I was contacted last fall by a mom who follows the Instagram account. She was reaching out on behalf of her mom who had recently downsized from a 4,000 square foot home to a modest yet beautiful 2 bedroom in a senior living community. The guest room and primary closets were in need of some storage help.

Her primary closet is what I’m sharing today. It’s long but narrow. Has two access points – one from the main hallway and one from her primary bathroom. There are a lot of walls to work with. The only existing storage were the two hanging sections at each end of the closet…with nothing in between.

CLOSET BEFORE

This is the main back wall that expands the length of the space – it’s sizeable…

This is the hanging section at the end near the bathroom door…

And this is the hanging section near the hallway…

Personally, I thought the hanging sections were not all that bad. Much better than your typical contractor-grade hanging rod and shelf. I leaned into keeping those, however, did see the need for a double hang section on at least one end. But she was clearly lacking shelves, drawers and a spot for shoes. The large empty wall was the perfect spot to add drawers and a small wall near the bathroom access was a great spot for displaying her shoes.

CLOSET AFTER *almost*

Take a look at the empty wall now…

So many drawers and those hats, bags and scarves are so pretty!!! Love the way the skylight floods the room with sun…

Since the closet is somewhat narrow, I made sure to give her plenty of room to stand here and open the drawers. I added angled shoe shelves in this nook…

Typically I don’t add angled shoe shelves in any design because they actually waste space. But since she has the room for it, these are perfect here.

On the end near her bathroom access, we left the existing long hang section…

And on the other end we added her double hang…

So much better!!! This is how the double hang section looked before I update it…

You may have noticed above where I said *almost* after. Welllll….turns out we’ll be updating this closet from white to birch. After seeing it installed in white, she felt it looked too much like a light, bright kitchen. So in the next week we’ll be updating all of the white decor pieces to birch. Will take a little effort but my goal is always your complete satisfaction. So I’ll be back soon to share how it looks once that is completed. Will definitely look much different…maybe even better!

If you’re wondering, this is the Elfa Decor from Container Store. You can see all sorts of designs here on their website. I definitely recommend purchasing during the sale season because Decor can be costly.

Back again to update you on this closet! Hope you’re having an awesome week!

xo,

Sam