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No matter how big your house seemed when you moved in, it will eventually seem too small. Whether it’s a growing family or a shift to remote work, the chances that you’ll eventually wish you had just one more room are pretty high. And with the cost of an addition to your home starting at around $22,000, a lot of folks look for lower-cost ways to claw some more usable space out of their homes.
The good news is that you might have the solution in your house already: your closets. Closets are already pretty useful for storing your stuff out of sight, of course, but if you’re in the market for an extra room and you have a closet to spare, you have the opportunity to trade boring storage space for something a lot more useful. Depending on how large the closet in question is, you have options for repurposing it.
If you’re seeking more square footage because you need an extra bedroom, a decent-sized closet might be the solution. Generally speaking, a bedroom should be a minimum of 70 square feet, and the good news is that a standard walk-in closet is typically pretty close to that at about 65 square feet. Turning a walk-in closet into a usable sleeping space is therefore just a matter of clearing it out and installing a bed.
This won’t be a legal bedroom you can include on a house listing, of course—for that, you typically need an egress like a window or door leading out of the house. But it can be a comfortable spot for guests or a growing child who needs their own private space.
Closets smaller than that can still be transformed into bedrooms, especially for kids. Folding beds or bunk beds attached directly to the walls can create a fun, flexible sleeping area that can be utilized when you suddenly have an army of guests staying over or when the kiddos want that sleepover vibe.
If you work remotely even part of the time, you know a specific office space is key to your sanity and your job performance. If you didn’t anticipate needing an extra room for an office when you bought your home, you also know that trying to work at kitchen counters, dining room tables, and on living room couches with a laptop balanced on your knees is less than ideal.
Even the tiniest extra closet can be transformed into a usable office (or “cloffice,” though we sincerely hope that term doesn’t catch on). Reach-in closets are typically a minimum of two feet deep and range from three to eight feet wide. You can still fit a small desk (or use a folding desk) and plenty of shelving into the short end of that range, giving you an organized, bespoke space for your working hours. And closet offices come with one huge unanticipated benefit: You can close the door when the work day is finished and hide it all away.
If you’ve dreamed of having a grown-up bar in your house for entertaining purposes (or just because you’re enthusiastic about cocktails), a spare closet in or near the living area offers you an ideal spot. A reach-in closet that’s just two feet deep by three feet wide can house a perfectly respectable bar area in a few relatively easy steps:
Remove the doors and door hardware.
Remove shelving and hanging bars.
Patch and paint interior drywall.
Install a small bar fridge, a cabinet with countertop of similar size, and another cabinet or glassware storage on the walls.
Add some simple lighting if necessary.
Now all that’s left is to stock the bar and organize a party.
If you love to read but hate how books take over the entire house, a spare closet is the perfect space for a small, cozy library and reading nook. If you have a larger walk-in closet you don’t need, it’s relatively straightforward to install some shelves, a comfortable chair, and a reading lamp to create a small library space for yourself (mini-fridge stocked with snacks is optional). But even a small reach-in closet can be cleared out, outfitted with bookshelves, and stocked with a folding chair to create a cozy reading space.
A pantry is really just a food closet, so transforming an underused coat closet into a pantry is pretty straightforward. While your pantry can be located anywhere, a closet near your kitchen is obviously ideal. All that’s needed is to remove existing hanging bars and shelves, install floor-to-ceiling shelving, and add in some hanging baskets and hooks for cooking utensils, aprons, or anything else that normally gets in the way.
If your adorably small pantry is a bit too adorably small, you can add a back-of-door organizer to give yourself a little extra food storage, too.
This one is a bit more ambitious than some of the other projects on this list, but its impact is potentially larger. If you’re not afraid of hiring a plumber and possibly an electrician (or if you’re comfortable doing that kind of work yourself), a closet could become the laundry room you’re currently missing.
To see if it’s even possible, measure your closet and the appliances you need to fit in there. Washers and dryers average about 24-26 inches wide, around 42 inches high, and 30 inches deep, with a lot of variance between brands and models. You’ll need to allow for about six inches of clearance between the wall and the machines, and if you’re using front-loaders, you’ll need to account for the extra depth unless the closet opening is wide enough. Those dimensions mean that a small reach-in closet probably won’t work for this project—you’ll need at least a small walk-in closet to make it work.
Keep in mind that if your closet is just large enough to fit your appliances, there won’t be any room to store detergents and other supplies. If you have to store that stuff elsewhere (or have it in a messy pile nearby), that’s not an ideal solution. You can add some behind-the-door storage, however—or even a behind-the-door ironing rack that can double as a place to fold laundry as it comes out of the dryer.
Whether you’re one of the millions (and millions) of people who host their own podcast or just need a quiet spot for video meetings and calls, a small closet is an ideal spot to build a simple, DIY recording booth/studio. Some acoustic foam panels on the walls and a sound dampening blanket over the door can turn that tiny space into a perfect vocal isolation booth, recording studio, or meeting spot. The small size is a feature here, as it will be relatively cheap to turn that closet into a quiet studio space.
