One of my main missions this year, was to give our small master bedroom closet a complete overhaul from top to bottom. A new closet was mine and Hasani’s Christmas gift to each other, to get organized and stay that way. It’s one of those projects in our home we’ve been putting off for years and years. Our master bedroom closet isn’t original to our 1950’s house, our original closet was a five feet wide reach in closet that was teeny tiny. When we re-built our home in 2013 after a house fire, we adding an addition of a master bathroom and master bedroom closet. Our intention after moving back into our home was to design a closet, but life gets in the way and it wasn’t made a priority. For the longest time we just two hanging rods and two closet towers, everything that couldn’t be hung up was either stuffed in our bedroom dresser or wound up in piles of clothes around the room. Out closet now is roughly 5x8 - five feet deep and eight feet wide, about the size of a small bathroom.

After doing research, I quickly landed on the IKEA PAX Closet. I loved all the different configurations for clothing rods, drawers, shelves and accessories. I was also sold on the fact that my side of the closet can be completely different than my husbands to meet both of our needs. Plus the price point of the PAX system makes having a dream closet affordable reality. Everything about the PAX Closet System has been a win-win. Read more about the design process for our closet here and how we built our IKEA closet here.

MASTER BEDROOM CLOSET BEFORE

Here’s a reminder of our how closet look at the end of December, keep in mind I had already started cleaning it out so it looked even worse! Painful right?

IKEA PAX CLOSET DESIGN COMPLETED!

I’m so excited to share our finished IKEA PAX Closet!! Having a closet that’s organized and personalized to fit my needs and my husbands needs is amazing! Keeping it 100% I still have a few things to complete in here and decide on 1. Caulk and Repaint the Baseboards 2. Decide if I want to add a rug to this space, and I’m toying with the idea of adding a small bench. It’s a small space and only five feet deep, but I like the idea of completely ‘getting ready’ inside my closet. But other than those minor things our closet is DONE!

I enlisted the help of my best friend, who loves IKEA and can hack a PAX like nobody can! After talking through my design ideas, we landed on an galley style closet, creating his and her sides. This little space was so hard to shoot, thanks to zero natrual llight

HER SIDE OF THE CLOSET

Before, I put my clothes back into our closet, I did a massive clothing purge, shoe purge and purse purge, thanks to Marie Kondo’s show Tidying Up on Netlfix! I really helped me get rid of clothing, shoes etc. that no longer sparked joy! I have less clothing now, and I’m so happy about that! Instead of having 20 pairs of jeans I hate, I now have 8 pairs that I actually wear! It’s really freeing.

Back to my closet design, I have an area of hanging blouses and nicer t-shirts and below have a four drawers. The drawers are super wide and deep! I have plenty of room for sweaters, jeans, and a full drawer dedicated to bras, underwear and pajama’s. The very bottom drawer is an extra drawer for tennis shoes, flats and summer shoes.

The smaller unit holds dresses and coats. I love all the open shoe storage I now have! This has been a game changer #NoMoreMissingShoes I have five shelves for shoes, each shelf holds four pairs of shoes! Two in the front and two in the back. I can easliy rotate my shoes for Fall/Winter and Spring/Summer in the very back, I have my tall walking boots hidden.

I’ve never been a purse girl, in fact my fanciest purse I own is for my camera, looking for the perfect camera purse? This post is for you. To keep the purses I own organized, I added a two brass hooks next to the IKEA Nissedal Mirror, its such a great affordable mirror! I love going vertical with storage, when space is at a premium.

In the last year, I’ve been become a ‘hat girl’ and now have a shelf dedicated to my hats! I love the ease of being able to grab a hat and pair it will an outfit and that stay nice an safe in my closet. I’m considering getting these clear hat boxes, if it seems like my hats are getting dusty.

One of my favorite details in my closet, is the extra large pullout accessories tray. It’s amazing and one of the huge selling points for me when looking at closet options. The Komplement tray, tray is a complete game changer and can be customized with different configurations. .

I have room for all my jewelry, I love how organized its made me! No more tangled necklaces, everything stays nice and neat. I love that I now have a dedicated spot for watches and sunglasses. A used a glass shelf above the drawer to create a more boutique feel to my closet.

Inside my closet, I have room to stash my mini clothes steamer, and a spot for my clutches, I used a clear mail holder to keep them organized and upright.

One of the best upgrades in my closet, its our new hangers! Yes, its a silly thing to be excited about, BUT non slip hangers are the best! We used to have plastic (slowly donating them all, once I upgrade the kids hangers) that would always break, take up to much space, plus they’re very hard on clothes. I found a large pack of non-slip hangers at The Container Store and I’m totally converted. On my heavy items, such as coats, I love the White Bumerang hangers from IKEA.

HIS SIDE OF THE CLOSET

As I mentioned of the things I love about the PAX is the ability to customized the units, nothing was to able the mirror image of the other side! For Hasani’s side of the closet, he wanted more hanger storage vs. folding storage. We used the large unit for Hasani’s side giving him two hanger rods for clothing, plus a shelf above for misc clothing and two shelves below for shoes. He also did a big clothing purge, after I begged him to watch Marie Kondo’s Netlfix show. He too, like the spark joy method and got rid of a bunch random clothes and shoes he no longer wore. Due to space constraints of an outlet box on his side of the closet, we used a shallow unit. The small unit has four drawers and five shelves. To keep his side organized, I added a few simple grey fabric baskets to hold t-shirts etc.

