Nursery Closet Organization

23 Comments

Posted by Rebecca, May 16th, 2012

During the past week or so, Mike and I have been busy chipping away at nursery projects. So busy, in fact, that we have way more to blog about than we have left to do. It’s so amazing and exciting to see the room come together and I am itching to share everything. Right now, we’ve been focusing on getting everything done before the little one is here. With each extra day we get comes a new opportunity to tackle some projects.

Right around the time Mike finished installing the giraffe sconces, the missing closet piece arrived. They sent us an entire new panel for the screw/bolt part we needed. In case you need a refresher, we bought an Allen + Roth premium wood closet system from Lowe’s.

(via Lowe’s)

We have a similar version in our master closet and love it. In our old place, we used some inexpensive Closetmaid organizers that ended up falling apart on us. Like, I literally pulled open a drawer one day and the entire front came unglued. Since then we stick to the solid wood products from Lowe’s. We can cut the shelves down to whatever size we need and customize all of the configurations.

Mike got to putting together the center tower right away. Then, being the rocket scientists we are, we had to figure out how to get the tall tower into the actual closet.

It took a few tilts and laughs, but we got it in.

By we, I mean Mike. I pretty much sat in the glider through the whole process, snapping pictures with my iPhone.

Please note the white paint all over my pajama pants. They were the victim of the spilled tray of paint while I stenciled the closet.

After we got the tower in, we went back to Lowe’s to pick up some shelves. We needed 25 inch wide shelves on each side. The shelves came in 21″, 48″ or 72″. None of those options were ideal. We literally scratched our heads in Lowe’s forever trying to figure out how we can pull this all off. Another problem was that the clothing rods Lowe’s sold were too large. We checked some of their other brands and saw some expandable rods that were 24″-36″, but they were in white. To save some money, we decided to only get one of the 72″ shelves and just do shelves over the top rod of the closet. We went to Home Depot to see if they had any chrome rods that would fit the 25″ we needed. Thankfully they did!

We got home and Mike cut 2 shelves to 25″. He installed them with some brackets, anchoring them to two walls and the tower. Just below each shelf, we put a clothing rod.

To gauge where we wanted to put the next level of rods, we grabbed one of Mike’s shirts for some scale (since baby clothes are so tiny).

Then we decided something. Since baby clothes are so small, we decided we DID want to do that second level of shelves. We knew it would look better and give us a place to put little shoes and stuff. We know for an adult a shelf might not be practical, but it can always be removed.

Back to Lowe’s Mike went for another 72″ shelf! He repeated the shelf and rod process on the lower level and we were almost done!

Next, the drawers went in… we decided to get 3. The bottom of the tower can be left as shelves, drawers, metal baskets or a shoe rack. We were going to do just 2 drawers but then decided that the closed storage is more versatile.

We went with the flat front panel, but Lowe’s also sells a more traditional, beveled drawer front. Oh and for the tower? They give you both a straight top piece and a curved one. This baffled both of us for a while because we wanted the straight piece but all of the boxes had the curved piece on the picture. We didn’t realize it came with both options, pretty clever.

We also decided to stick with the hardware that came with the drawers. Why not? We like it. Maybe down the road we’ll go for something more custom, but it’s perfectly fine with me right now.

I couldn’t back up to take better pictures because there was a lot of furniture in the way behind me (we were working on hanging curtains on the same day, so things were shifted).

I almost forgot to include a picture with the shelves in the tower! I didn’t realize that the zoomed out pictures were taken before we put them in, so here they are!

Of course, it took me about 2 minutes to run to the spare bedroom and grab all of the baby’s clothes that have been living in there since we started this. The closet was stocked about 5 minutes later 🙂 I put newborn clothes on one rod, 0-3 months on another, 3-6 months on the next rod and 6-12 months on the last rod. It’s pretty amazing to be nice and organized. In the drawers right now are smaller odds and ends, though the drawers are amazingly deep and have a nice little self closing feature. I fit an entire breast pump (still in the box) along with a bunch of accessories and a nursing cover in one of the drawers. The top shelves are home to some baskets and the tower is currently holding Boppys, a basket and some little decorative items.

The bookcase has arrived and I painted the back of it green, only to have the paint not stick at all, so Mike had to coat it with a layer of primer for me (since it wasn’t no-VOC). He finished that tonight so hopefully the next layer of green I put on actually works! I also made some chevron curtains, a bed skirt, made the crib, decorated the changing area and designed some ABC art in Photoshop. Once this baby actually comes, I can share some real after pictures!

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23 Responses to “Nursery Closet Organization”

  1. It looks so good. I want a closet like that right now!! I can not wait to see the baby reveal. Everytime I log onto your blog I think, ok today is the day!!

  2. Ainhoa says:

    It looks great. What an awesome organization system!

  3. The closet looks great! I wish I had this set up in my closet!

  4. Cynthia says:

    I can’t wait for the big reveal either! I’ve taken to examining every inch of the pictures hoping there might be a slight pop of either blue or pink color somewhere! 🙂 Just for the record, I still definitely think those curtains are going to be blue.

    The closet is seriously adorable. I think it’s the spots that do it for me. The closet system itself is pretty sweet.

  5. I love that organization system! It’s awesome! And the dots on the wall are too cute! 🙂

  6. Amanda says:

    I love it! Much like Cynthia I keep examining every picture in hopes you slip up and we catch a glance of pink or blue chevron. I think the curtains are going to be pink. 🙂

  7. Mary says:

    I’m thinking of getting this system for my closet. Would you mind telling me what all is included in the initial kit (shelves, rods)? I can’t find the info on their site. Thanks and congrats! 🙂

  8. Heather says:

    Are the rods that you found at Home Depot to fit the Martha Stewart brand? They are the right size but they have little metal pieces that poke out at on the ends just below the holes for screw, which won’t allow the rod end to be flush with the wall. Did your rods have those and if so how did you hang the rods?

  9. Jessica says:

    How did you get 3 drawers? I dont see where that is an option on the lowes website…help! It looks like you only get one drawer and the shoe rack and my hubby only agreed to the unit for a nursery if we could get the 3 drawers!

  10. Simon says:

    For the soft close drawer, I get a springing sound when I pull it open. Did you guys experience this? If so, how did you correct it?

    • Rebecca says:

      Hm nothing out of the ordinary, there is a slight resistance to it when you open it, but no real noise. The resistance actually works out well because it makes it harder for the baby to open it.

  11. Peggy says:

    Love it….I want to redo my closet and this gave me some ideas…thanks looking forward to other post on the babies room!!!

  12. Molly says:

    Can your hubby give a detailed run down of installing the shelves? This is perfect for our nursery closet!

  13. Shanice says:

    This looks great! I would love it if you joined and contribute your awesome posts at my link party at City of Creative Dreams, starts on Fridays 😀 Hope to see you there at City of Creative Dreams Link Party.
    Shanice recently posted..DIY Elastic Child Safety Lock

  14. Brittney says:

    We installed this same closet system in our nursery but it has a yellow tinge to it next to the white trim of the closet. It says its white on the box but it just doesn’t look pure white. Is it the same with yours?

  15. Todd says:

    Looks good…. How did he cut the shelves? I’m trying to use a circular saw and I’m getting splintering on the cut…. Thanks!

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