Originally I had a wonder full idea of building a walk-in closet. I was sure Steve and I could just bust down a few walls, build up another and it wouldn’t take more than a day or two…for some strange reason Steve wasn’t really excited about letting me go at the drywall with a hammer…I can’t imagine why. So we scrapped that idea for one that didn’t involve building or tearing down walls. I think it worked great…what do you think?
Outside…
This is the view from the outside. We used a weird little alcove area off the basement living room to create a walk-in closet. We hung curtains to hide the closet. We got everything from Ikea. The curtain wire was $12.99, and we had to get an additional support for another $4.99. The clips that the hang the curtains were $2.99. Instead of using actual curtains that would need to be hemmed, we went for two shower curtains each costing $12.99. We also got a special bar that makes pulling them open and closed easier for $2.00. So that brings the price up to $48.95 plus tax.
Inside…
Inside we chose a Rubbermaid closet kit that cost $129.00. It was pretty easy to customize exactly how we wanted the closet to look by just rearranging the pieces. It was kind of fun trying to figure out what we wanted.
I was kind of disappointed when I opened the box and found some broken bits, of course by the time I realized they were damaged we already had half the closet put up. I was able to go online and send Rubbermaid the part number and explain what had happened. They sent us new parts in a week.
Lighting was the last hurdle we had to cross. Ikea helped us out there. With no outlets in the closet area we had to improvise, so we got a cheap hanging lamp cord, the ones that are a socket for the bulb and a power cord for $5.00. To make a switch we purchased a dimmer for $7.99, and a cheap shade for $9.99. We already had the bulb.
So skill level on a scale of 1-10 in DIY terms, (1 being able to put a nail in the wall, 10 building your own house) I’d say it was a 3. You need to know how to locate studs, drill holes, measure things pretty precisely, use a level to make sure things are hung straight. Nothing too complicated, but if you can’t do those things…this may not be the project for you.
Total cost (minus tax): $200.93
Total time (including a trip to Lowes, and Homedepot, and Ikea, and Homedepot again): about 8 hours
Total Mileage: Don’t ask…
But it was cheaper, easier, and less time-consuming than building a real walk-in closet.
1undomesticgoddess 