Anthony and Renee Nyugen have a growing family with four children ranging from one to eleven years-old. Anthony works from home and even in a four-bedroom house, finding space for a home office is difficult with all those little people.

So Anthony has his desk tucked in a corner of the walk-in closet for the Master Suite.

The closet has plenty of space but offers the bare minimum to organize their clothes and Anthony’s “Cl-office” is tiny, cramped and the only view is the clothes hanging around the desk.

Since the left side of the closet is an exterior wall for the house,  the plan is to make the right side of the space a more efficient closet area and the left side a dedicated office with a small window to add natural light.


Cleaning out and laying out

The first step is removing the items stored in the closet. All of the couple’s clothes are stored on a single, inefficient level of wire shelving that runs around the perimeter of the room. So we’re removing that entirely to make way for new, efficient storage.

Next, we’ll lay out the location for the window and the new custom closet shelving. The window opening will be slightly larger than the window itself to allow us to install a “header” above it.


Cutting into the wall

We start by removing the drywall and cutting off the studs in the window space. The header will support the load that was being carried by the studs which were cut off. 

Today’s Homeowner Tips

Cut slowly through drywall to avoid nicking plumbing or electrical lines.

We find one of each running through this wall, but thankfully both are flexible enough that they can be re-routed out of our way.

With the opening established inside we begin cutting through the outside wall: First through the wood sheathing, then through the brick veneer.

The new window is secured to the wood framing and the bricks are re-laid tightly around it.


Building the closet

The new closet space will consist of two corner shelving units and a shoe rack with hanging rods running between them.

The corner units are made up of “L” shaped shelves spaced at sixteen-inch intervals between vertical one-by-twelves.

The shoe rack is simply a twenty-inch wide bookshelf with shelves spaced at seven-inch intervals. 

Today’s Homeowner Tips

Don’t sand off the excess joint compound used to patch the holes from the old shelves. Use a damp sponge to dissolve it. This preserves the wall texture so there isn’t a “flat” spot in the paint.

Once the three big elements are in place, they are joined at the top with a continuous horizontal shelf on the three walls of the closet side of the space. After the woodwork is painted, the closet rods can be attached between the corner units and the shoe rack. These spaces get two rods each, at forty-two and eighty inches off the floor. The third wall gets a single rod at eighty inches, to accommodate longer hanging items.


Building the office

On either side of the new window we’re installing three floating shelves. These each start with a one inch by one-and-a-half-inch deep cleat attached to the walls in each corner.

The shelves themselves are just plywood boxes with a one-inch void in the middle on two sides. This allows them to simply slide over the cleat and be secured with a few nails. To make the desk top we’re using a larger piece of plywood with a one-by-two edge band. 

Today’s Homeowner Tips

Use an adhesive, like Titebond Original Wood Glue, in addition to nails to secure the edge banding.

Both the floating shelves and the desk are stained and sealed with polyurethane.


Post-production thoughts

Anthony and Renee’s closet was spacious and inefficient. Both as a closet and as an office. One big compromise. As a closet, it was pretty basic and inefficient. 

By making the closet area more efficient, we could dedicate more space to the office. By using white-painted shelving in the closet area and warm wood tones in the office area, we created two separate rooms in one space.

The addition of the window improves the lighting for both areas and makes the whole space seem more like something to be enjoyed… than endured.


Other Tips From This Episode

Joe Truini shows how to keep your putty knife clean in Today's Homeowner's Simple Solutions segmentSimple Solutions 
Simple Way to Keep Your Putty Knife Clean
Jodi Marks showcases Daltile's newest product, QuicTile, during Today's Homeowner's Best New Products segment. Best New Products 
Stylish and Durable Flooring to Upgrade a Home
Finishing the placement of the shoe rackWatch & Learn 
How to Build a Full-Length Shoe Rack 

Further Reading

Editorial Contributors
avatar for Danny Lipford

Danny Lipford

Founder

Danny Lipford is a home improvement expert and television personality who started his remodeling business, Lipford Construction, at the age of 21 in Mobile, Alabama. He gained national recognition as the host of the nationally syndicated television show, Today's Homeowner with Danny Lipford, which started as a small cable show in Mobile. Danny's expertise in home improvement has also led him to be a contributor to popular magazines and websites and the go-to source for advice on everything related to the home. He has made over 200 national television appearances and served as the home improvement expert for CBS's The Early Show and The Weather Channel for over a decade. Danny is also the founder of 3 Echoes Content Studio, TodaysHomeowner.com, and Checking In With Chelsea, a décor and lifestyle blog.

Learn More