Cute and Organized Nursery Closet Makeover: Before and After

It’s kind of amazing how many times you can say ‘fuck’ while working to create a sweet, whimsical little room for an innocent baby girl. But this nursery closet really taught me a few things.

I set out trying to make this little cave more functional because it seemed fine when I was pregnant to shove everything into a couple of IKEA storage cubes, but once there was an actual screaming, pooping baby in our world, we quickly realized how important it is to have things where you need them RIGHT NOW.

Even though I encountered so many issues with the walls not being plumb, the ceiling and floor not being level and no two measurements lining up because of those two major problems, the outcome is so good and I love it so much.

The shelves along the sides make so much more sense and are more accessible, and the two little closet rods work perfectly for a nursery – down the line as a real bedroom closet some things may need to change, but for now it’s a major improvement.

Here’s what I did to make over this little nursery closet:

Covering the old demon-stained walls

I’m not sure if this closet was a DIY or was even ever intended to be a closet, but the walls were like this stained plank situation, it’s really shallow and much wider than the door that goes into it so it was hard to reach into the sides or the top shelves, and it neighbors the water heater on the other side of that wall in the kitchen so it’s basically volcanic in there.

First of all, I knew I needed to cover the planks with some plywood and smooth everything out. I’ve never hung drywall before and didn’t really want to try in such a cramped space, but plywood did the trick and I think really looks similar to drywall in the end.

I just used 5mm plywood sheets in 4’x8’ sheets (that I had the guys at the hardware stores rip down to 2’x8’ strips so they’d fit in my SUV) and nailed them up on the wall with my nail gun.

I spackled the seams between the sheets and sanded them down, then gave the whole nursery closet a couple of coats of paint. I used the color Aesthetic White by Sherwin Williams. It’s the same one we used in our bathroom but it looked a little peachy in the nursery closet. Luckily that kind of worked with my color scheme anyway.

DIY shelf brackets

I made my own shelf brackets with 1x2s because I wanted a floating shelf look. If you’re recreating this, you’ll want to measure along the back wall of where you’re working, then along the two side walls as far deep as you want your shelves to go (making sure you subtract the 0.75-inch thickness of each of the 1x2s that’ll be along the sides from that back piece).

Screw those 1×2 pieces in a U shape around where your shelf will go, making sure that everything is level.

Accent wall stencil

I made my own wall stencil with my Silhouette and painted it across the whole back wall. I did that in the step between hanging the shelf brackets and actually putting the shelves on so that I knew my shelf placement but didn’t have to worry about smearing paint everywhere if I messed it up. You can find my tutorial of how to do the wall stencil here.

A million cuts of plywood

Oh boy, this is where it started to go to shit.

I used more 5mm plywood, this time in 2×4 sheets, and cut them down to go along the tops and bottoms of the brackets I’d made to act as the shelf parts. The only problem was each shelf had a different measurement because of the stupid, janky walls so I quickly learned I needed to measure and cut each one individually. I also learned quickly to label each one so I didn’t mix them up.

For the front pieces, I used a 1×3 ripped down to about 1.75 inches thick to fit across the front of the whole shelf so it looked like one finished piece and you didn’t see any seams of the front and plywood pieces meeting, if that makes sense.

I pre-stained all of my wood pieces in Golden Pecan before installing them on the brackets.

I used pocket holes to secure the front 1×3 piece onto each shelf, and then used the nail gun to secure the plywood pieces on the tops and bottoms.

Oh, and a spontaneous cute closet rod!

I looked online for some tension rods for hanging clothes, but on a whim decided to use old 1-inch dowel and some rope I had to make a hanging closet rod.

This was actually so easy and gave it such a whimsical element.

I covered the end of the rope pieces I was using in tape, then screwed them into the inside 1×2 bracket where they would hang (the eye-level shelf at about midway depth).

I drilled a hole in each end of the plywood piece that would be nailed under the shelf (about two inches in from the sides at the same level as the screwed-in rope) and pushed the rope through that hole from the inside so it was hanging down, then I nailed the underside plywood in place.

I then drilled holes in the dowel (which I just kind of eyeballed honestly) and spraypainted the dowel white before feeding the rope through those drilled holes as well.

I then just tied a knot in the end of the rope to hold it in place – stupidly easy, really.

Trim fixes everything

Where the plywood met at each corner of the closet didn’t look very neat – those uneven edges I keep talking about were extra obvious there so I knew I’d need to add some trim. I got a ludicrous amount of cove moulding and sketched up a quick diagram of each side of the nursery closet to draw each individual measurement on. By this point I was ready to be done and WAS NOT going to let these uneven measurements get me yet again.

I prepainted each piece in Aesthetic White but had yet another facepalm moment because I’d run out of that paint and got exactly the same kind at Home Depot to do just those trim pieces and some touch ups but it didn’t look exactly the same. Don’t ask me why – I got the same base, same tint, same color, same sheen, EVERYTHING the exact same. I mixed it and it still looked different, but by this point I didn’t care enough to come up with a solution and contrasting trim is kind of in style now anyway, right?

I used my nail gun to nail in the trim and a small craft brush to paint over the nails and you can hardly even see them now.

Put everything back together

By this point I’d done more math and measurement than I’ve done literally in years and was so ready to do the mindless making-it-cute-and-putting-stuff-into-pretty-storage-baskets part. I nervously hung some clothes on the dowel rods I’d made, unsure if my spontaneous idea would hold any weight at all and to my surprise it totally does!

I had picked up a few storage baskets at TJ Maxx, the kind that are like $3 each and just white plastic, and got to work hiding all the messy stuff out of sight.

As an aside, have you guys ever searched for cute jute/wooden/wicker baskets?! Why are they so expensive??

I padded out the decor with a jewelry stand I’m using as headband storage, lined up her tiny shoes in a row and hung a couple of Urban Outfitters hooks that I got $8 each online and this framed Etsy printable.

It’s only been a few days but I love how this project turned out. It seems so much bigger and it’s definitely more functional. I know exactly where everything is and can easily find more wipes when I run out (which is always when the screaming and pooping is happening simultaneously).

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