As a busy homeschool family, there’s one thing that keeps me sane throughout the year: our DIY book closet!
When we first started homeschooling, we went to the library several times a week. We checked out tons of books, both new and old. We loved them and we enjoyed going to the library.
But as my kids grew older and our schedules filled up more and more, I started to resent our library time.
Our closet public library is about 20 minutes away. Getting the kids around and driving to and from the library felt more like a chore.
We had to schedule our library days into our plans and we’d gotten into the habit of making a whole day of it.
Since we were already in “town,” we went out for lunch and ran our errands. But by the time we got home, we were all exhausted and grumpy.
So I started to build our own home library.
And as homeschoolers, it didn’t take long before our home library was out of control.
We had shelves full of books. There were baskets crammed with our favorite stories. Our current reads were strung out across the house.
And I was losing my mind.
So, one day, on a whim, I decided to take our coat closet and turn it into a book closet.
And I’m SO happy I did! It has served us well over the years.
Our coat closet wasn’t being used to its full potential, so it was easy for me to transform it into the DIY book closet.
I started by removing all of the things. Coats went into each child’s bedroom closet. Gloves and stocking caps went into a basket in our laundry room. Shoes went to bedrooms. And the vacuum found a new home in our garage. (We don’t have any carpet and only use it occasionally so we didn’t need to keep it super handy.)
I knew this closet wasn’t going to be pretty because I wanted to have it done before my husband got home from work that day. ;P
Instead, I focused on functionality and kept in mind that once our homeschooling days are over, it’ll likely be converted back into a coat closet.
I opted not to paint or add wallpaper to the walls. That means that they’re the same dingy white color that they were painted when our home was built in the early 90’s.
But, guess what! It is all hidden behind a door and too many books so who cares if my house isn’t Pinterest-worthy?
I used scrap wood that we had around our house. (My husband is a contractor so we always have an abundance of scrap wood laying around.)
Here’s how I transformed our coat closet into a DIY book closet with just 3 boards and 14 screws:
First, I cut the 2×4 boards the width of the closet. I screwed them into the back wall, spaced equally apart.
Then, I cut 4 boards the depth of our closet. Then I screwed them into the sides of the closet, adjacent to the back boards.
Next, I cut 2 large flat boards the size of the length and depth of the closet. I screwed these on top of the 3 boards, to create a shelf.
I wanted to keep the original shelf and hanging rod, so I left that alone. When our kids are grown and our library has dwindled, all I’ll have to do is removed the wooden pieces I added. It’ll take less than 5 minutes to have it back to a coat closet again!
If you’re looking for a way to hide some of your own books, consider creating a DIY book closet from your coat closet. You’ll be glad you did!
