ULTIMATE CLOSET TO MUDROOM TRANSFORMATION ON A BUDGET MAKEOVER DIY Closet Organization Shelves

Hello, YouTube fam! Welcome or welcome back to my channel. If you're new here, my name is Tina and I make videos on lifestyle, home, and DIY projects every single week. I hope you guys are doing well today. I'm very excited because we are finally going to finish my front closet. If you've been following along, you guys have seen me DIY some items for my entryway, and now we finally get to put some of that together. We're going to build some shelves, get everything organized, and I also want to share the budget for this project with you guys. Creating a custom closet can be a little bit intimidating, so I wanted to show you guys that it can be done on a budget. Before we jump into it, I want to thank today's video sponsor, Modern Fertility. The first month of the year is almost over, and you guys know that one of my biggest goals this year is to take better care of my health, and I think that's a common goal that everyone has every year, and I've been doing a really good job of that so far. I've been more active, and I've also been eating healthier and cooking at home, so we're off to a good start, but one thing that I do want to focus more on is my reproductive health. Brian and I do want kids in the future, so understanding my body better is going to help us plan whenever we get there, and that brought me to Modern Fertility, and if you guys are not familiar with them, they make personalized fertility information and support more accessible with essentials like at-home tests and tools, and Modern Fertility actually has the most comprehensive fertility hormone test for women that you could take at home, so they make it really convenient. So I have my test right here, and it comes with everything that you need to take the test at home by yourself. It also comes with a return label, so you just have to pop that into the mail, and you'll get your results back in under 10 days, and based on your results, the test can give you insight into your egg count, your thyroid health, possible outcomes for egg freezing or IVF, and so much more. I feel like taking this test has really given me the boost that I needed to better understand my fertility, and also to see what steps I can take now to plan for the future, and I think that's one important thing to note, that even if you aren't planning to have kids right now, having these results and resources on hand is really going to help you plan at your own terms. Most fertility hormone tests cost upwards of $1,500, and the Modern Fertility one is only $159, but with my link below, you'll get $20 off the test, so be sure to check that out, and as a customer, you have the option of doing a one-on-one consultation with a fertility nurse, which I'm totally doing. I also wanted to plug some of their free resources so you can join the Modern Fertility community and connect with others and get all your questions answered for free, so I'd highly suggest that you guys check that out as well. Thank you so much to Modern Fertility for sponsoring this video, and now let's go ahead and jump into the project. So here's where we left off with the entryway. We built the beautiful console table, and we also built the bench in here, which I'm still, I don't know how I can't open these, which I'm still so in love with, and today we'll be finishing the closet. Actually, we'll be partially finishing it because I still don't know what to do with these doors. For now, I'm actually just going to take them off and then make this an open mudroom situation. I'm really leaning towards doing French doors here, so that's probably what's going to happen here, but for now, let's just focus on the inside of the closet. Wow, okay, that was easy. Yay, so much better. Okay, honestly, that was so easy to do. It took me under five minutes, and look, so much more room, looks more open and clean. If you've been wanting to take off your bifold doors, take this as a sign to do it because it just looks so much better. I have an extra panel of beadboard from the powder bathroom, and I realized that it fits perfectly in this area. I think it'll add the perfect amount of detail, and it's also really easy just to put up really quickly, so I'm gonna do that right now. This beadboard actually comes eight feet long, and I had it cut in half for the powder room, so instead of letting this extra piece go to waste, I thought that this would be a nice detail for the back of the wall. It's really gonna make this space feel more purposeful and more like a mudroom. This was so easy to get up on the walls with my brad nailer and is gonna make such a difference. It is time to paint, and I'm going to start by cutting in first, and then with my spray gun, I'm going to do the rest of the walls because there's a lot of detail going on here between all the little supports and the beadboard. The color I'm going with is called Limousine Leather by Bayer, which is basically black, and this paint is largely inspired by Jessica from the Orange Home on Instagram. I love following her account, so definitely check her out, and I will link her page below. I started by cutting in and also painting the walls that you probably are not going to see much of since this is, after all, a closet, so it was kind of nice not having to be too detailed for this space. With the vent sticking out of the wall, I thought the black would be kind of great