The Wrap-Around Closet Shelf that Solved My Christmas Decor Storage Problem

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I LOVE decorating our home for Christmas! But as someone who doesn’t have a garage, and no real attic space to speak of, and no basement… storing our ever growing collection of Christmas decor had become a real pain point for me. Until now!

Recently, I came up with an outside the box storage solution for all my Christmas bins. And y’all this project has seriously freed up so much closet space in our home! Now all my bins are together in one spot so I can easily find what I need when I’m ready to decorate.

I built an overhead wrap-around closet shelf, near the ceiling in our primary closet. It turned out so good, I had to share it with you here on the blog!

This overhead storage shelf is essentially one continuous shelf that runs all the way around the top part of our closet, close to the ceiling in what would usually just be wasted space.

I can’t wait to tell you all about and show you all the photos!

Our Closet Before

But first, let’s take a peek at how our primary closet looked before.

We moved into our home years ago, and we always intended to add built-ins and some sort of permanent storage in here. We just never got around to it until now.

I emptied our closet out completely, moving all the temporary storage racks and shoes and dresser into our guest room. Leaving us with an empty closet and a blank slate.

The Inspo for this Project

And here’s a look at my inspo for my new Christmas decor shelf.

This is the photo that got my wheels turning! You just have to look past all the pink…

I had never seen a shelf that wrapped all the way around the top of a closet like this.

When I came across this photo on Pinterest, I knew building a shelf like this would be a great way to add storage and actually use the empty space at the top of our primary closet. And I thought it would be the perfect spot to store all my Christmas bins!

The Finished Wrap-Around Closet Shelf

And here’s how the finished wrap-around shelf turned out!

It wraps all the way around the perimeter of our closet, near the ceiling, leaving just enough room for all the Christmas decor bins!

The rest of our closet was a literal construction zone at the time of these photos!

So I tried to keep the focus on the shelf for now. You’ll get a full look at the finished closet in part 2.

I ended up painting the shelf white, in the color Bit of Sugar by Behr to match our walls and trim.

I’m just so thrilled with how this closet is shaping up. I could hardly wait for the paint to dry to start putting the bins up on the shelf!

How Much Actually Fits on the Shelf?

Now that you’ve seen the finished shelf, let me show you what it looks like full of Christmas decor.

Currently stored on the new decor shelf: 2 small Christmas trees, 6 clear bins that hold things like ornaments and bottle brush trees, and 2 large rolling totes filled with garlands and greenery.

And there’s still plenty of room left!

Which is good because I’m sure there’s still a few random decorations tucked away that I haven’t uncovered yet. So I’m glad we have room to spare on the new decor shelf.

It’s impossible to show the entire shelf in one photo. But I snapped a quick pic of all the bins, the totes, and the tree bags before I put them up on the shelf.

That way you could visually get an idea of just how much I was able to fit on the new shelf. It’s a lot!

Why Our Overhead Closet Shelf Works So Well

The shelf essentially functions like a little attic space inside my bedroom closet. Only better, because I never have to crawl into an attic. I just have to climb up our step ladder to grab the bins!

I like that the Christmas decor is stored inside our house – not in a space where the temperature fluctuates with the weather. Because I imagine our decor, especially all the greenery, will last longer and be less likely to fade with temperature changes.

Before, I had shoved bins of ornaments and containers filled with garlands in just about every closet in our home. It was all scattered between the kids’ closets, the hallway closet, the floor of our bedroom closet. It was everywhere.

Now we finally have room for the linens inside our linen closet. And my daughter can use her closet without worrying that a Christmas tree bag is gonna topple over on her. I’m not even joking, it had gotten out of hand!

And last but not least, there was so much empty, wasted space in our closet before now. But adding a wraparound shelf in here has made this closet the perfect space to store items you really only need a couple months of the year!

The Christmas Decor Storage Containers I Use

My little Christmas trees are stored in the Balsam Hill bag they came with. I actually wrote the name of the tree on the side of the bags with a sharpie so I don’t have to guess what’s in the bag come December. Let’s be real, come late October when I start pulling things down.

I store most of my Christmas “smalls” in these clear bins. The size is perfect for a 12 inch deep shelf. I like that I’m able to see exactly what is inside each bin right away.

