Our upstairs hall closet, was a nightmare, the door stuck, had probably 5 to 10 coats of paint on it and once you had the door open one could only access the items that happened to be in the front section. Every few years we’d empty it out to discover riches of long forgotten junk stored ever so deliberately in the back depths of this cavernous abyss.

One day I yanked the door off the hinges, pulled out my reciprocating saw, and cut the opening as big as I could get away with. My intention was to replace the door with drawers. Almost a full year later I can say that this closet upgrade is complete (save a fresh coat of paint in the stairwell and hall). I was not able to actually find any photos of our original closet, so the ”before” images are from my neighbor.

The drawers slides(soft close and full extension) allow easy access to the items in the back. I was also able to add a drawer very near the ceiling which works great for towels.

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Please don’t ask me to upgrade your closet to this drawer system, I had a very difficult time with this build and I’m not inspired to do it again. I think you are better off with a home builder. Each drawer was a a different size, nothing was square, it was a real pain. However feel free to swing by to look at, I’m sure Isaac or Izzy could really knock this project out of the park.

You could add drawers inside the closet and keep the door, I have seen this. However it limits the drawer width, and you wouldn’t be able to add the very top drawer that goes well above the original closet door height.