The key to happiness...

Ok, maybe this isn't so important to everyone. But I have a sneaking suspicion that at least 98% of the population would be grateful for extra closet space. Are you with me?

The only type of closet in our house is the corner closet. I should say we are grateful to have some of these closets where in many Toronto homes none exist (especially the entrance way and the upstairs linen closet). In both of those cases, corner closets, even with their limitations, are really a God-send when compared to the alternative of nothing.

Of our three bedrooms, the guest bedroom has no closet (but lots of room for a cabinet/armoire), the second bedroom (used as an office right now) has a corner closet (currently used to house some of my extra shoes, dresses, and workout clothes), and our master bedroom had a corner closet.  This was woefully undersized for our needs, and to deal with it we had a hideous dresser to carry the load.  Here is what it looked like before (disclaimer: not our decor choices):

Thankfully, with a bit of work, we got rid of our corner closet in favour of a long, lovely, every-time-i-open-the-door-it-makes-me-happy, closet. Hooray!  We had to get a new radiator (the old one was in the corner), and move it under the window. Those suckers are heavy. Due to using an unbeknownst-to-us leaky rad the first time around we actually had to replace it one more time. Many thanks to my husband's friends for the first round of back breaking moving the rad downstairs, and more thanks to the stove delivery guys who did the second round, and took it away for us (there is not enough beer to get hubby's friends to do it again).

Here are some photos of the closet process.  We considered using Ikea PAX options, but none of them fit our space that well, and we weren't crazy about the options available.  Instead, we hired someone who had done patching and some drywall work for us before to come back and frame the closet. He did a great job with the framing, doors, and trim. It took him 4 days to do what would have taken us I don't know how long (not to mention the stress it would have caused!).

The inside of the closet is ClosetMaid from Lowe's. We knew we wanted wood and not the white wire closet inserts. This interior option originally had 3 closet rods but we added one on the other side to make it even. We also added the drawers at bottom (the base is usually just shelves), and shelves above the rods(those shelves are pretty high...I don't consider myself that short but we had to get a step stool for me to reach my clothes on the top shelf!).

The Mr. also installed a light and switch on the inside of the closet. This makes all the difference in the world when one of us is getting ready earlier than the other in the morning!

So there you have it, my happy closet.