One challenge of our new small home was the size of Eben’s bedroom. It is much smaller than any bedroom that he has had before – and we quickly realized after putting his bed, and shelving system in the room that there wouldn’t be room for him to work on his projects. Eben spends a large portion of his free time building and painting models, drawing, creating, setting up and filming short movies. I worried that if he didn’t have a space where he could spread out and work on his projects that he might lose some of his creativity.
After a lot of brainstorming, I thought that the closet would remain mostly unused and could easily be repurposed into a workspace for Eben. I asked the mister to remove the closet doors (which he thought was completely crazy at first). Then, I repurposed a long table and filing cabinet that I used in my office at our last home. The mister and I were both surprised to find that it fit in the space perfectly. Seriously, almost as if we had the table cut to fit into the space. I added lighting so Eben could adjust the light for his movies and art projects, shelves to hold all of his sketch books and canvases and a few containers to house all of his pens, markers, pencils, paintbrushes and the like. I used the space in the top and bottom of the closet for stuffed animal and LEGO storage and all of his other supplies fit into the filing cabinet.
The best part, this makeover didn’t cost a penny, everything we used we already owned. It actually saved us from having to sell or store my old office desk, filing cabinet, picture shelves and is a great place to keep one of our extra dining room chairs too.
What do you think? Have you ever repurposed a closet? Would you?
This is brilliant! Now that the kids are grown,Hubz and I have downsized our living space–it is way harder than I thought it would be to organize a small space and to take full advantage of the space we do have.
Hi Mary Beth,
Yes, it can definitely be a challenge! My first rule is to get rid of anything you don’t use, need or love. 🙂 Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment.