw ranges from 12 – 24 inches. So we chewed over it for a while and discussed pros and cons but in the end we decided to go with the 4 panel bi-fold with deeper returns. The deciding factor was that I had a vision in my head of a wide open closet (I had already been playing with closet organizer designs) and really just did not want sliding doors.
Speaking of the closet organizer, I went with Martha Stewart from Home Depot. I really, really, REALLY wanted an organizer instead of just a hanging bar (so both our clothes would fit AND my shoes!) but also didn’t want to break the bank because we’re trying to keep overall budget in mind so this fit the bill. And I thought the organizer would really make it stand out as a MASTER closet! The closet design site was really easy to use, just plug-in the closet style and dimensions and then start customizing the features you want! I had a few design layouts for Mace to choose from, I think he cared as much as me… Below is the organizer layout we went with.
With all these decisions made we were ready to start rippin’ & tearin’ the closet apart!! Before demo.
After we did some reconnaissance work and removed the trim, doors, and hanging bar (Irish photo bombing again!) …
Breaking through to the other side…
And this is what it looked like after we opened up both closets, it was HUGE!!!
We created quite a mess that we had to haul away but were ecstatic to have our project underway!
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