Have you ever wondered why clothes look better in the department store than they do at home? Why do they lose a bit of their appeal? Maybe it’s because the department store colors, wood shelves, warm lighting and overall store environment put the clothes in their best possible light — so you will buy them! Why not do that to your closet at home? Well, except for piping in store music into our closet we did just that.

This project should have been done years ago; however, it wasn’t a priority. We wanted doorless, hardwood cabinets to transform into solid, attractive shelves.

One Saturday while driving back from town we passed a trailer in someone’s front yard loaded with used cabinets – the price said 10.00 a piece. We quickly turned around to check them out. I was pretty excited to see that they were well built and in good shape, to top it off they were built out of Hickory wood.  Now this is where the process begins . . . check out our one minute video to see the QUICK TAKE and scroll down to see the details. A surprise awaits at the bottom!

I suppose we should start with our closet before we began working on it. The only encouragement to showcasing our embarrassing BEFORE is that we arrived with a successful AFTER!

The hardwood cabinets we found for 10.00 each! What a great way to start this project!

The natural wood on the inside will help highlight the clothing and create the right department store look.

We wiped everything down to remove dirt and dust then used Klean Strip Easy Liquid Sander Deglosser to strip off the outside coat allowing our paint to adhere permanently.

The Zibra 2″ Chiseled Wedge provided tremendous paint load and release, leaving a nice smooth finish.

We worked on the closet walls by cleaning then patching holes left from the removal of the old closet system.

After hand sanding, then wiping down the walls we began rolling with the Zibra Airglide. This roller has excellent centered-balance and when you finish painting, simply quick eject the roller cover into the trash can!

The Zibra Triangle brush makes painting the corners quick and the bristle pack out and crisp edges of the brush is perfect for cutting in with speed.

Nice to see the closet shaping up and we really like the warm tone of the new wall color.

We hung the cabinet shelves in place accommodating for what we each needed to adequately store all our clothes.

I don’t like hanging up clothes so I was perfectly cool with just folding and stacking my clothes. I did watch a YouTube on how to properly fold a dress shirt. It’s simple and easy to do. This is my preference and it worked out well for our closet makeover.

Now for the final reveal!

We decided to remove the door into the walk-in closet and just hang a curtain, this made it easier to get in and out. We had a small rug and sitting bench in our bedroom so we moved it to the new closet and it works great!

I purchased a closet rod from the local home center and installed for my wife in a matter of minutes. She need to have a place to hang a few dresses, skirts and jackets.

Usually, when you work on a project like this, the longer you work the more creative you become with a boat load of ideas. We had to close out the project by adding a few “comical” department store signs to add some humor. Not sure how long they will last but you have to admit, they really set the whole department store look off right!

For the surprise! We are giving away this Zibra Paintbrush Kit!

Kit includes all the brushes used in this project and more! The Zibra Palm Pro, 2″ Chiseled Wedge, Square and Triangle Brush. It comes in a custom hand painted wooden box with handle! HOW TO ENTER: Leave a comment below and tell us where you shared the blog post and you will be entered in the paintbrush GIVEAWAY. All those that comment and share will be entered into the random drawing. Contest closes Monday, July 31 at NOON EST. Contest open to US and Canada residents only.

CONGRATULATIONS TO JULIE Q. for winning the GIVEAWAY!

Thanks to all who participated!

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