I bet you didn’t know there is a closet under the stairs. Maybe you’ve been to my house and you do know. :) Maybe you guessed there was… maybe I’ve mentioned it? Anyway there is! It’s right across from my laundry room and adjacent to the garage and den, so it’s the perfect space for storage.
It’s fairly large as far as closets go, but it’s not big enough for Harry Potter. And it’s cut into the staircase so the back wall angles up and hits you in the head about three feet into the closet. I tried to make it work for a while with some cabinets and shelving that I already had. I basically stuffed every piece of organizing furniture in there and filled them up with fabric and supplies and then shut the door on it! Here’s what I am talking about:
That’s a bad picture from 2010, but still you get the idea—it was a mess! It has been through various stages of “makeover” and organization over the past few years. At one point there was even a file cabinet in there! But it wasn’t until we had to empty the closet to lay new flooring that I really decided what I needed to do with this space.
We cleared it out and tore up the carpet. Before the new floors went in I painted the walls a nice crisp white. The trim and door also got a refresh.
Not much to look at yet. So we added some shelving to the back of the closet to maximize storage space against that angled ceiling. And I forgot to take a picture before I began stuffing things back in there again. :(
Anyway, since then I have organized a bit more (not likely to last!) and cleaned up things for a reveal! You can see the shelving design as well as the upper shelf over the hanging bar. I use this closet now to store giftwrap, giftbags, boxes, yarn, silk flowers, polyfil and party supplies. Since I got my cubby bookcase in the den, I have moved all the fabric out of here to those or to the filing cabinet in the garage.
The hanging bar is useful for storing all my pretty tablecloths so they don’t get super wrinkled. The top shelf is the shallowest since the angle in the ceiling cuts off the back. It’s perfect for relatively flat things, so I use it to organize gift bags and boxes. Christmas and Non-Christmas are separated so it’s easy to find what I need. The second shelf holds more Christmas boxes on the left and the two pink ones on the right are filled with bows, tissue and tags. The third shelf has party supplies and yarn. And the rest of the stuff is on the floor. The laundry hamper in front holds all of my giftwrap. I am kind of a giftwrap junkie so I have a lot and this is the perfect way to store it all neatly.
It is so nice to be able to get into the closet now and find what I need easily. The three levels of storage I had before were just not working because I had to pull everything out to get to the things in the back. This room has a lot of floor space left and that’s important because this is the space that Michael uses to brew beer when he does that. It’s cool, dark and can be closed off from the pets, so I let him make it smell all yeasty in here sometimes. :)
Anyway that brings us to the end our quick little tour of the closet under the stairs. :) Hope you enjoyed seeing a secret nook in our house!
2 comments:
Your blog is awesome. Cheers! Good luck and more power!
The tell of the closet under the stairs was great and the result very nice. I have a few closets that need to be tackled, too. This will inspire me...Aunt Jan.
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