My Hall Closet Revamp

 

Welcome to 1979!

 

Well, not anymore.  This poor closet, which is located under the stairs and accessed through a door in the downstairs hallway hasn’t seen much love over the years.  The paint on the walls was the original paint and the shoddy vinyl flooring job and ugly shelving job I did in 1995 left a lot to be desired.  In a nutshell, this closet was a mess.

 

Check out that dingey ceiling

First bit of paint going on!

Unfortunately, with everything else going on over the years this hall closet was never a priority, it just couldn’t be. I did not have the time, energy or bandwidth to even consider doing anything in here until now.  Finally, I was able to get to it.

 

Such a difference already!

Ceiling now looks fresh & clean

After all the decluttering I have done in the past six months this particular space in my home was no longer jammed with items, which is really good, however I could clearly see the dingy walls, the yucky floor and the shelves I never liked and no longer need.  For quite a while I’ve had some ideas for this space, but until now those ideas were, just that, ideas.

 

I painted the one wall green

I got started by clearing out what little was in there knowing that what I now plan to use this space for would be much more functional and deserving of a good makeover.  I began by wiping down the dusty hot water heater and gave the walls and ceiling a good coat of bright white paint except for one wall which got a coat of Sweet Grass green.  Don’t you think any closet under the stairs deserves a feature wall?  It certainly has transformed this space, that is for sure.

 

Out with the old

In with the new!

I removed all the old vinyl flooring including the remnants of the original flooring I had left on the trap door because…  well I’m not quite sure why I left it to be honest.  Most likely it was due to a lack of time and no inclination to remedy it later.  Once the old flooring was gone I scraped and swept the subfloor and installed a new one.  I did vinyl floor tiles since it isn’t going to be a high traffic area and was the most affordable option.  It is after all, just a closet.  No need to break the bank here.

 

Nice!

There is no trim along the floor in this closet, perhaps someday I will add some, but for now we’re going to leave it be.  I don’t really have the budget to add some at this time after purchasing a gallon of white paint and the floor tiles.  To save some money I reused the coat rack I had installed in 1995 only this time around I sanded it and gave it a good coat of white paint.  I also added an extra hook I had so it will hold more things if I need it too.

 

Instead of installing floor to ceiling shelving as I did in 1995 I added a small book shelf that I had purchased last summer for the upstairs guest bedroom.  I had yet to use it up there for anything so instead I reallocated it to the hall closet.  It currently holds my bag of shoe polishing supplies.  Not sure one needs an entire book shelf for that purpose, but we’ll go with it.

 

New flat LED bulb is much brighter

New pull for the light fixture and a better shot of the coat rack

Once moved back in I have my box fans stored in the very back along with my Little Green carpet cleaner.  In the front section I placed my vacuum cleaner and hung up my coats.  Then I added a new flat style LED bulb and to the light fixture.  I also added a new pull as the old one had broken eons ago.  I went fancy with one that matches the door knobs throughout my house.  Why not?

 

Before

After - Yes!!! 😍

Now I actually love this closet and enjoy opening the door and going in there whereas before I was more tempted to just shove stuff in there and hurry up and close the door.  It definitely feels cleaner and it is much brighter too.  The fact that the floor is new and all one style makes it even better.  Who would have thought that a storage closet refresh would make such a difference?  I just love it!