CLOSET CASE

One very odd space in our new townhouse is the coat closet. I’m assuming that in the construction of the unit there was a strange space that someone decided couldn’t be utilized well, so they put a door on it. On paper, it’s good: it’s on the main level, near the front door and the basement door, and its small. That’s the problem though, a little too small. A regular hanger doesn’t fit in it because it’s and inch or two wider than the closet space. So, I thought maybe we would have to make sure that the hangers in there are the ones you could pivot and everything would need to hang on an angle to fit.

Miracle of all miracles happened when I went shopping at The Container Store with my mom one day and told her that I always have to look at the sale section, even though I’ve never actually bought anything from it. There happen to be some wooden hangers that looked smaller than regular hangers, but also didn’t look like child hangers. Also, they were on clearance, a set of 6 for $3 (more than half off!). I decided to get three sets of six for a whopping $9 to see if they fit—as far as I’m aware, The Container Store will accept returns on clearance items that aren’t damaged. These hangers weren’t in the clearance section because they were faulty, but because it was part of an online order that someone made and purchased too many of, so they returned them in the store. The store doesn’t stock everything in their physical stores that has online, so I guess it was more economical of them to put them on sale to clear them out instead of shipping them back to corporate. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. I was ecstatic! And even better? They fit perfectly!

Another hurdle is that the closet didn’t have a hanging rod. It had one shelf installed about forehead height and that was it. So, my dad went to Home Depot, probably the same day as the Container Store trip, and he said he had found a couple options. After telling me what he was thinking, I requested he go with the metal, industrial, plumbing pipe option as I had some plans for more of that material to be used in the townhouse. When he came back, he informed everyone that after he had priced out the individual pieces and was on his way to the checkout, he came across a set that was meant to be turned into a multi-hook coat rack for a wall. It was, of course, on sale and had the right pieces to be repurposed for our closet. Classic dad. Once he got back, he installed the pieces in a way that best resembled a closet rod by attaching two ends to the shelf above and voila! Closet case, closed.

And in case you’re wondering, I ended up using almost all those extra pieces from that set in another project that I’ll be sharing soon!