Design Your Dream Custom Closet & Maximize Storage in Your Home

When redesigning your custom closet, it’s important to take inventory of your clothing, shoes, accessories, handbags, hats, scarves, and jewelry. Evaluating all of these pieces will help you think through your closet design. Below are the different closet design features that you will want to include in your dream custom closet, whether it be a walk in closet or a reach in closet:

• Shorter hanging space with closet organizers for dress shirts, cardigans, blazers, and pants if you fold them on your hanger.
• Taller hanging space for dresses, long cardigans, and pants if you don’t fold them.
• Open shelves and closet organizers for dress shoes, flats, heels, flip-flops, sneakers, and handbags.
• Built-in dresser drawers for t-shirts, tank tops, undergarments, athletic apparel, pajamas, jeans, and anything else you fold or want hidden in a drawer.
• Open shelves or cabinets for storing other miscellaneous things in your custom closet or for accessories you want to display on an open shelf.

There are pre-made closet systems! You can put these closet systems into your custom closet or a small spare bedroom to create your dream custom closet:

Storage

Keeping everything organized is the perfect detail that brings a dream custom closet together. Below are our favorite picks for taking your custom closet to the next level:

• An integrated closet organizer for belts, scarves, ties, or pants.
• Drawer storage for jewelry or small accessories: an accessory tray to put inside your drawer, a jewelry box to keep on display, a jewelry stand, watch boxes, and cuff-link/sunglass boxes.
• A valet rod and shelves for displaying your next day’s clothing.
• Custom display shelves for your favorite custom handbags and shoes. Don't forget to add shelves for items that can't be crushed like hats.
• Individual wall hooks for scarves and hats.
• Storage bins, closet organizers, or shoe boxes in cabinets or open shelves to keep clutter out of sight.
• A custom tilt-out laundry hamper in one of your cabinets.

Decorating

There are so many ways to decorate your custom closet and bring in some final details to elevate the closet design. Below are our favorite closet design tips:

• Print your favorite photos and hang them in frames on the wall.
• If you have space on open shelves or on top of your dresser drawers, put additional photos in frames, layer books to display hero items, display shoe boxes, add a faux floral or plant, candles, perfume or cologne, and any jewelry storage pieces.
• If you have the wall space in a walk in closet, add a full-length mirror so you can see your outfit.
• Install custom cabinet hardware, such as brushed brass pulls.
• Add a custom light fixture to your ceiling if you have the hookup in place.
• Keep a small ottoman in your walk in closet for sitting down when putting on your shoes.
• Put a small area rug in your closet.
• Paint or wallpaper your walls outside of your closet storage units to make them pop. You can even line your drawers with peel-and-stick wallpaper.

We hope that this helps bring some inspiration for closet organizers and reimagining your closet design. It’s all about the details, maximizing your storage space, and keeping things organized when pulling together a dream closet that's custom built for your needs.

Annie Spano is a residential interior designer and real estate broker based out of Raleigh, NC, and a founder of “blogger tribe” Style Collective. You can find her design and real estate services portfolio at anniespano.com.