Closet Layouts

As part of our busy morning at the new house yesterday, we did our closet walk-through with Les from Top Shelf Closets. I felt a little unprepared for this round of decisions. Even though I try to be organized,  usually I'm working with existing shelving, so trying to think through how to place the shelves was a bit daunting to me.

We have several rooms to discuss:

• Master bedroom 
• Our son's bedroom
• In-law bedroom
• Guest bedroom
• Linen Closet
• Upstairs Laundry Room
• Downstairs Laundry Room
• Entry Closet
• Foyer Closet
• Pantry

The entry, foyer, guest closets, and downstairs laundry were easy. We did Charis' standard rod and shelf, like this:

We didn't put any shelving in the upstairs laundry room or pantry. I have my eye on a metal shelf from Ikea for the laundry room, and we'll be repurposing  some shelves in the pantry for now.

Most of the discussion centered on our son's closet, the in-law closet and our closet. Les didn't have any pictures for us to look at, but we have seen the type of closet system he used in other homes built by Charis homes. They are white melamine systems with cool brackets, like this:

For our three-year-old's closet, we talked about how to best use the space for the next 15 years. I was thinking of three rows of shelves and rods, but realized that would likely result in us needing to redo in a few years. Besides, he has a dresser, too, and not a lot of clothes. We did put in shelving for toys and extra books.

another Charis closet

For the in-law closet, we discussed how to best use the space for the possibility of long-term guests (several weeks or more), short-term guests (who may be working out of their suitcase rather than fully unpacking) and future use as a master if Niels or I have mobility issues and don't want to be upstairs. I think we came up with a good solution with a combination of double rows, single rows and a shelf. Pictures to come.

In our closet, which is long and narrow, we had to work around a full length mirror we're putting up across from the entry. We chose not to put a door on our closet because, realistically, it'd would almost always be open, either out of laziness or to let in the natural light. We decided to go with it, and take advantage of the wall to have a full length closet, which we wouldn't have space for in the bathroom itself.

Les was really helpful in guiding us through our thought process. We liked that he was helpful without being pushy and we're quite happy with what we decided. We'll have mostly two rows of rows and shelves, and we're saving ourselves from buying an Ikea dresser by installing wire baskets, similar to this for our drawers.

We'll each have four 24" wire drawers, which should be plenty. There will be shelving above those that we can use, as well. Les also made the suggestion of using the extra bookcase that doesn't fit in our pantry along an open wall, which will be perfect for more storage. I'm really excited to see how it all turns out.