This is how our foyer looked. There were four doors all opening into this same small space. The closet door (the door on the left) and the garage door (directly perpendicular to it) would bang into each other, so much so that there was a dent from the lock of the garage door in the ball handle of the closet door. It was too much and since I couldn't very well remove the garage door, the front door, or the office door, the closet door it was!
The first thing I did was paint the inside of the closet. It was plain white before and scuffed up like crazy. I used Window Pane from Benjamin Moore. It's a gorgeous color, plus it's in the adjoining office so it ties this area into the one next to it. What you don't realize is that we have nine foot ceilings, this closet is quite small, and it has no light. I was sweating like crazy on our large ladder in the dark trying to paint. Not the most fun.
Here's how it looked after finishing painting and removing the door. Previous owners must have had something hanging over the top of the door that left scuff marks on the top of the frame. There were also recesses where the hinges were attached to the frame as well as a hole for the latch.
I used Plastic Wood Filler from DAP to fill in all of the holes / chiseled areas. It was a bit of a process; filling it in, sanding it down, filling in more... to try and get it even with the existing trim.
Here it is with the trim all flush and painted. It's looking pretty good! The next issue was how to store our shoes. Each of us have several pairs of shoes that I like to keep near the door. I didn't want a huge shoe rack because I also want to hang coats in here.
Here they are in action. Since the closet has such high ceilings, I needed a small step stool in order to reach the top of the hooks. It was functional at this point but I still needed to hang coats.
It took me so long to decide how I wanted to hang the coats that I ended up changing my mind and found this amazing peel and stick wall vinyl called Arrowhead Peel & Stick NuWallpaper by Wall POPS!. When I tell you this was the most challenging project in this house, I'm not exaggerating. There isn't a single straight corner or wall in this entire closet. And remember how I said it's tiny, and dark, and hot, and tall? I ruined 9 feet of one roll trying to hang this stuff. Eventually I had to ask {A} to hang it for me because I was so frustrated and he's so much more meticulous than I am. I will be forever grateful that he did this for me because I love it so much.
On Thanksgiving day, I cut, hung, and calked the 1x2's. There are no useful studs behind this wall so I used these drywall anchors, E-Z Ancor, that are designed to hold up to 100 pounds each. Then I just screwed the hooks into the boards and they're good to go. These are the hooks I used. I love them, they're beautiful. I also upgraded the stool to this wooden one from Amazon. It's awesome.
And here it is complete with coats. I'm really, really happy with how it turned out. Each hook can hold two or more jackets (there are seven hooks - four on top, three on bottom), there's room for eighteen pairs of shoes, and it looks great too! It wasn't an expensive change or even really all that difficult (except for the wall vinyl) and it's really such a nice improvement. - {J}
