Home & Garden

CHICAGO — The thing is: "When we bought it (our condo), it looked a lot bigger when it was empty," says Jason Loper, 33, a first-time buyer. "You walk in and hear the echo" through the barren rooms "and think it's big. And then you bring in your furniture and say, 'Really?"'

First, some details on the two-bedroom condo: Vintage walk-up. Completely renovated. Enviable amenities: In-unit laundry. New galley kitchen with granite countertops. Divided floor plan that makes the place feel bigger than 800 square feet.

And, yes, we got that right — 800 square feet. Two adults.

"Everything in this place, we've tried to make multipurpose," Loper says of their space-crisis solutions.

One answer was found in a closet.

Measuring 6 feet wide (wall-to-wall) and 2 feet deep, it would have been a handy, secondary clothes closet. The homeowners needed a place to stash their computer, bills, files, books, etc. So they "renovated" this 12 square feet, turning it into a shipshape home office.

The idea got real when they figured out the Internet access. A mere drill through the closet's back wall brought the cable in from the master bedroom. And all systems were now "go."

Down came the closet doors. Up went a (hang-it-yourself) shelving system to function as desk/shelving. And in went stuff. Their printer and file cabinet tucked nicely out of view in the 2 feet of space beyond the door jamb.

Loper sewed gray felt together to create 6-foot-long panels and then stapled the felt "onto the wall with a staple gun." He worked strategically, placing staples in spots that would be hidden by the shelf braces. (For those who don't sew, an alternative would be using a staple gun to put up carpet tiles.)

He sewed felt pockets (for bills, pens, cards) onto the felt walls. He sewed a felt "jacket" for the (unsightly) computer tower. And he covered the lowest shelf/the desk with a final piece of felt, for a finished look.

One more notable addition: the undershelf light (from The Home Depot), whose cord was strung through the braces and down to a power strip to keep them hidden.

What's next: Drapes to close it up when not in use. "It would give it a decorative look," Loper says.

Do it yourself

Project: Converting a bedroom closet into an efficient home office that measures a mere 12 square feet

Cost: $850

Time frame: 1 hour to install shelving; 1 1/2 hours to sew felt panels together and staple to the wall. Then again, these homeowners knew what they were doing.