Many home centers sell closet kits that a home owner can install in a weekend that provide quite a bit of flexibility to meet your needs and space requirements. If you are just looking for a basic closet for storage then you are all set. However, if you want something that is unique, custom to your space requirements, and perhaps utilize the space even more efficiently then you need to be more creative. One extreme is to have a complete custom closet designed and built, which can cost many thousands of dollars. This guide will give you some great ideas to get the best of both worlds, by have something that will be unique just for you, yet not break the bank.

Closet design and installation is not difficult for a homeowner to do, as long as he or she takes the time to plan out all of the steps, has the right tools and the patience.

The approach that we will discuss here is a combination of furniture refinishing, rough carpentry, finished carpentry and finally painting.

This said, each of these steps can be quickly acquired with some basic knowledge and the use of the right tools.

5. Where Do You Start

If you open your closet door and what you see is a mess, you could become overwhelmed with the amount of work it will take to get organized and complete the closet project. This does not have to be the case, and with some careful planning we took one closet that was a disaster and in 3 days transformed it into a show room closet. In the end this closet was well organized built-ins that would rival a main living area.

As you start to design your closet, there are a variety of areas and points to consider as follows:

• Areas for shoes (both standard, and higher boot styles) making them easily visible
• Hanging rods for short items such as shirts and pants
• Hanging rods for long garments, such as dresses
• Personal care items that can be placed complementary baskets

Also consider items that can be placed on any open wall area for both functional use, as well as aesthetic appeal such as a mirror and pictures. A mirror can serve multiple purposes.

• Functional use as a mirror when dressing
• Reflects the overhead lighting to further illuminate the shelving and lower areas
• To give the perception of the space being even bigger

Before you start to design the layout, it is important to understand how much storage areas you currently have to make sure you end up with more space in the end.

1. Measure how many linear feet of hanging rods you have for:
Short clothing such as shirts
Long clothing such as dresses.
2. How many feet of shoe space do you have
3. Amount of shelving for shirts and other items.

Create a floor plan by measuring the room size including:
• Length and width
• The ceiling height
• Identify any other obstructions that may be in the area such as a ceiling beam.