The easiest way to choose the best closet design is to examine your existing space, the surrounding room, and your individual storage needs. Once you have evaluated the situation, you can select from one of many useful designs available to homeowners today. You should take the time to consider exactly what you need from the closet before you begin designing it to avoid ending up with a redesigned space that looks good but doesn’t actually meet any of your needs.
Begin by measuring the available closet space. If you are remodeling your house and building an entirely new closet, determine how much space will fit into your house plan. Don’t ignore vertical space, as this often provides the opportunity to greatly increase the available storage in the closet.
If you are working with an existing closet, evaluate the fixtures that currently exist. Most closets have a single bar for hanging clothing and one or two shelves. For many people, this isn’t the most effective closet design. The first step to designing a new closet may be removing all existing fixtures to make room for a completely new set of storage options.
Gather all the items that you want to store in the closet. It’s important that the new closet design be able to accommodate everything that you plan to keep there. Once you have a clear idea of what you will be keeping in the closet, you can begin to sketch out a plan. Use grid paper and a pencil to make a scale plan for the closet.
Utilize custom design options that will best organize the items you want to keep in the closet. Plan plenty of shallow shelves if you’ve housing a large shoe collection. Install two layers of bars for hanging clothes, one above the other, if you have relatively short items to hang, such as shirts or pants. Incorporate as many shelves as you can fit at the top of the closet and install additional shelves or drawers at the bottom if you won’t be using this space to store large items.
If you have a large complex design you want to incorporate, you may want to enlist the help of a professional for the installation of the various elements. If you have a simpler design, or enjoy working on do-it-yourself home projects, you can put together your custom closet yourself. Pre-fabricated closet organization systems can be purchased at home improvement stores to help get you started on the way to a one-of-a-kind closet design.