Rainbow Closet mini-makeover

If you live in a house that was built in the 80s, you might be part of the wasted space closet club, like me. Our little bunny, Sophie got the smallest bedroom in the house, as you do when you’re the third (and youngest) child. She was completely content, but I was losing my mind with that cluttered closet, so we decided to pretty it up and make it more functional.

First, Duncan added a built-in bench. Many diy tutorials can be found online for this part. It was mainly meant to be a shelf, but it also gives Sophie a little reading nook. Of course, I didn’t include “before“ pics but we took the door off to get the full use of this closet. Whoever invented folding closet doors is no friend of mine. These are such a waste of space!

Once the bench was built, I added a coat of primer and two coats of semi-gloss alkyd enamel paint in Chantilly Lace by Benjamin Moore. I also painted the inside of the closet using Simply White by Benjamin Moore in a satin finish.

Next, I used a piece of cardboard to create a simple and small rainbow stencil. I eyeballed the distance between rainbows to draw the silhouette with a pencil. Then, I used leftover pink paint and made three different shades by adding different quantities of my Simply White paint. I kept it pretty simple because I wanted the rainbows to have a bit of a primitive look to them.

Finally, I gave the closet hanging rod a good dose of gold spray paint to brighten it up. I didn’t actually want to hang too many things from the rod to keep it clutter-free, so it have me an excuse to go through her closet and downsize to the items she actually wears. the rest was put in clear bins for organization ane easy access. I know we’ll have to make adjustments as she gets older, so if we decide she need a closet door later on, I’ll probably add a compact barn door; maybe something like this one.

For now, it feels great to create a happy little cubby for Sophie to play and read, as well as a space that is easier to keep organized. Without a door, there is no place to hide so we don’t really have a choice ;)

Thanks for reading!