just to hide it and blend it into the wall color, and I will be making shelves to go up vertically, and that's going to cover it as well, so it's going to be even less noticeable. You might have noticed that it didn't caulk or spackle the beadboard at all, and that's mostly because of the fact that we're painting it black. Since it's so dark, it's going to hide all of the nail holes, but in all other cases, I would 100% be smoothing everything out with caulk and spackle. Instead of taping and putting a drop cloth over everything, I actually just use a piece of cardboard as a shield, and that's going to help prevent some overspray as well. So, we're home from the hardware store, and everything is nicely cut out. I grabbed ¾-inch plywood just so that it would be nice and substantial, so I got that all cut out. I thought that I would need two pieces of plywood, but I ended up only needing one, so the total for all of this wood was $48, which I think is pretty good for the whole closet. Since there are a lot of steps to this project, before I even started anything, I actually just wrote down all of the steps that I need to take. That way, I can mentally do a run of what I need to do, and I think the best thing to do is actually to work on that top shelf first. That way, I could fit it all in and then get the exact sizes for my little shoe cubbies. You guys, I got a circular saw. I'm very excited to use it. This is actually my first time using one, so I'm of course going to do a test piece over here, try it out, see how I like it. Am I nervous to use this thing? Just a little bit, but am I excited? Heck yeah. Easy. Wow. Okay. The small cutout is going to wrap around the vent in the closet, so I needed a circular saw to cut it, and honestly, I feel like I should have gotten this sooner because this tool is actually not as scary as I thought it would be, especially as a first-timer. I of course did a bunch of research and watched tutorials online before I started, but this is definitely a must-have tool if you're a big home DIYer. Okay, we just did that. Oh my god. For the shelves on the side here, I'm going to need a pocket hole on this side, and then on this side, I'm actually going to do little support beams, or I'm not actually sure what the technical term is. I'll put it here on the screen, but yeah, I only have to pocket hole on one side, so I have my Kreg jig all set up here. I'm going to do three across the board. As I've gotten more into power tools, a bunch of you guys have been asking me questions on how to get started, and although I still feel like such a beginner, I think my best advice is just to start with small, doable projects, so something with simple cuts and assembly, such as making shelves, is a great beginner project. One big thing that also helped me out was just to get used to the tool, so I would cut test pieces and scrap wood, and before I even tried out a new tool, I would just turn it on and see how it feels in my hands, and that really helped me get more comfortable and less intimidated. Even now, before cutting things, I will do an imaginary run of how I'm going to cut a piece before I actually do it, so I know exactly how I'm going to approach a cut. I honestly have learned everything on the go as a project arises, and I feel like with each project, it just gets less and less intimidating, and it just makes me so happy that sharing my journey on this channel has encouraged some of you guys to try power tools as well, so if there's something that you've been wanting to try out, just go for it and you might surprise yourself. Everything is nice and sanded, and next what we're going to do is actually conceal this edge. Let me get a better angle. Okay, that's better. So since we're using plywood and not solid wood, you guys can see the different layers here. So I got some edge banding, and then I also got the little trimmer for it to make our lives a little bit easier, and to apply it, you need an iron. I'm going to go ahead and plug this in, and the nice thing is we only have to finish one side, which is the side that is facing out, so I'm going to do that, and then we can get to staining. I set my iron to medium, so the temperature should be around 200 degrees, and I held it there for under 10 seconds for each little section to make sure that the banding would bind properly. I found that if you leave it on for too long, the glue is actually going to melt too much, and it's not going to stick as well, so be extra careful with this step. Edge banding comes in a variety of wood finishes and also in white, and since it's made of wood, it can be stained, and I think this is a great option if you're using plywood and want it to look like solid wood. All right, so when it came to this trimmer, it did take a little bit of trial and error when I was first using it, but I did figure out that you want to press down with even pressure, and this way you get a nice and smooth cut, but if I did miss any spots, I went back in with my precision knife to cut off the excess. To really make it look like one solid piece of wood, you're just going to want to sand down the edges, and everything should be good to go. For the stain, I'm going with special walnut to match the IKEA bench that I DIY'd previously. If you missed that video, be sure to go back and watch it. Having a deeper tone of wood is going to be a nice contrast to all the light woods that is currently going on in my house. It's also