My garlands, greenery, ribbons and a few other random pieces are stored in these rolling totes from Balsam Hill.

The tote has a removable tray that sits in the top of the tote. It’s perfect for light weight, or small items you don’t want to lose in the bigger compartment.

The tray has handles on the sides, so it lifts out easily. In the bottom part is where I store all my greenery and garlands, and this cutie little vintage Santa too!

These totes are an investment, but they’re sturdy, they hold A LOT, and I really appreciate how easy they are to move around the house. I can just roll it from room to room as I decorate.

How I Built Our Wrap-Around Storage Shelf

I didn’t really document much of my process for this project. Partially because I was so excited to just get the shelf up, and taking detailed photos would have slowed me down.

But I also didn’t want this to turn into a “tutorial” post. I wanted this post to give you a new idea, and a little inspiration for what to do with the wasted space at the top of your closet by sharing what we are doing in our closet.

So instead of a full tutorial with step by step instructions, I’ll just share the basics of how I built the shelf.

Our closet is roughly 6′ by 9′, give or take a few inches. The overhead shelf I built is 12 inches deep on the long 9′ sides. And it’s 16 inches deep on the 6′ sides.

Basically the part of the shelf that goes over the door, and the part of the shelf that sits directly across from the door, are deeper shelves. Hope that makes sense!

I started with the shelf over the door, and used my drill to attached 1″ by 4″ boards to the walls, making sure they were secured into the studs. These 1″ by 4″ boards serve as braces, and they are what the actual shelf rests on.

I built a box out of the 1″ by 4″ boards, and that box is what the 1″ by 16″ shelf board rests on.

Once the shelf over the door was finished, I repeated that same process and built another box with the 1″ by 4″ boards, and added a second 1″ by 16″ shelf board on top of that box towards the back of the closet.

After I finished the deep shelves at the front and the back of the closet, it was time to build out the 12″ deep shelves that run down the length of the closet.

I attached a 1″ by 4″ board to the front of the box I had built for the 16″ deep shelves. This created a little lip that the edge of the 12″ deep shelf could rest on. Then I added another 1″ by 4″ board, securing it to the studs, down the length of the walls. These three 1″ by 4″ boards are what hold up the 12″ deep shelf boards.

And to make sure the shelves on the long sides were extra sturdy, I threw together a sort of corbel style brace with scrap pieces of wood. It’s not fancy, but it gives extra support and should help to keep the shelf from sagging.

I had to get creative to be able to brace the shelves. Especially in the corners of the room where the 12″ deep shelf meets up to the 16″ shelf. But I think this worked pretty well, and the shelves feel very sturdy in person.

Other Ways to Use Empty Vertical Space in Your Closet

While I’m using our wraparound storage shelf to store Christmas decor, there are so many ways you could utilize an overhead closet shelf like this!

Think about storing off-season clothing like scarves, gloves, snow boots, or even swimsuits and cover-ups and summer hats. These are things you likely only use a couple months out of the year.

Let these items take turns in a specific drawer or on a shelf lower in the closet. And then swap them out with the seasons. That way your bathing suits are up and out of the way in December, and your scarves and gloves are tucked away in the summer.

Or you could use this space to store extra linens, guest pillows, seasonal throw blankets. It could be the perfect solution for your home if you don’t have a linen closet. Or if your linen closet has been overtaken by shoes and jackets and the vacuum and the step ladder and sports gear.

You could also store things like suitcases and overnight bags.

Maybe that air mattress you only pull out around the holidays when out of town guests stay with you.

Or even the tent and sleeping bags you only use once a year for camping trips.

There are so many things you could store on a shelf like this to really utilize the vertical space in your closet!

This wraparound overhead closet storage shelf is part 1 of our big closet refresh. I plan to show you rest of the closet once it’s all finished and photographed, so stay tuned for part 2!

I just couldn’t wait to show you how this part of the project turned out.

Thanks for stopping by the blog today! I hope you enjoyed this post, and I hope it brought a little inspo to your scroll today.

We LOVE our new Christmas decor storage shelf! It gave us so much extra storage space, and really made good use of the otherwise wasted space in the top part of our closet.

Before, our Christmas decor was something I had to make fit, and find space for wherever I could. Now it has an actual home.

It lives on the Christmas decor shelf!

Until next time…

Love, Brittany