*Note: I’m so sorry to my email subscribers if you were sent an email this morning showing last Friday’s post again as a new post. I don’t know why that happened. I promise, I’m not trying to spam y’all! I switched to a new email service, and evidently, I set up something wrong. Hopefully I can get that worked out today.*
Well, I’m running a bit late this morning because I was so exhausted this morning that I had a hard time dragging my tired bones out of bed. I worked so hard this weekend on my closet, and while I’m not quite ready to share the progress (I’ll show you tomorrow), I wore myself out completely. So I’m off to a late start this morning.
But another thing I did this weekend during my breaks while working on the closet was to get some ideas for my closet island worked out. I’ve had some ideas in mind, but until now, I had never sat down and actually put my ideas down on “paper” to see how they would look. Plus, new ideas kept being presented to me from some of you in the comments on previous posts. So I had my list of items that I wanted to include in the island, but I needed to work out how to fit everything in.
First and foremost, I want all of my necklaces, earrings, and other jewelry to be stored in the island. And I really want the earrings, rings, and other smaller items to be in a wide, shallow top drawer with tons of those little compartments for jewelry. I also love the idea of having glass on top of that section so that I can see those smaller items without having to open the drawer.
I also want my necklaces (and y’all know I have a ton of them) to be stored hanging. I’ve had them that way for a while now in our bathroom, and I love that system of storage, so I want to have that same system in my closet.
And then the most recent addition is an ironing board that fits into a drawer. So if I’m going to have an ironing board in there, then I also need a place to store an iron. And of course, I also want lots of drawer storage in the island.
I had always planned on having everything in the island accessible only from the left side or the right side and having solid panels on the ends of the island. But once I decided to add an ironing board, that no longer made sense. I’ll have about three feet between the island and the cabinets along the walls on either side, and I was afraid that three feet of space for a fold out drawer-style ironing board might be a bit cramped. So I thought it might be better to have that drawer ironing board on the end towards the washer and dryer area.
I don’t know the exact dimensions of that island, but it looks pretty close to the 30″ x 72″ island that I’ll have in my closet. And that one has sections that are accessible from all four sides of the island. That idea would work perfectly for me!
So with that in mind, I opened up my photo editing program and got to designing. As a reminder, here’s the overall layout of my closet…
So I decided to divide the island into four sections.
The narrower 30-inch-wide sections on each end will be 18 inches deep, and the wider 36-inch-wide sections on each long side will be 15 inches deep. Here’s what I came up with…
The section that’s visible from the door side of the room will have four drawers. That’s pretty simple and straightforward.
The section on the opposite end, accessible from the laundry room side of the island, will have a drawer at the top where I will have the fold-out ironing board. and then the bottom section will be a cabinet where I can store my iron, laundry detergent, bleach, etc.
What I especially love is that having that cabinet on the end of the island will eliminate the need for that lower drawer in the wall section next to the washer.
I didn’t love the idea of having that drawer there, but I needed somewhere low and easily accessible to store detergent and other laundry-related items. So this cabinet will serve that purpose and will free up that area in the wall cabinet.
The wider section that faces the left side of the room (i.e., the wall where my hanging clothes will be stored) will also be a drawer section. It will have a non-functioning panel on either end. I may disguise those to look like cabinet doors. The drawers will be 36 inches wide. I considered dividing that section into two columns of 18-inch drawers, but I have lots of 36-inch-wide drawers in my studio, and I really like them. I prefer keeping the drawers wide and using separators inside the drawers to section them off for different items if necessary.
And finally, the wider section that faces the right side of the room (i.e., the side with the wallpapered and mirror section) will look like this…
Again, that side will have two non-functioning panels on each end. The top drawer will be very shallow with lots of little sections to hold earrings, rings, etc. And that section will have a glass inset into the countertop, so that drawer needs to be pretty on the inside. Underneath that drawer will be an open section where all of my necklaces hang on a long bar. I might even need two bars, and I envision those bars being on drawer slides (I’m still working out these details) so that that section can be pulled out for easy access. And then I’ll have a big drawer at the bottom.
I had previously said that I’d build this to look like a dresser with legs, but I’ve decided not to do that. I don’t want to waste any possible storage space with dead space. So this island will have trim right to the floor, but the island itself won’t be attached to the floor just in case I need to move it over and get the washer or dryer out of the room in the future.
Again, I’m still working out the details of that necklace pull-out storage bar section, so if you have any brilliant ideas on how to finish that section out, let me know! I’m open to any and all suggestions. What I don’t want is to hide my necklaces away in a drawer. I love to see all of the colors and designs, so I don’t want them completely hidden away.
Alright, I have an uninterrupted work day ahead of me, so I’m hoping to get a lot of work done on the closet today! I’ll give y’all an update on the progress tomorrow.
Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I bought in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do physical work, so I do the majority of the work on the house by myself. You can learn more about me here.