going to really great with our new black walls, so definitely a winner in my book. Good morning, guys! Today is the last day of the makeover, and we have to put on some finishing touches. I also have like a million light switches. Half of them don't even work, and first thing I need to do is actually to finish up the shelves. I'm using a semi-gloss poly just so that these are easier to clean, and then for this shelf, I'm actually going to paint it black. This is the one that's going to be standing up vertically, so I thought that'd be a nice contrast. Once everything is dry, we can go ahead and assemble and put it all together. I have a bunch of scrap MDF trim pieces here, and I'm actually going to use this as the supports. All I have to do is just to cut it down to the width of the shelf, then all I have to do is to screw it on the side of the walls, and that way it supports our shelves. One plus side about using black paint is that everything blends in so well. You can barely even tell that these are here, which is perfect because once those shelves are in, you're not really going to see them, so I'm very excited that worked out, and after that dries, we're going to go ahead and fit everything in. Oh my god, I did it! I did it! I did it! I did it! It is finally time to put in the shelves, and oh, okay. Yes, I did not paint this part yet. I'm going to do that afterwards, but here I have a clamp, and then I have it all leveled, so now this shelf is exactly where it needs to be, and then I'm going to go underneath and then fill in the pocket holes with the screws. I started by screwing in the shelves while they were upright just to make sure that everything was leveled and spaced out with these shelf supports, and then a little bit later on, you're going to see me screwing in the last shelves on the floor just to make sure that everything was nice and secure. These pocket holes are going to give us very strong joints, and it also gives a more streamlined look with all those screws hiding in the pocket, which I think looks super nice. I still can't believe this is only the second project that I've done with pocket holes, and I think they just look so good. So I wanted to take a moment here just to say thank you guys so much for watching every week. Building this house with you has seriously been such a dream. A year ago, I never would have thought that I would be in my own home doing my dream job, so I really appreciate the support that you all show me, and it truly just means so much. I love reading all of your messages and comments every week, and I'm just so glad that you guys are enjoying watching this entire process as I'm learning new things every week and sharing it with you. I never would have dreamed of even tackling a project like this in the closet, so from the bottom of my heart, thank you so much for watching. In this clip, you probably can't see much just because of the angle of the camera, but I'm just basically screwing in the top of the shelf just to keep everything in place, and our new unit should be ready to go. I went ahead and finished all of the black paint, and I also took this time to paint the bench black as well. Previously, I had painted it a charcoal color, so this is just going to blend in so much better and really make it feel like a built-in piece. Before we finish this project, I wanted to share the amount that I spent on the materials to build this closet out, and in total, before tax, it cost $151.93 for all the wood, paint, stain, and even the screws with plenty of materials left over for other projects, and if I went for a cheaper option for the hooks, it would be even less, so I think that for such a custom solution, you are able to build it on a budget and make it look amazing as well. Okay, so a majority of you here on my channel and also over on Instagram voted for hooks over a rod in this closet, so that's what we're going with, and I got these chunky walnut hooks. They're going to be great for hanging up our jackets, especially in this freezing winter weather. I think this is definitely the more stylish option, but for me personally, it's also more functional. It's going to get me to actually hang up my jacket instead of throwing it on the couch, which I have been doing this entire season, but we'll see how this method holds up because it definitely holds less coats, but I can always add a rod later down the line if we find ourselves needing more storage space. Okay, guys, it is finally time to style. I'm going to put in some new baskets, get organizing, and finally putting my shoes away. It's going to be so cute, and I'm so excited. I'm so happy with how this came out. This took me a total of three days to complete, and I'm just so proud of it. It totally opens up the space and just feels so inviting opening the front door and coming and looking at this, and once the rest of the entryway is done, I just know it's going to feel so complete. Let me know your thoughts on this little makeover in the comments below. I would love to chat with you guys. Again, a huge thank you to Modern Fertility for sponsoring today's video. If you want to see more behind the scenes and see how this space transforms, because I know it's not going to stay this clean and pristine for long, make sure that you follow me over on Instagram. I post on there every single day, and that's it for me today. Thank you so much for watching. Stay inspired, and I'll see you in the next one. Bye!