Residential Building Specialties, Inc. stays on our toes when it comes to closet organizers. In this blog, we have several ideas for our contractors and building clients when it comes to designing closet spaces and selecting closet organizers. We know that one of the most difficult aspects of designing closet space can be balancing out the room for long garments (such as formals or winter dress coats), valet rod space (to make room for hanging up clothes more expansive while maximizing shelf or floor storage space options) and, perhaps the trickiest storage of all, including closet organizers that anticipate a wide variety of shoes and footwear storage needs as well.
If you know who your end user is on this one, it might not be bad to include them on this front since these are the finishing touches for their home, but if not, here are some general ideas to consider:
- More tall/long rod space is more welcome than you might think: If there is not enough space for long dresses, clothes organizers, or organizers/hampers to go in the bottom of the closet, the homeowner has limited options for adjusting for this. This usually involves the inconvenience of storing sentimental clothing in guest closets or children’s closets or cluttering bathrooms or laundry rooms with things a walk-in closet can reasonably be expected to accommodate.
- Built-in features for shoes should not emphasize vertical dividers: Too many vertical dividers in a space of permanent closet organization for shoes can hamper the use of that space to accommodate various organization styles, changing shoe styles (including heights), and waste up to feet of horizontal space unnecessarily. Consider angled shelving, shallow and removable shoe-fences along the front, spaces for boots or medium-sized storage containers to the side or down below, and even covered fronts to keep dust off of large shoe collections.
- Practical shapes for shelves and shelves that use up otherwise wasted height: When designing closets, it’s good to recognize that adding shelves to angled ceilings often results in restrictions that create frustrating wasted space. Instead keep shelving square and consider leaving enough space open around the top for flexibility in depth or shape of stored items there.
- Other trends to consider include: Closet islands (can include seating, drawers, or storage for shoes or other items), hangers for hats, scarves or neck ties, belts, or even hats, room for a safe for fine jewelry, proximity to a full-length mirror, and no scrimping on the lighting can take any walk-in closet design from good to great.