I'm not going to criticize people for making functional choices for their space, and if that means they need to put their clothes out in the open, it's fine, but I'd certainly never choose it freely as a design element. To me, it mostly just looks cluttered and uncomfortable.

It's infrequent that one can keep their clothing in the open without the clothes getting dusty and/or faded - or without the place looking like either a Salvation Army display or a dorm room.

For those without closets - the price of a couple pair of NIKE shoes can get one some decent looking enclosed storage with drawers in a basic IKEA PAX system.

yay! i do this. although, i don't like the way folded clothes look out in the open, I do like the rack of hanging clothes. i had no other solution than to put up a hanging rack in my living room, and it's not so bad. plus i get to see the dresses i love.

What helps a lot is an aesthetic approach to the way the clothing is arranged. Storage out in the open can look great when your eye stops thinking of it as stuff and starts to think about it as art.

What hyzen said!

A way to have clothes looking neater, especially if its out in the open is to organize it by style and color. If its hanging its particularly useful to me because I see everything in the open, figure out what Im gonna wear faster and rotate my clothes more rather than using the same thing over and over again.

If you have no choice then you have to work with what you've got, but if you have a perfectly good closet I don't think you should opt for open storage of clothes. Unless you're OCD and you'd like to show it off.

Armoires are usually dirt cheap on CL. I have a huge one, nice wood, that I got for something like $200. Usually, the bigger, the cheaper. In a raw loft, I'm not having my clothes out for display, dust, dirt and moths.

I think it could work in a loft or other live/work space, but as hyzen said, storing clothes openly tends to look cluttered (and disorganized.) Wardrobes and dresses are good solutions; if there's not enough space to accommodate either of those options, perhaps an under-the-bed bin or ottoman/chest for storing winter (or summer) clothing.

Alternatively, make do with less.

Is there nothing better to debate about? Where you need to put your clothes, so be it. Just keep it tidy.

I like the idea of using shelves for folded storage. I have a great collection of beautiful scarves I've always wanted to display. I hesitate because light (even indoor lighting) fades most fabrics over time. Anyone have any tips for keeping them from fading?

The cluttered look is not good feng shui but the marmalade cat IS :)

We have temporary "open storage" in my bedroom and I hate it. hate it.

http://elauinc.blogspot.com/2010/03/bedroom-3182010.html

(please ignore the wilting balloons, home depot box...)

We are saving for a cool elfa system to reconfigure the deep but very narrow existing closet so we can fit everything. Because we are lucky enough to have the deep closet, the rolling rack has become our "active file" of clothes.

Any thoughts on elfa?

My bedroom is really large but doesn't have any built-in closets. While I have both a tall-boy chest of drawers and a dresser (which I use for storing linen, since the entire house is lacking in closets or cupboards), I have a lot of dresses and skirts which have to be hung up. I have two rolling racks which were initially set up like this. I hated it - they got dusty quickly, and it didn't seem tidy or organised, but I couldn't afford a nice wardrobe and we have no Ikea. I wound up switching the orientation of the racks and hung a mosquito netting curtain over them from the ceiling. It now looks like this, and I occasionally drape the curtains aside to show off my clothes. The netting protects against the majority of dust, and because the light into my room is quite filtered rather than direct sunlight, I find that it works. I have a very girly aesthetic going on, so I'm actually kind of in love with what my friends call "the princess-curtains"!

@nessaneko: Beautifully done and inspiring. Thanks.

Another alternative is finding a good second hand store and purchasing dressers--note-- most likely 100% wooden ones and/or armoires. I purchased a cedar-lined one for $20 at a thrift store, because they needed the room in the store!

You MUST have wooden hangers. Plain and simple. It has to be orderly, too. I love and live by this idea, but seeing this room as "inspiration" is faulty - a style based on clutter is not equivalent to a style based on functionality.

My folded clothes are on full display...
http://gallery.apartmenttherapy.com/photo/album112/item/60782
...but not sure I could go with full frontal hangers.

We (myself, my husband & 2 girls under 5) moved from a big 3 bedroom house with GIGANTIC built-ins to a tiny 2 bedroom house with no storage. We could really only splurge on one ikea pax cupboard which we put in our daughters room as it matches their room better than ours. lots of hours on ebay later, i found 2 cheap matching clothes racks both under $50. we got rid of about 75% of our clothes and it feels great! Having your clothes on show is great if you keep it organised. Keeping it (as) neat (as possible) and colour coordinated makes it much easier to plan outfits (from the comfort of my warm snuggly bed in the morning hehe). Having less room to store clothes means i shop less and waste less money, i only keep what i love, i take better care of the clothes i do have and i have a new found interest in fashion. having my clothes, bags, shoes & accessories out everyday when i get ready, it almost feels like im shopping!

nessaneko, it seems like you have found a very nice solution under the circumstances, but your wardrobe made me think of another problem with the clothes on display thing. Are all your clothes really pastel like that? Or do you just hide the things that don't fit the theme? I know my clothes have a much wider color range than that, and most of them do not match the decor in my bedroom.

The only way to make sure things don't fade is to keep them out of the sun. If you want to display scarves, make sure you do so in a room with no direct light. Or you can just wear them.

I have considered replacing a dresser and chest of drawers with the ikea stolmen system. I hadn't considered that my clothes might fade being out in the open.

Any thoughts on the stolmen system?

@ hyzen - I do own a whole bunch of pastels, yeah, as you can see from the shoes! My high heels (which are not pastel, mostly bright hues and black) are lined up under my dresser. I kind of dress either in pastels or cream/grey/black (or a combination of the lot) so most of my clothes are in colours that kind of coordinate. And of course, my t-shirts, jeans etc are folded up in the chest of drawers. I wouldn't want my ratty old jeans out on display, so I really think a combination of dressers and hanging display is vital.

Not for me.
It would look too untidy and cluttered for my liking...like some college kids' messy dorm room or something!

I have two clothing racks in my bedroom and all my shoes out on display. Its a preference thing, but I keep it really neat and all the hangers match, etc.

If you live in a photo shoot and your wardrobe is fabulous stuff in incredible fabrics and coordinating colors, go for it. If you're human like the rest of us, hide the clothes away. My wardrobe's not brocade, velvet, silk, and tulle, ballgowns and Chanel suits, so there's no way I'd have it out where I'd have to look at it. In short, this is much better in theory than in practice.

These are really bad examples of open clothes storage. The keys to success are: a beautiful rod system (http://tinyurl.com/35ndodf), uniform hangers, properly sorted clothes, visible floor and ceiling around the storage system. Clothes should generally hang instead of being stacked. If you have t-shirts, throw them away and buy some shirts.