closet organization

[Guest]

We are contemplating buying a new home and the issue of closet organization has come up. the knee jerk reaction of the agent was that we should have California Closets come in, but I have seen their stuff and it is pretty cheap-looking. Does anyone know of closet customization services like California Closets but with better quality?

[zegnamtl]

I would agree on California Closet.
I had them come in and quote when doing my current space and opted not to go with them. In theory they had some nice ideas, but for the 24,000 they quoted, the quality was not close to being there.

[iammatt]

We used to have California Closets, but ended up being less than impressed with their system. We upgraded to a system by B&B Italia, and are much happier.

[lancepryor]

Check out Poliform -- very handsome and functional.

[whittaker]

My solution after moving eighteen months ago was to design an appropriate configuration and bring in a local carpenter to build it for me. I'm 80% pleased with it but the failings are in the design, not the construction. In the next house, the wardrobe (closet) space will be perfect.

The main failing was not allowing sufficient space for shoes. Next time I would incorporate the built in shoe rack featured in one of Etutee's splendid Esky posts.

[Guest]

Those are great suggestions. Do you have the link to that illustration from Esky? I remember it and it is a great idea.

[Mark Seitelman]

Why waste time designing closets?

Just get a new home with a guest house to store the clothes!

[BirdofSydney]

There are a number of stores in this neck of the woods that try to make their display cases look like someone's closet - very homely.

By contrast, I try to make my wardrobe look like a display case in a boutique...

[JMurphy]

I've tried to work out the shoe storage from the Esky piece--too deep and wide for most closets--width and depth is hard to make work with standard depth/width doors.

Look at Elfa for closet systems.Do it yourself but better than CC...

[Guest]

Which Eskie picture are you referring to?

[MildlyConsumptiv]

Which Eskie picture are you referring to?

I think everyone is refering to this picture;

[tattersall007]

I've tried to work out the shoe storage from the Esky piece--too deep and wide for most closets--width and depth is hard to make work with standard depth/width doors.

The same cold reality hit me too - insufficient depth behind the doors to make it work. The only workable solution is to convert a spare room - regretably not a battle I wish to take on with my wife at the moment...

[TVD]

If you actually look very closely at the illustration, the continuous carpet underneath the closet door indicates that this is what one would call a "walk-in" wardrobe, more a separate dressing room than a wardrobe.

It looks absolutely gorgeous, and very practical. I hope I will be able to get something like this done sometime between settling down and being ruined by school fees. A rather narrow window of opportunity, I must admit.

[iammatt]

For shoe storage, I had a very narrow closet cut into a well space in our house. The space was just walled off dead space before we cut in. It ended up being the perfect size for a shoe closet. Here are some pictures. Unfortunately, there is not enough room to get a shot from any distance:



I believe the picture cuts off one or two available rows, but I can't remember. It works amazingly well. Often homes have unknown little closets waiting to happen that you can find by scouring your plans. Luckily, this area is directly across from my own closet.

[jekarwoski]

easyclosets.com lets you do online layouts of your closet with their components; the samples I received in the mail didn't look much different (or better) than California Closets - still melamine (or in some cases, veneer) over particleboard.

A friend recently installed a system by Stanely for its practicality and ease of reconfiguration, not its look.

This raises a related question: under what condidtions can clothing be stored? I am thinking here of using spaces in a home, such as a basement, not closets in spare bedrooms, for clothing that is used according to season. I would think the temperature in a typical basement would not be a problem since the clothing, when worn, experiences those temperatures. Humidity may be the problem, as many basements can be slightly damp, and I think this could affect the threads and stitching more than cloth. Good for aging wine, but clothes storage ?

I am considering a closet system in the basement, well constructed and tightly sealed to prevent against invasion from various insects and the like. All cedar ?

I hestitate to think of an attic because of the temperature extremes it sees.