Wasted closet (space) turned NOOK!

I love my house...so don't get me wrong when I say this....

I don't know what they were thinking when they designed these houses.  SO much wasted space!  Sometime I feel like there are walls where there shouldn't be...and no wall where there should.  Either way...nothing a handy husband can't fix! 

Okay, I am not going to lie.  My husband drives me crazy sometimes.  Not in a bad way...it's only because he CAN'T. SIT. STILL.  Don't get me wrong...he likes to relax, but if there is a project that needs finishing...the man is relentless.  Seriously. 

So needless to say, the project I am about to show you went fairly quickly considering the amount of time my husband is not home.

Here's what we did.  We had a coat closet straight ahead when you walked in from our garage into the "mudroom" {which really isn't much of a "room"...it's more of a "space"}.  Having two kids {maybe more in the future}, we needed to do something to better utilize this space.

We had a 9-cubby cubicle system under the window for almost a year, but honestly, I hated staring at it from the kitchen/family room.  It just made things look cluttered and messy.  Which I hate.  We also had tons of unused space above our "builder-grade-wire-rack" that was driving me nuts.  We have 9-foot ceilings, so about 2-3 feet of space wasn't being utilized!  A-N-N-O-Y-I-N-G.

I starting looking on Pinterest {yes, Pinterest AGAIN} for ideas for a "closet nook".  I came across a bunch that I really liked, so I just had to figure out a way to incorporate them all into one design that would work for OUR space.

Day 1: Husband forced me to clean out the closet--I stacked everything up in our dining room {which sat there for a while until I finally went through everything and donated what we didn't use/want anymore}.

Then, he started the demolition {probably his favorite part}...we had a great plan...and I even sketched a drawing...

HOWEVER, we ran into a little snafu.  Not a huge deal, but there was a pipe {to some sort of plumbing} in one of the walls that we were planning on taking out...so, we switched to "Plan B" and left the wall there and worked around it.

ANYWAY...I won't go into great detail {only because I have no idea how he measured everything and how he cut the wood}, but here is essentially what we he did.

-Built up lower "bench" base with 2x4's
-Created a bench {with cubbies} to sit on
-Built shelves up the side {where the wall with the pipe in it was}
-Created shelves on top for overhead storage
-Added wainscoting for a decorative finish
-Added hooks to hand coats/bags/purses/etc...
-Caulked the gaps and painted {a few coats} of semi-gloss white paint.

So here are some "BEFORE" and "AFTER" pictures.....it was actually easy to do and has made a HUGE {like monumental} difference in the way we use this space.