Jim’s Custom Closet On a Budget {removing wire shelving adding wood}

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Sharing Jim’s custom closet on a budget by removing wire shelving and adding wood to create more storage space. The new custom closet design is gorgeous and organized! The new wood closet shelves added the ability to create multiple shelves allowing more storage for clothes. This closet happens to be part of our master closet that we recently completed so it’s nice having everything in one spot! This post contains affiliate links and was a partnership with Easyclosets.

You may remember before Thanksgiving last year, I shared that we converted a guest bedroom into a walk in closet and the bedroom had a small walk in closet – which is this small closet below. 

Build A Custom Closet Online

Easyclosets made this small closet project so simple!

The first thing we did to start our custom closet on a budget was measure our closet and send the specs to our free design specialist at Easyclosets (yes they have free design services via email or phone). Easyclosets has custom storage solutions so once she had our specs, she sent back design plans based on our needs. Their online design tools are also a great way to play around and see things you may like. The design process was seamless!

We made a few tweaks and additions to our simple design and then ordered our custom storage system. So simple! Be sure to check out this blog post to see why and how we made our design choices.

We ripped out the ugly wire shelving added by the previous owner and installed a gorgeous wood shelving system from EasyClosets. 

The pictures below are the walk in closet before with the wire closet shelving. 

Here are some pictures of the room after we installed the java colored hardwood floor.

DIY Walk In Closet

This DIY project is considered (in my opinion) a very easy. Wire closet systems are very popular mainly because they are affordable and quick to install. Typically builders will install these in new homes as well. If you are looking to upgrade to wood, this post is for you! Wire closet shelving is budget friendly but not always the best for your closet. To save on cost, we opted to install ourselves and not hire closet installers. Easyclosets is the perfect choice for do it yourselfers :).

My biggest issue with wire closet systems are the marks that are left on your clothes.

Whatever piece of clothing is folded and touching the wire shelf, there are always shelving imprints or grill marks on the clothes!

Often times, you can’t even iron out the grill marks.

Best Alternative to Wire Closet Shelving

In my opinion, wood shelving is the best alternative to wire closet shelving. 

EasyClosets has affordable DIY friendly closet systems that are easy to install and essentially is a closet kit. 

The wood full closet system arrived quickly and each box was marked exactly what was inside.

The fact that each box is marked on the outside made it very easy when it came to installation. 

The original walk in closet in the bedroom is for Jim’s work and casual clothes and the bedroom portion (the new master walk in closet) is for my clothes and Jim’s “going out” clothes. -ha. I don’t know what else to call his fancy clothes.

The man has a lot of clothes and our existing bedroom closet was definitely not big enough for his clothes never mind both of ours. 

The paper directions are very self explanatory showing images of each step along with a detailed description. 

You can also find the directions on your EasyClosets account. I love how they link the instructions to your custom system directly in your account. 

How to build a custom closet from scratch

Once we removed the existing wire closet shelves, we had an empty closet which allowed us to start from scratch. 

We simply followed the directions and constructed our wood shelving system. 

We basically constructed the closet system in sections. 

Under normal circumstances I would have filled the holes from the wire closet system, sanded and painted but the day we decided to install this portion of the closet was last minute and we were in a time crunch so the holes didn’t get patched until another day.

Each panel has a sticker on the side of the closet system (and the stickers remove easily and do not leave behind a glue residue – yay!) that shows the item number which correlates to the exact image and description in the directions pamphlet.

 Below how we used a small sawzall to remove the baseboard so the wood shelving unit could fit flush against the wall. 

Easyclosets adjustable wood shelves are perfect because you can set the height of each shelf according to what type of clothing will be in the shelf. You can also order extra shelves down the road if you need them. 

You seriously cannot screw up this installation, it’s so easy! The boxes and product pieces are marked so it’s self explanatory.

We used a screwdriver and a level to construct the wood shelving system.

The wall to the left below is for wood shelves where folded items will go. 

The wall straight ahead is for hanging clothes.

The white stickers on the wood shelving pieces are labeled with section name and what parts you need. 

Once the wood shelves were put together and the hanging rods were installed, we moved Jim’s work clothes into the closet. 

DIY closet shelves and rods

Custom Closet On A Budget

Easyclosets allows you to create a custom closet on a budget that still provides good value. 

Changing our Wire Closet Shelving and Replacing with Wood Shelving was the best idea ever and the new design makes a huge difference! This small custom walk in closet turned into a custom dream closet and I am so happy the wire shelves are gone. The clean look and extra space available definitely provides easy access to clothes. Plus, it’s not a messy closet anymore! 🙂

Looking good right? All the shelves and hanging racks are adjustable. If you want to work with a free closet designer (we worked with Patty who was amazing!) to create your own closet system, click here!

Jim’s work and casual clothes are organized and he has plenty of room for his clothes.

Stay tuned as we will be sharing the installation of the big walk in closet (the bedroom part of this room) and full reveal over the next week or two. If you look closely, you will see the closet island in the reflection of the mirror. The jewelry storage and custom drawers in the closet island in our larger new walk in closet is one of my favorite features 🙂 UPDATED: See the bedroom that we turned into our new walk in closet here.

Disclosure: This post was sponsored by Easyclosets. All opinions and words are 100% my own.