Today I’m sharing another closet makeover! I completely purged, organized, and updated our coat closet using cedar planks and a shoe organizer from Ikea. This project was quite simple and only took me a few hours to complete, which makes it a great weekend project.
If you remember last month, I made over our linen closet using cedar planks and white shelves.
The process and results made me wanting to tackle ALLLLLL the closets in our home, so it wasn’t long before I was making over the coat closet, which is in the same hallway. Because they are so close to one another, I felt it would be totally fine to use the same color-scheme (cedar wood and white), and the repetition wouldn’t be boring.
Not only that, but this coat closet also was holding a huge pile of shoes, which make things– let’s just say, not-pleasant-smelling, so the aromatic cedar would be a welcome change!
Here is the before, which we lived with for the past 3 or so years. The shoe collection is absurd, I know!
Among this pile of often-used shoes, was outgrown shoes, summer sandals, winter boots, and lone ranger shoes (what we call when a pair is no longer a pair, but a single shoe with no mate). The jackets were a mix of about the same, as well.
So I went through everything and purged. I threw out or donated everything that didn’t fit or was a lone ranger. Then I took out my husband’s and my shoes to find space for them in our closet, so all that was left was kid shoes.
Ahhhhh…. isn’t this better?
I visited Ikea to check out their shoe storage options, and while there were many, the STALL shoe storage was the right width. Each drawer can hold 2-3 pairs of adult-size shoes or 4-5 pairs of kid-size shoes.
My kids’ bedroom closets are small, so this really is the best option for their shoes and I’m happy to report that it’s been over a month since I completed this closet and these shoe bins get used daily! I love having an organized place to put everything!
I don’t know about you, but my kids can get really stinky shoes, so we having been using a deodorizing shoe powder in them. It makes a huge difference! And because summer is just around the corner, I decided to put some sunscreen and sunglasses in a woven basket with the shoe powder. Easy and accessible when walking out the door.
I love how this STALL shoe organizer looks more like a built-in because it fits so perfectly!
As for the rest of the closet, I removed the old wire shelf and installed the cedar closet liner planks with brad nails nailing into the studs), and liquid nails. I surprised my husband one Saturday night by installing the whole thing in a couple hours, including the white baseboards.
After the cedar was installed, I measured my desired shelf height. I decided to move up the shelf about a foot because before, there was so much wasted space on the shelf, since I couldn’t put much up there. By moving the shelf up higher, it allowed enough space for all the coats (even my longer ones), without getting in the way of the shoe organizer.
So I screwed in a couple of cedar 1x2s as cleats on either side where I marked my shelf height and put the melamine-lined shelf in place. After I installed a new white closet rod, and it was finished!
My confession is we currently have more coats that what is pictured here, but it no longer is crowded or over-stuffed. Puffy winter coats are officially packed away in vacuum-sealed bags!
I’m in love with this coat closet! Almost as much as the linen closet… 😉
Sources (some affiliate links used):
Cedar planks: CedarSafe Closet Liner Planks
Closet rod: Home Depot (also found here)
Melamine-lined shelf: Home Depot
Shoe organization: STALL by Ikea
Woven basket: HomeGoods
Deodorizing shoe powder: we got ours in Brazil last year but similar found on Amazon
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