As you can see, there was a weird raised portion of hardwoods in the center of our closet that I ended up having them remove and patch too. Once that was done, I removed all of the previous closet hardware and painted all of that yellowed wood a new crisp white (“All White” c/o Farrow & Ball):
Next came the wallpaper (I used {this} paisley paper c/o Farrow & Ball) and new closet rods and hardware. For the closet rods, I used 1 1/4″ cell cast acrylic rods from Nationwide Plastics, which is the same source that I used for the acrylic rods in our home office. I price shopped several places before placing my order and didn’t find anywhere with cheaper prices that also offered the convenience of cutting the rods into the exact length pieces that I needed prior to shipping.
Most of the rod hardware that I used was my old closet hardware that I simply spray painted:
I wanted a finish that would last so I lightly sanded the hardware and sprayed it with primer first, followed by several light coats of spray paint. Be sure to use a respirator while spraying (I use {this one}) and read the application instructions on the spray can because they’re a little different than for most painting jobs in that you need to apply a second coat within 1 hour or after 24 hours. The specific paints I used are {this spray primer} and {this metallic brass spray paint} (not to be confused with their metallic gold finish that is in an identical can).
I sprayed everything this way – the rod brackets & flanges, the curtain rod and rings, the curtain rod brackets, and even the screws. My trick for painting the screws is to just stick them in some styrofoam before spraying:
The end caps that is used for the two rod pieces that are held up with brackets were {these 1 1/2″ brass end caps} but they were actually too small to fit on the rods (the 1 1/2″ measurement refers to the outside diameter – the inside diameter unfortunately is smaller than the 1 1/4″ diameter of my rods) so I hot glue gunned them to the ends. It’s worked fine but I’d try to find something that was a better fit if I do a similar closet in the future.
For the curtain rod I initially tried a cafe curtain rod but it was too flimsy so I ended up buying a copper plumbing pipe from Lowe’s and spray painting it. It works well for my 70″ closet opening with very lightweight drapes but you might need to go with a solid rod like one of {these} if your opening is wider or your drapes any heavier. The hardest thing to find was supports for such a small curtain rod but I eventually found {these brackets} and they worked beautifully.
The drapes I used are inexpensive, lightweight AINA linen drapes from IKEA. I actually had a pair of these in my hoard closet that I bought for another project and never used and I was all excited about not having to buy new curtains until I realized that they looked quite yellowy against my crisp white walls. I didn’t think that bleaching linen was the best idea so I gave {this Rit laundry treatment} a try and it worked awesomely! You can see the before and after change in color here:
I simply filled up our large basement sink with hot water, added my drapes and the Rit treatment and stirred and soaked them for about ten minutes, after which I threw them in the washer. Super easy and I got the exact shade of white that I wanted. The final step was to simply hem them to the length that I needed (which I did using {this no-sew option}) and then fold little pleats at the top (you can see them in more detail two pics above) and clip the drapes to the cafe rings.
My pair of curtains is wide enough to cover my entire closet opening when I pull them closed:
but my curtains have actually stayed open since the day I installed them because who minds looking at all of this prettiness?!
And I’ve found that having the wallpaper in the back of the closet has been great motivation for keeping my wardrobe pared down so I can still see enough of that pretty pattern 🙂
I hope I answered all of your questions but if I missed any, just leave me a comment and I’ll get back to you!