Designing an organized closet
As many of you know, we are in the midst of developing our basement. Part of the design plan includes a bedroom with a standard reach-in closet. My twenty-year-old daughter will be moving downstairs and she can hardly wait to have her very own space (all to herself). To be honest, I designed her bedroom for resale purposes. I know that eventually, we will be selling our home so while I didn't want to break the bank with her closet design, I also knew that installing the cheapest system (wire shelving) was certainly not an option. I thought it would be neat to share you some tips on designing an organized closet.
Designing an organized closet
Does anyone else share closet space? In our master closet, we have a 'his' and 'hers' section, however, we share the same space. I know all of you know that I dearly love my husband, but I really detest sharing spaces with him. Honest confession: he's a slob. Being organized really doesn't sit high on his priority list. For me, we are polar opposites. I thrive on being organized. I thrive off of having structure. And I thrive on having systems. I guess you can truly say that opposites attract!
So while I worked with Stor-X for my daughter's closet, I knew exactly what Abby was going to need in her new closet. She was going to need a system (as she may lean towards being more like her dad - if you know what I'm saying)!
Pull Out Drawers
I'm a huge fan of 'less is more' when it comes to furniture in a bedroom. Nothing worse than having a bedroom jam-packed with furniture that you can barely move. Part of designing an organized closet is to rid the room of having excess furniture. Pull out drawers are a great way to incorporate into a closet to rid yourself from excess furniture.
Some closet designs/systems will come with drawer pulls like the image above. The depth of the drawers can be different (deeper depth for larger, bulkier items and shallower depth for jewelry, etc.).
While some pull out drawers are designed to be pulled out without cabinet pulls or knobs like this closet above. For a cleaner look, there is always a clear drawer front so that you can actually see what is in the drawer similar to the image below.
This system shown above is actually from IKEA Komplement System. Abby's new closet system is going to have pullout drawers (her design will be shared at the end of this blog).
Shoes
Ahhh...to be 20 again and have a thousand pairs of shoes! With the design of Abby's closet, I knew we were going to need some space for shoes. I was not, however, willing to sacrifice some things for making space for shoes. Although Abby would love some of the images below, here are some really cool ways to incorporate shoe storage into an organized closet.
I love the way this closet uses the center of the closet and provides some lower storage as well.
What appeals to me with this closet above is that the shoes are away from the clothes in their own seperate space.
I love the way the above image utilizes a pull-out for the shoes!
For you shoe lovers out there, how great is this closet space strictly dedicated to shoes?!
Hanging
Designing an organized closet for a female is different than designing an organized closet for a male. When I look at Abby's current closet, she has some double hanging, she has some shelves, and she has one long hanging area. She currently utilizes all of those areas. It was important for Stor-X to know that we need space for double hang as well as single hang.
When designing an organized closet it is important to know the standard dimensions that are shown above.
Designing an Organized Closet
When I sat down with Sharon with Stor-X, we discussed all of the needs that I would like to see incorporated into Abby's closet. Here is a sneak peak at what her closet is going to look like:
Here is what she will have:
- A smaller single hanging area
- A wider double hanging area
- 3 drawers (the top one for jewelry, scarves, etc.)
- 2 lower middle shelves for shoes
- 2 upper middle shelves for more shoes (shelving is adjustable) or for folding clothes
- There is additional room on the floor for more shoes.
While this is not a fancy closet, it will be extremely functional for her and I know it will be a good selling feature when we go to sell our home. We are in the final stretch of our basement development and I'm getting excited to share it with you. While we are waiting for custom furniture and we still have some finishing touches, be on the look-out in mid May for the reveal!
Needing some advice in one or more areas of your home? A Design Work Session (DWS) may be just what the doctor ordered for this spring!
