closet DIY / part 4 "the reveal!"

Welcome to our little LIBRARY!!!

A few weeks ago, I hung up the final piece to our closet DIY—my hand-painted “READ” canvas. For a while, I just stood, staring at it. Amazed. Fulfilled. And of course, sad, too.

DIYs take endurance and TRUST. The endeavour for this small walk-in closet (just four shelves and homemade art) seemed simple enough. But when you’re trying to build it in real-time, around work, chores, and family life, it’s not simple at all. Among the many lessons we learned during this DIY process, 3 pivotal ones helped us stay the course and bring our lovely, little library to life:

1. hold onto your vision

Sometime during the pandemic, I drew this sketch (right). At the time, a few areas in our home, were not serving our needs, so we began contemplating switching rooms around (read about the room reshuffle here).

Specifically, our oldest daughter’s sizeable bedroom—with one small standard closet, an ~8’ long walk-in closet, and various built-ins—had become too much space for her (and me!) to maintain. After several months of serious consideration, we redesigned the rarely used spare guest room for her (which she still loves!) and turned her previous bedroom into a multipurpose space—occasionally to sleep guests, but mostly for our kids and their friends to play and READ in.

Reading is a daily ritual in our home. It started when our first baby was born and hasn’t stopped, only grown. We visit our local library every week because my girls devour books! Thanks to them, I’ve probably read more in the last few years than in the decades before. The idea of giving our girls a library of their very own lit me up. It would nurture their zest for reading and be a quaint place for all of us to escape, explore, and let our imaginations be. We had already remade the small closet in the multipurpose room into a book nook in 2020, so repurposing the walk-in closet to hold SHELVES of books made sense and was super exciting to envision. 

nearly empty walk-in closet with a few random clothes, pillows, and toys

Our closet's progression from storing clothes to housing books.

I never erased that sketch. Still have it! Leaving it untouched on purpose gave me a reminder of my vision and what was possible. Now, seeing it next to the finished walk-in closet…wow. It's so, so fulfilling. And even though we'll be saying goodbye to our library in a couple of months, I know how and am excited to design another family library in our next space.

2. talk it out, make a plan

While the closet library was a vision of mine, I could not have executed it alone. My husband and I talked through the logistics and budget, then drew up a plan. After measuring the space, we decided on four shelves, selected an affordable wood species (pine), stain, and paint, and deliberated what additional tools were worth investing in (i.e. necessary now and likely to be of use for future projects). The real rate-limiting step was WHEN to build because life wasn’t gonna stop for this project to happen! On numerous occasions, we’d plan to begin but not follow through because of some unexpected urgency. Keeping the vision in mind helped us come back to the calendar and try again. 

We aren’t expert millworkers, but we’re handy and willing to learn what we don’t know!

Our kids are also part of any project I dream up. They loved the idea of having a place to house and revisit their favourite stories, so asking them to be “helpers”, moving and sorting books, clearing out the closet, etc. wasn’t hard. It takes all of us in different forms to bring what I envision to reality. And that’s what makes the process just as rewarding as the end result.

3. accountability

Hearing my girls repeatedly say, “I can’t wait for the library to be done!” could have gotten annoying. Instead, I took it as a gentle reminder to make time to make it happen. External accountability is a huge momentum shifter for me, so when I struggle to start something important, like painting the canvas, I secretly enlist outside help.

As an obliger, I thrive when there's someone outside of me to keep me accountable.

My kids voicing their excited anticipation was one. Sharing what I’m doing through this blog, my personal email notes, or on my IG account is another. It creates a sense of responsibility to others (i.e. I now have someone outside myself counting on me), which spurs a refocus and commitment to follow through and get the task done.

We made an ordinary closet extraordinary with a vision, determination, and a whole lot of patience!

what do you think of our DIY closet library?

One of my favourite parts was weaving in pieces of each of us, from photographs and our initials, to all the sentimental toys (yes, some of those belong to my husband and me!).

I'd love to hear what you think of our project and if it inspires you to reimagine a space in your home. Comment below, or even better, subscribe to my journal and send me an email! I'd love to hear from you 💛

Always,