Thanks Sigrid! Closet space or square footage? Both!

I liked the closet at first - very sturdy structure and practical I thought. But it is beginning to seem more like an out-of-date, clunky relic. I can live with it...but....it may also be taking up more space than what one might think because of the thick framing. I'm wondering if a framed drywall closet or something like the IKEA Pax system would give us more efficient storage while also freeing up footage in the room. At 14 X 15 it is a small bedroom.

We are pulling up the carpet, installing LVT and repainting the walls in this room.

I had the same thing in my first house, a 1952 rambler. I found the top part of the closet not very useful, and would occasionally bang my head against the divider as it was too low. I ended up completely removing everything and put in a full height closet with bifold doors, and installed a wire shelf system with a pole for hangers. Never regretted it....

Thanks kudzu9. I have a new concern - I had not considered that the ceiling will need to be redone and it is textured... which leads me to be concerned about asbestos.

Being aware of potential asbestos issues is prudent, but you can redo that along the lines I suggested without touching the ceiling. Why do you think the ceiling would be affected?

Well... the closet goes to the ceiling

the framing at least. I doubt the ceiling revealed by the demo would match the ceiling on the other rest of the BR

You could:

- Remove the doors

- Uninstall their tracks

- Remove the horizontal separator and shelf

-Leave the existing trim in place (or simply replace the pieces on each side if they get messed up when you remove the separator)

Even if you remove all the trim, there is no reason you need to mess with the header that is up against the ceiling. In my case, for one closet, I simply ordered extra tall bifold doors for the opening and didn't have to do anything much about the framing or trim...and I certainly didn't have to do anything with the ceiling. If you want to do normal height doors (80") you can just frame for that and use the space above it for a small shelf-niche. I took out three closets like yours and I recall that I put standard height doors in my daughter's bedroom closet, and the niche allowed about a 6" high space for display of knickknacks.

No insult intended, but I'm guessing you don't have a lot of DIY carpentry experience. But if you get a professional to help, I can assure you that they won't need to disturb the ceiling to make the changes.

Thanks kudzu9! Great information. You are right about carpentry experience. I plan to have professional help but it is really difficult to nail down a carpenter (ha! aren’t I punny).

You addressed my questions very nicely. It seems you are glad you removed the old closets and I don’t need to worry about disturbing the ceiling.

The top compartments are a place for things to disappear into the way back. Things back there can't be reached without a ladder. I suggest rebuilding the closet with your choice of modern closet systems, including double tier clothes rods. Don't skimp on door hardware quality- it makes a huge difference in opening and closing the doors several times a day. Add a light in the closet, too.

Didn't have this exact configuration with upper closets, but had closets with wide sliding doors similar to this, and always found they were in the way. Taking into account your need to keep the storage space and fears of surfaces not matching if you demo, I'd take out doors, and if possible, interior shelves to completely open it up, then retrofit it with a closet system that works for you. As you mentioned, IKEA makes some decent affordable ones. As far as doors go, if you can get bi-fold doors that will come close to the ceiling, then good. Anything shorter will restrict access. As my closets were in bedrooms, I simply hung long, opaque curtain panels on rings from ceiling mounted hardware. Much cheaper than new doors, looked better than the old doors and solved the access problem nicely.