Mud Room Closet Makeover - Let's Build Some Shelves!

First, let's admire my newly built bench in the mudroom/closet...

It fits perfectly! I love how the shoes tuck nicely below the bench without spilling out all over the place. We have PLENTY of room. In this picture each of the four members of the family who walk (baby not included) have three or four pairs of shoes under the bench. (If you want to read all about how this came together check out the posts here and here.)

And, just for fun, let's recap for a minute...
Here is the BEFORE

 

And after I cleaned it out...

 

Gross right?

The first step with dealing with the closet was to paint it. Originally I wanted a darker blue color  such as Hale Navy by Benjamin Moore. But, the Hubs quickly nixed that idea because he didn't want to buy paint. (GRRR) So I scavenged the basement for leftovers. Unfortunately, all of the leftovers had less than an inch of paint left in them. Not enough for the whole closet. So, I mixed some light blue/gray colors to make a custom color. This is a mix of Benjamin Moore's First Snowfall, and Sherwin Williams' Northstar. (Is it a no-no to mix different brands? Look at me breaking the rules!) I am still not completely happy with the color. *YAWN* But, I have some other ideas for stenciling that may make it a little more original. That will have to come later.

 And here is my To Do list for this project:
1. Create bench
2. Create shelves for storage
3. Get baskets and bins to hang on side wall and to put on shelves
4. Get hooks for back wall and side wall for backpacks, jackets, and hats.
5. Figure out a fun color for the wall and/or finish (wallpaper? decals? wood planking?) Partially Complete
6. Install everything
7. Make cushion for bench
8. Decorate the wall across from the closet with mirror or chalkboard/photos/hooks

This was my plan for the shelves in the closet. Spoiler Alert: "Was" is a very important word.

Look at that 6th grade math coming in handy. Yes, I seriously had to do the math out. DUH!

Everything was cut, sanded, primed, and painted. But, when we checked out the closet to find the studs on the back wall to screw the shelves into, they were nowhere to be found. Wierd? Then the Hubs remembered that the "guys" had had a hard time finding them when they hung our kitchen cabinets. You would think that with a new construction the studs would be pretty uniform. I guess not...frustrating!

So, we had to figure out a solution for plan B. (I did not think it was safe to screw the shelving into the wall with only drywall anchors.) We did easily find the studs in the side of the closet (because they were in the right place) so we used those studs and created this:

I am going to add some corbels for extra support towards the center of the shelves, but for now this was the best we could do. It is not ideal, but I am determined to make this work. Oh and the top shelf is really high (we have 9 foot ceilings on the first floor and there is a TON of wasted space in the top of the closets) but it will work for storing things we rarely use.

The boards are screwed and wood glued into the supports and the supports are screwed into studs with 3" wood screws. 

Here is the most up to date picture: 

Although it isn't my original vision, it looks WAYYY better than the original

                   VS

Let's update the "To Do" list again!

1. Create bench

2. Create shelves for storage
3. Get baskets and bins to hang on side wall and to put on shelves
4. Get hooks for back wall and side wall for backpacks, jackets, and hats.
5. Figure out a fun color for the wall and/or finish (wallpaper? decals? wood planking?) Partially Complete
6. Install everything Partially Complete
7. Make cushion for bench
8. Decorate the wall across from the closet with mirror or chalkboard/photos/hooks

What do you think? Anyone else tackling a project similar to this? Anyone else running into issues and having to make plan B, C, or Ds?