In the mirror, you can see a little peak of our pretty wow closet lighting. I have a thing for Mid Century Modern influenced lighting (see our living room and dining room lighting) Here’s a similar light fixture here.

On one of the shelves, I created a simple vanity area to hold books, watches and his cologne.

I’m so happy with how our closet turned out! It feels like a dream compared to were we started! The small space now feels larger, thanks to the galley layout design we decided on and thanks to all the storage! Mornings are so much easier now, that I’m no longer looking for missing shoes or looking through piles of clothes. I love how having and organized closet space has really improved our day to day lives!

Read More about the process of our Small Closet Bedroom Makeover: BLOG POST ONE: Small Master Bedroom Closet Makeover | IKEA Pax Closet Inspiration and Design Plan BLOG POST TWO: Small Master Bedroom Closet Makeover | Building Our IKEA Pax Closet

I would love hear your thoughts our Master Closet Makeover and happy to answers any questions you have in planning your own closet update/upgrade.

My oldest son, recently graduated from high school and will be living at home for the next couple of years attending while attending college, before transferring to a University. I’m so excited about his transition from teen into young adult. Most of all I’m thrilled, I get see him everyday before he moves away. Motherhood is hard and I’m glad he’ll be close while he navigates his first two years of college. To celebrate his transition as a young man, I wanted to give his bedroom an update. His bedroom was stuck in the young teen look for several years and it was time for a refresh. Behind his room look too young, it was just blah, didn’t have enough storage, his desk was too small and the layout was all wrong.

Like most 1950’s bedrooms, his room is on the small size and the current layout was emphasizing that very fact. Below is a sneak peek at his bedroom now. This project was completed in partnership with The Home Depot, to give Tabari’s bedroom a complete makeover.

** **This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links.

CREATING A DESIGN PLAN

Here’s how his bedroom looked before getting made over. As you can see in the below photo, his room just felt jumbled and messy. The over-sized light fixture was perfect when he was entering his teen years, but now he bumped his head everyday! His bedding was worn out, desk was too small and felt too bulky next to his bed. The layout the once worked in this small space, was now all wrong.

The design plan for my sons bedroom, was to bring in a new desk, new overhead fixture fixture, update his bedding with layers. Create a work zone in his bedroom for schoolwork and a zone for relaxing and sleeping, along with streamlined lighting and storage.

After talking with my sons about the functionality of his bedroom, we decided to make some shifts to his bedroom layout. We moved his bedroom to the opposite wall, giving the feeling of more space in his bedroom now that is was away from the desk. I really wanted to create a focal in his bedroom and opted for wallpaper! Instead of using traditional wallpaper, I decided to try grass cloth peel and stick wallpaper, to bring in texture and color. It’s such a great affordable way to transform a room or wall! Plus, I love the affordable commitment and how it can be removed without damaging the wall. When the Grey Tibetan Grosscloth wallpaper arrived I was amazing by how textural and real it looks!

INSTALLING PEEL AND STICK WALLPAPER

I tackled installing the grasscloth wallpaper myself, and was surprised with how easy it is to install! In fact I only used a few tools to install the peel and stick wallpaper, I used a wallpaper smoother and utility knife kit . Using a ruler, to make sure I started level, I gently pulled back the sticker sheet away from the wall paper and began attached the wallpaper to the wall. Quick reminder, be sure and start with clean dust free walls and remove all outlet covers. To prevent air bubbles and better adhere the wallpaper, I used the smoother working in small sections. I used the utility knife to cut the wallpaper once it touched the baseboards. Following the directions closely, I also made sure to overlap the sheets of peel and stick wallpaper, which helped mimic the look of ‘real grasscloth'.’

Once I added the second wallpaper panel to the wall, I fall in love! Tabari loved the look of the wallpaper, but wasn’t sure it would like it once installed, happily it loves how it turned out!

When it comes to designing in a small space, I’m a firm believer in go big or why bother! To add more visual impact on the wall, I added a Large Round Black Mirror above his bed, it helps his room feel more sophisticated and masculine. We kept his bed and brought in new linens and pillows for his bed all found on Home Depot: Large Euro Loop Pillows, Pillows, Organic White Sheets and Navy Bedspread, Duvet Insert, Grey Sateen Duvet Cover , Mattress Topper

I love having several lighting options in a bedroom, since his bedroom is tight on space, I opted to bring in a wall sconce instead of a lamp. I love the Gold Wall Sconce, it can be hard-wired or plugged into the wall. Having a wall sconce instead of a lamp, helps free up space on the simple side table. I added a woven Seagrass basket under the side table to hold books and extra sheets. Behind his door, we added a row of Black Coat Hooks to hang his hoodies, he has a so many hoodies and by adding hooks outside his closet it helped free-up closet space.

On the wall opposite bed, I hung a large print of Muhammad Ali. The art is huge, but it makes impact and I loved the quote on the art, “ I hated every minute of training, by I said, 'I don't quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.” A good reminder for Tabari as he starts the next chapter is his young life. To bring in more color and texture in his bedroom, I selected a grey tribal style rug for his room. I swapped out the over sized light fixture for a Walnut Wood Flush mount light fixture.