Organized Kitchen Coat Closet

For some reason the coat closet in this house is in the kitchen, not next to the front door. Admittedly, the kitchen door is the one used the most, but I still think it's awkward to have a coat closet in the kitchen.

Especially since we ended up cramming all sorts of stuff into it: coats, hats, boots, bins with misc. items, shelves with linens and cleaners and onions, the vacuum and broom, cans of paint, baskets of papers to be taken care of, bags with various uses, the list goes on and on... It kind of ended up as a catch all for anything that didn't have a spot.

a pic from when we were looking at the house- the previous owners had all sorts of stuff crammed in it, too

Unfortunately I don't have a before picture showing just how much stuff we had crammed in there, but here's some of it sitting on and next to the counter. This doesn't include the coats and all the various bags.

Awhile ago I added a lower shelf and put nails in the boards to hang our coats on. The coat rod was just below the upper shelf, which is just stupid- I could barely touch it if I stood on tiptoe. I removed that since I think coat rods aren't super functional or efficient- coats are always sliding off the hangers, and there's no way LMS could reach it to hang up her own coats.

After emptying the closet I removed the lower top shelf (1x12 pine) and replaced the 1x2 supports with 1x4 supports and added a strip of 1x4s halfway down, then put the shelf back.

I also added 1x2 supports closer to the floor and put a full-depth shelf (1" cabinet grade oak plywood) on top of it. Then I cut a center divider of the same plywood. I had originally planned on putting two dividers in, but that felt too crowded, so I only did one. I used a leftover strip of plywood that had already been cut to 15" wide and I angled the top to be the same width as the shelf above. I screwed the divider into the shelf above and the shelf below, and it sits between the 1x4s, which add further support. It's all very solid.

I hadn't planned on doing anything else, then realized that adding a leg under the bottom shelf would make the front edge a lot more stable. I found a 22" leg at Lowes and cut it down to fit under the shelf. I screwed a scrap of wood to the top of it, then screwed that piece of wood to the underside of the shelf.  I wanted to use one of those metal bases that you screw to the underside and then thread the center screw in the leg into, but since I couldn't find a leg just the right length, that wasn't an option.

Adding that leg makes that lower shelf stronger, which is good since let's be realistic: that shelf WILL be climbed on. And not just by kiddos. If I stand on it I can reach stuff on the top shelf without first digging out a step stool. Yay!

The final step after painting the whole inside of the closet was to add 30 double coat hooks. Probably overkill, but honestly, I'd rather have too many hooks rather than too few. Those nails we were using before highlighted the need for plenty of hooks for coats and jackets and various bags.

The baskets above are for hats, gloves, mittens, etc- one for each of us. Or there will be when I find a fourth basket. I found three baskets at HomeGoods, but they didn't have a fourth. Now I'm scouring the local stores for a matching one since I really like these baskets.

The bags on the top shelf hold smaller bags that get used for various activities- soccer, skiing, hiking, etc.

And under that lower shelf? A perfect spot for all our boots. We were using a boot tray by the back door, but it was a squeeze to get one pair of boots for each of us on it. When you factor in rain boots, snow boots and hiking boots, there was definitely not enough space.

I will be doing another post on the doors of this closet- I'm quite pleased with how they turned out too.

I can't say enough about how much I love the coat closet now. I love getting the house organized and having a place for everything. It makes it so much easier to find things when everything has an actual home and isn't crammed somewhere in a closet. I'm working on getting all the cupboards and closets in the house organized and as I do the house feels so much more peaceful. I hate clutter and disorganization :)