2019 has been a year of cosmetic improvements to our home, and the linen closet was no exception. After years of living with this tired, dull closet, we finally updated this underutilized space. For once, I even remembered to take “before” and “after” photos! Disclaimer: I am not a photographer, I am a writer.
Before 
After
History Of Our Linen Closet
First, a little history. We purchased our home in 2005 and the closet looked like it hadn’t been touched since the house was constructed in 1962. Sound familiar to any of you? It came complete with 1960s shelf paper! My solution then (I had two small kids at the time with bigger fish to fry), was to simply “flip” the shelves upside down until I could get around to painting them. So here we are, almost 14 years later, and I have grown tired of not only the look of the closet but the stale smell as well. Linens stored in the closet for as little as a few days smelled stale. Not bad, just blah.
Out With The Old
Enough is enough! I began emptying everything out and tossing it. I found Hydrocortisone cream that had expired ten years ago! UGH! Admittedly, I did clean and reorganize the closet annually, so I don’t know exactly how I missed that, but still…it forced me to take a good hard look at absolutely everything.
“Spare” make-up? I know I won’t wear half of it and honestly have no idea how old it really was so I tossed it.
I purchased decorative canvas storage boxes over a year ago when I began to clean out the space. Time to make good use of those, but first…demolition!
Demolition
We could have saved money by reusing the old shelves. sanding and painting them, etc., but we would have made a huge mess with little to no reward. We chose to tear all the shelves out and replace them with white wire shelving for appearance and breathability. Doing so also allowed us to reconfigure the space in order to gain storage. The decision was difficult because I really hate waste. In the end, I didn’t have the time or energy to deal with all the sanding and painting, and the shelves weren’t in great shape anyway.
I patched the holes in the wall once the old shelving was out of the way. After the spackle dried, I wet-sanded and repeated the process as necessary. Next, all of the patch-work was primed. Once the second coat was dry, I moved on to the ceiling, which required work lights and a small step ladder. Because those walls hadn’t been painted in decades, the paint I was applying dried almost instantly. I applied two coats.
After the second coat was fully dry, I began painting the walls. I used one of the sample colors purchased for our living room project, which worked out well and made good use of the paint that may have otherwise been wasted.
When the wall paint was dry and set, we marked the locations for the new shelves and installed them. We gained some much-needed storage space and brightened up the closet. Our sheets smell fresh every time we retrieve a set from the storage box. Mission accomplished.
All that’s left to do now is finish the trim on the interior of the closet and either paint or replace the door.
In the meantime, my husband installed a full-length mirror on the door. Not only does it give us another area to make sure our appearance is acceptable, but it catches light from a nearby bathroom window and brightens the entire hallway. Bonus: we had purchased the mirror for our son’s dorm room and he never used it, so we freed up some storage space too.
Now, the finished closet is organized and every item is in its place! Yay!!
I hope this inspires you to reclaim your linen closet and make the most of the space you have, no matter how small or large. We achieved the final product for about $100, which was a small price to pay for what we achieved.
Until Next Time,
April
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