The Closet Studio
How I turned my Walk-in-Closet into a small Office Studio
My walk-in-closet to Office Room conversion
So…Why my Closet?
I love my little house…but to be honest, when I bought it, I was thinking more about my loves-to-chase-ball German Shepherd Dog than I was about my business and the amount of space I would need.
You see, I had just purchased a house, my first house. Oh the excitement…and the chaos! I started searching in early 2020 and well…the world turned upside down. By March 2020, all my house searching dreams were crushed and by July, I was flirting with the idea of masked or virtual tours. Like many, seeing the many months I still had ahead in quarantine, I decided that now was the time to buy a house, crazy house market be damned, and I started searching in earnest (with my mask.)
I wont bore you with my brushes with Corona or the absolute insanity that came with house searching during this COVID apocalypse, but I ended up with an amazing house with only a few compromises from my list.
One of those compromises was a 3 bedroom home. One room for me, one room for the studio/ office and one for my then 23 year old brother who was living with me.
Instead I ended up with a small 2 bedroom home. Now, two bedrooms is cool and all but when your youngest brother has decided to live with you (he’s 27 now) that left me with no spare rooms for my studio. Ideally I would need a brightly lit room with enough space for an easel, a large flat table and my monstrosity of a computer setup. Now, did I consider putting my brother in the cramped basement? Why yes, yes I did. But ultimately, after minor radon concerns and the fact that he is 6 feet tall and the basement is 5.5, I decided the studio would have to go elsewhere.
I was left with few options. Create an office downstairs in my unfinished Michigan basement that I can’t stand upright in, or get a little more creative. So I decided that I liked computer screens and sunlight more than I did clothes (ironic considering my business….) and I chose to convert my small walk-in closet into an office!!! Now hear me out, this house sits on a beautiful 1 acre of land overlooking fields and pine trees. Yet, there was not a single window or door facing onto the back of my property. I just don’t get it. So once I realized that the walk in closet had the best view AND best sunlight in my entire house, it was a no-brainer. The finishing decision was realizing that I had no backdoors onto my property for my dog…not going to fly.
The closet is the entire back end of the master bedroom and is roughly 10x6 feet. So in the meantime, while I finished up some other renovation issues in the home, my personal art computer was literally stuffed in my closet, and just to top things off I later realized, there was no wifi and no wall sockets. Maybe I was crazy, but I believed in my vision (or at least the vision of letting my dog out to play ball easily!) and stuck with it. Four years later and it is the smallest, sunniest, and most used room in the house :)
So began my Closet Studio Build, which I will chronical here just for laughs.
One of my early office setups
With almost no furniture (I used the furniture that came with my rental house before), I borrowed what I could and setup a temporary working spot in the back of the closet. I couldn’t find any earlier pictures of the empty room but it had no windows and was such a dark, sad little space. Everything was wobbling, the desk, the stool, the floor! It was not the worst setup I have ever used but definitely wore me down!
I started by being rather dramatic and added a sliding door in the back of the closet that would open right up to my yard. Finally I could see my garden view!!! This limited my wall space even more but was 100% worth it. And my dog, Haku, completely agreed.
Haku enjoying the new back door.
After the hired out work was done, it was time for me to get the room renovated. I researched a ton and tried about 50 different desk combinations and ultimately decided to try and build myself a full floating desk as the space was just so small and I needed to maximize it as much as possible.
This was a ton of work but I am really glad I did it. I picked up some used doors and sanded and white-washed them for the tops. This worked out great and having no legs underneath was 100% worth the effort Good old Ikea Alex drawers finished off the other side and it was good to go! The space just barely fits my office chair but considering the size of the room I still am glad I did it this way.
