Simply Done: Organized Office & Guest Room Closet

Jul 26

If you’re lucky enough to have an extra room in your home, chances are that space acts as another functional space too. For example, could be a craft room that doubles as a guest room. Or an office that doubles as a work out space. In the Bay Area especially, I’ve seen many homeowners double up (even triple up) the purpose of a room – because it just makes sense! I mean, how often do you have guests spend the night? Probably not every month. Maybe only 2-3x per year. Why have a whole room dedicated to having guests occupy it for only a few days each year?

But when you do have guests, it’s nice to give them some space to unpack, hang their garments and maybe tuck away their suitcase so they aren’t tripping over it.

I recently helped the sweetest family of 5 update the closet in their “guest room / home office” and wow – what a transformation! Typically I don’t share before images out of respect for clients, but in this case I wanted to share the space prior to the new closet design being installed. This is the perfect example of how spending a little bit of money to upgrade your standard “rod and a couple shelves type set-ups” makes all the difference.

GUEST / OFFICE CLOSET BEFORE

Organized Guest Room and Home Office Closet

In most builder-grade standard closets you end up with shelves pretty high and a rod placed below it. Then you have alllllll of that space wide open below. It’s the perfect space for us to pile. When there aren’t shelves down there, it’s too easy for this to happen.

In addition to this room acting as a home office and guest room, mom also kept some out of season jackets and home decor.

Organized Guest Room and Home Office Closet

THE GOAL

The goal was to re-design the closet, organize the contents (we did some purging too) and provide guests a smaller section of hanging for use when visiting. Another note to mention is that this room will eventually turn into a child’s room when they are a bit older. Right now 2 of the kiddos are in the same room. So the closet had to be one that could be adjusted over time. The best option in this case was an Elfa system from The Container Store.

THE AFTER

In a matter of hours the space was demo’d, patched and painted and the new closet system went up!…

Organized Guest Room and Home Office Closet

After install, it took just a little time for me to organize the contents…

Organized Guest Room and Home Office Closet

Not only does mom have a spot for her office supplies and beautiful collection of note cards, she can walk into the space, find it all and give guests space to spread out too!

I found some great unused containers in the garage to contain all of the little things for her too…

Organized Guest Room and Home Office Closet

I love giving new life to old containers. I especially loved these San Francisco note cards…they had to go front and center!…

Organized Guest Room and Home Office Closet

BEFORE < AFTER

Don’t forget that the Elfa shelving sale is coming up soon. If you can hold off, you’ll save 25% off materials and install to create a closet just like this for yourself!…

Organized Guest Room and Home Office Closet

Organized Guest Room and Home Office Closet

Hope you enjoyed seeing this newly updated closet. Back again soon with more organizing ideas!

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comments +

  1. ellenr886 says:

    WOW! You did an awesome job!! That’s making me feel motivated to redo mine now!
    XO Ellen from Ask Away
    http://www.askawayblog.com

  2. Lola Nova says:

    I have a space that needs this treatment. I didn’t really know where to start, so you advice will help me get organised! I’ve been putting it off for so long, but I always feel so much better once I’ve finished 😀

  3. Emily says:

    Looks great! I love how you were able to use items the family already owned, bringing down the overall cost of this upgrade. While it’s always fun to put things in shiny new containers, organizing that way can easily get so expensive!

    • Samantha says:

      I agree 100%! Purchasing new new new isn’t always necessary. In this case, she had plenty of containers for me to re-purpose.

      Thank you so much for the comment!

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