Pimp My Closet!™

Figgy

So, I've been working on designing a walk-in closet for about a month, toying with different ideas. Right now it's just a 6x8 room with a door, a window, and a closet rod along each of two walls. Sure, there's enough room for clothes, but I want to maximize this space.

Here is what the closet looks like now:

Here is what I have so far:

I've been looking at various "closet innovations" at hardware stores (and IKEA), such as slide-out pant rods, built-in tie racks, etc.

The closet will be (and currently is) used by two people--my fiancee and myself--and we store mostly clothes in there. The 16" wide shelving unit with the 3 rods connected to it I will be purchasing as a package for about $50. I would build it myself, but for that price and the time involved, it's not worth it.

The corner shelf unit, on the other hand, I will be building myself. I've scouted out options and prices, and it would cost me $200+ to purchase a similar ready-made option, or about $75 in materials to build it myself--including lumber left over for the shelves that run along the top of each of the walls.

The entire thing will be made out of white MDF board. I'm not an expert carpenter or anything, but I've been doing small projects around the house and I'm confident I can handle this.

Now, the purpose of this thread is to generate ideas to add to (or possible even replace) my own. What would be really useful/cool/ingenious to include in a closet this size? Keep in mind I'm going to be tearing everything down, mudding, sanding, and repainting, so I'll have a completely blank room to work with.

There are some small limitations, in that there is a door on one wall (the arrow), and a window on the other. Other than that, I guess the sky is the limit (as long as the sky isn't expensive). What would you have in your dream closet?

John Matrix

I don't know if you own many pairs of shoes, or own nice pairs that you which to keep safe, but what about a shoe rack? I like your design a lot, but I frequently see "Pimp Closets™" with some form of shoe rack, be it large or small.

Figgy

John Matrix wrote: »

I don't know if you own many pairs of shoes, or own nice pairs that you which to keep safe, but what about a shoe rack? I like your design a lot, but I frequently see "Pimp Closets™" with some form of shoe rack, be it large or small.

That's one thing I've been thinking seriously about, putting it right under the single bar on the right.

I want to have something a bit more stylish than a wire rack or a bunch of cubbies, though. Right now, I'm leaning toward something like this.

Phisti

You could also use the space under the window or bulkhead for some lower level racking for shoes or whatnot.

In general it looks pretty sharp but the corner unit may be a bit too enclosed for convenient storage of clothing... remember once you have a wall of shirts hanging from the rack on the 6'-0" wall you will have even more limited access to that space. To open it up have you considered using an angled corner approach? You could even put cabinet type doors over it if it's something you want to keep partially covered.

Visti

If you go with an angled corner, I would totally put in like a couple of rotating circular plates to put shoes on. I'll see if I can dig up a picture of what I'm talking about..

I guess something like this:
http://www.organize.com/polfulrounla1.html

Figgy

Having the shoe rack under the window is a nice idea. I could even turn it into a bench for sitting down/dressing/tieing shoes/etc.

As for the corner unit, I am modeling it after this:



One of those costs about $100, and I would need to stack two of them to get the height I need. Basically, I need something that has perpendicular surfaces so there is something sturdy for the closet rods to fix to.

The one in spoilers is better than mine in that the shelves curve out somewhat to give a bit more reach-in room. That would add quite a bit more complexity to building it myself though, since I'd have to jig each shelf in a curve... and the MDF would leave an ugly edge that I'd have to cover with some iron-on edging. My current design would have 14 1/4" of "open space" to reach in to the shelves, but you're right that the 15 1/2" board there would be difficult to reach into and grab stuff.

I'm open to better ideas though for the corner unit. I just need something there that will allow the two closet rods to "meet" without actually jutting past each other and creating useless space. The "current" photos in my OP show what I mean, where the corner is just ugly and inefficient.

Phisti

If you had a corner unit that was pentagonal (irregular, but 5-sided and symmetrical) you would have more open space to access, no need to get all curvy with the shelf edges... if I knew anything about internet hosting I'd put up a sketch of what I'm thinking about.

Let me try to draw it out in ASCII...

| |
| |
|_|
| \______
|_ |______

Ok, that didn't do it much justice... but I think you'd get the idea. Have the 90degree corners (3 of them) against the wall, one in the corner, the other two where hangar rods run into the shelving unit, and have a longer side (the open side) facing out at a 45degree angle for easy access. Your hangar rods will be a little shorter but you'd have more access to the corner shelving. Basically this is quite similar to what you're thinking, just make it a bit more symetrical - run a line 45 degrees out of the room corner, and make it the same on each side.