Our consult on this custom closet started before the house had even been built but using scale drawings of a large walk-in closet for her and a separate L-shaped wall for him, preliminary designs allowed the homeowners to start planning their closet space.
Before
A sit down with the homeowners identified the essential features of the walk-in closet. For her, the wish list included an area dedicated to accessories, narrow sections for stacks of folded clothes as well as a section to function as the linen closet. For him, well there was no wish list, so a generally practical design was considered. Of the three colour options, cherry was the clear choice.
Long blank walls and the flexibility of the system meant hundreds of configuration possibilities. There were two options for dealing with the corners (essentially each wall is designed corner to corner so this is an important first step). Option 1 was to utilise corner shelves which run approximately 30” along each wall. Option 2 was to butt the panels or step off by about 2’ for the projection of the clothing. The homeowners went with option 2.
The next big question to be answered was how much of folded, hanging and other types of sections would be needed at a minimum. The most straightforward way to determine this is to literally measure the amount of space the homeowner is using at the time for each section and from there projecting requirements for the new space.
3D Sketch of Her Closet
Fast forward one year. With the closet built and measured in-situ, adjustments were made to the design to account for the changes to the measurements (there always are!). In addition, in the walk-in for her, a request was made for a sit-down vanity (this didn’t work out as planned, more details on that below)
Components ready to be assembled
A beautiful blank space
During
The homeowners opted to have the closet professionally installed. However, the systems are do-it-yourself friendly so they were still involved in setting up the drawers and giving feedback on the preferred height for shelves and how much the the rail should overhang. The latter decision is ok for future additions, otherwise the rail will seem to stick out a bit if there are no vertical panels.
The vanity which was a last minute request did not work at the appropriate height because of the height of the panels. However, a single shelf with bracket was added to serve the same purpose.
After
An extra panel and the elimination of the vanity’s previous configuration meant additional shelf space in other sections of the closet.
One of the major advantages of the closet was the speed in which the closet was installed (about two half-days) and so it was one less headache, project or to do in a long list when it comes to house construction. There was no need for extensive cutting and no need at all for sanding, painting and other labour intensive tasks.
As the homeowners fill the closet space with their clothing and accessories, hang mirrors and make space for hampers and a storage trunk in the centre, the closet is still a work in progress with components being tweaked and repositioned and zones being reallocated to suit their needs.