When we moved into our house we were hit hard by all the expenses that come along with moving into new construction. Window covers for obvious reasons and landscaping for HOA reasons had to be prioritized, so some things had to wait. Like our master closet.
It wasn't a terrible closet. It was a really good size, so we never ran out of room, but it was just not very pretty to look at or very well organized. I did the best I could with, shoe shelves, bins and plastic drawers, to get more storage. It worked okay, but I had no intention of letting it be our long term solution. Three years later, we FINALLY started the process of getting our closet done.
I was really wanting to do something DIY to save money. I looked at companies like Modular closets and Serenity closets. I had a lot of fun playing with their online tools, but felt really overwhelmed by the idea of ordering all those parts and having to put it together. Also, they were between $4,000-$5,000. It would have had to be closer to $3,000 to make DIY worth it to me. We also considered The Container Store Elfa and IKEA Pax. The container store was way more expensive than I thought it would be. That's what pushed me over the edge to go ahead and get some custom quotes. If I was going to pay $5,600 for Elfa and install it myself, I might as well see how much it would be to pay someone to do it all. I love the look of PAX, but again, the DIY part of it was a little scary for me. With all of these options, I was worried that I wouldn't be able to maximize the space or get the look that that I really wanted. I didn't like being limited by pre-existing unit sizes. I would hate to spend even $3,000 dollars on something and then wish I had gone a different route, because this was going to be final. There was no way I would be spending money on doing a closet twice, so I really wanted to get it right the first time. And for us that meant having it done for us. I want to be a DIY person so bad...but I'm not!!!
I started researching in January, got three quotes and went on a two month waiting list in February, and got an installation date for early May. We had to pay an extra $200 just to have them do the tear down on one day and the installation a few days later. They tear out the baseboards and existing shelving, but do not do cosmetic touch ups to the wall. We would have to fix up the walls ourselves and it would be much easier to do that before the closet was installed.
The weekend before Installation I organized and got rid of a ton of stuff that I'd been holding onto for way too long. It felt so good to rid myself of extra baggage, literally. We touched up the walls on two separate days. We did run into a plumbing problem, when the guys came to do the tear out of our base boards and the original closet but were able to get it resolved and everything went forward according to schedule.
We love our new closet. A lot!!! The company we went with was Closets By Design. They did a great job. We increased our hanging space from 323 inches to a whopping 482 inches. We have ten spacious drawers. We maximized vertical storage by having 96" high units. I love the quality, and I love how adjustable it is. Bars and Shelves can be removed or switched around. If we ever need more of either we can order some. I now have all of my actual wardrobe inside my closet. I moved all of my short sleeved tops and bras out of a dresser in my bedroom, which allowed me to move by swimwear from a very inconvenient bin under the bed and give my husband more space in the dresser. The only thing I keep outside of the closet now is pajamas, workout wear, sweat/lounge pants, and swimwear. It makes putting laundry away so much simpler.
When I signed the contract there was still a part of me that wished we had been willing to take on a DIY project for half the price, but now that it's done I'm fine with our decision. The total cost was $5,939 + $200 for the tear down and it feels totally worth it to me because I got exactly what I wanted. Our designer came up with an initial design and then I was able to make a few tweaks. It fits our needs exactly, we have space to grow and I don't have to worry about feeling unsatisfied with it down the road.
Watch it on YouTube:
Closet Makeover Money: DIY options vs Custom Quote Prices
Closet Makeover Process: Declutter, Tear Down, New Closet Reveal
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