Ikea Hack: Expedit inserts for the closet

I'm an Expedit addict. There are 10 Expedit bookcases/shelves (in various conditions) in our house, not counting the desks and inserts.  I have inadvertently turned the house into an Ikea showroom, to my husband's dismay.

The Expedit by itself isn't much to talk about.  It's smartly designed and the clean lines cater toward the minimalists and classicists (which I am both, to some extent), but the fun is when you hack them.  Oh, pardon me.  The fun is when you hack all ikea products!

I digress.

For the master closet re-do, I was in need of some shelves for shoes and folded clothes (knits and jeans and whatnot).  Expedit is perfect, expect the big-ass square cubbies don't make the most of the vertical space.  If Ikea carried half-shelf inserts, that would solve the problem.  Except that they don't.  So it sucks.

Then I stumbled into this post on Ikea Hackers that shows how to assemble this insert into two half-shelf inserts, and it no longer sucks.

I happily purchased 4 inserts to make 8 half-shelves.  What I ended up are 4 nice, well-fitting half-shelves, and 4 stupid half-shelves with a freaking gap in the middle!

D'oh!  Life sucks again.

Then I thought, why not just cover it with something so the gap is not visible, you dummy!  (Yes, a lot of my problems are solved by having conversations with myself).  I cut some cork shelf liner for the top and front, and voila!

Gaps no longer visible, and closet magically filled with clothes and shoes!  Life no longer sucks!