From Cluttered Mess to Mini-Dressing Room, A DIY Closet Makeover

I’ve noticed over last couple of years a rise in designing luxurious “dressing room” closets. Often the space is borrowed from another room in the house, or the homeowners have the ability to build a massive closet to suit this extravagant addition. But budget and space was a major factor for choosing to create a DIY closet makeover.

Neither of these were options for me. But I think this reveal will prove that an organized closet, even one limited in square footage, can feel glamorous. All that’s required is an efficient use of space and a bit of style.

Honestly, building a sophiticated dressing room was not initally my goal with this closet makeover. I just wanted a closet that functioned. A closet I would be able to keep tidy. Because let’s face it, this before proves I had issues with being tidy in my old closet.

I think it’s obvious that the closet is smallish, only 4.5′ deep x 6′ wide. The inefficient use of shelving and ill-placed entry door left me a closet slob and sadly, I would enter my closet with just a bit of dread.

Thankfully, this transformation has left me grinning my trademark ear-to-ear grin every time I walk by. I am nearly giddy with renewed pride in my abilities to be neat and tidy.

I can honestly say that the closet looks exactly like this today with one exception. A half a dozen or more shoe boxes have been added to fill out the upper shelves. I just left them off to the side for a cleaner look in the photos. Other than that, the closet is not staged. This is exactly what I’m blessed to see when I walk in each morning.

You’ll notice I took the liberty, when I moved everything back, to organize my hanging clothes by color. I can honestly say I love this! (I’d never seen anything like this until I saw a post by Edie at Life in Grace a few years ago.) Not only does this rainbow organization look amazing, it helps me get out of my grey, black and tan tendencies.

As you can see, on the left side I have two aluminum rods for tops, jackets etc. On the right side, I have shoe cubbies, bins, a long hanging section for dresses and then two rods pants and skirts/shorts. I chose to use plastic hangers for all my clothes except my dresses. I discovered that the felt lined, metal hangers screeched across the metal rods when you pushed the clothes around and I found that to be quite unnerving. Replacing almost all of my hangers with plastic hangers with rubber grips to be a more cost effective and quiet option.

This post contains affiliate links for your convenience.

Now let’s take a peek at what is actually stored in some of the bins and don’t miss the sweet sliding little valet rod that comes out to hang my clothes for the day. Valet rod is available here. I love it!!

As you can see I took advantage of every available inch, but it was my husband’s idea for this “secret shelf” above the door. It’s only about 8 inches deep, but it perfectly holds my special occasion heels.

Shop this post

Valet RodSimilar StencilSimilar MirrorPlastic Hangers5 light chandeliergrey sheepskin rugSpinning Necklace Rackstep stoolgrey storage bins

The evolution into a “dressing room” progressed from my desire to have one area for a stenciled wallpaper-like design for a bit of style and of course, I knew I wanted a chandelier. I intended to have pants hanging under the current location of the jewelry box. Once the stencil was completed, I decided a mirror would look nice and I removed some drawers from the initial plan. This opened up space to move the pants to the right side. Next thing I knew I was building little shelves for my jewelry organizers and low and behold I had the dressing room I didn’t even know I wanted.

But having a dressing room is pretty amazing. I can understand the hoopla designers and TV shows have created over this new “must have” in home building. It really is a pleasure to get dressed in the morning in such a beautiful and functional space, just for me.

Here is the link to the full tutorial on how we designed and built this custom closet.

But without a doubt, the game changer for this closet was replacing the in-swinging door with a modern sliding barn door. Even with the added storage, if the door still swung into the closet, I think the space would still feel a little cramped.

If you want to see the full reveal for our modern barn door entries, go here. If you want to see the tutorial for how we built these four panel modern doors for under $50, go here.

Want to know what my favorite splurge for this affordable makeover was?

The grey sheepskin. Y’all I curl up and take a nap on that thing! It’s so magnificent. I look forward to taking off my shoes each day and rubbing my toes in the fur!

So what do you think, could you happily to call this small space your “dream dressing room”?

Shop this post

Valet RodSimilar StencilSimilar MirrorPlastic Hangers5 light chandeliergrey sheepskin rugSpinning Necklace Rackstep stoolgrey storage bins

If you are ready to build your own closet, get the complete how to and plans here.