Every fashion-addict dreams about it: a custom-designed closet, preferably walk-in,
with all your clothing, footwear and accessories in sight and at arms' reach. The kind of space which makes getting dressed in the morning feel like shopping on Madison Avenue. It can be yours with a custom closet, but it doesn't come cheap. If your'e thinking of taking the plunge and going custom, here are some things you might want to keep in mind.
Pros
1. They're designed for your stuff.
This is the most obvious plus for custom-designed closets. Whether you're a shoe addict, have an extra-long inseam or an unusually large collection of outerwear, a custom closet will be designed for your specific wardrobe needs. Rails of exactly the right height, shelves of the right depth, and enough storage for all your favorite items.
2. They make efficient use of space.
A good closet designer is like a good kitchen designer, carving storage space seemingly out of thin air. Nooks and crannies you never believed could be functional are suddenly efficient and useful. If you 're tight on storage space (and who isn't?) going custom might be worth considering.
3. They add value to your home.
Obviously, this is a moot point if you're planning on staying put. But if you plan to sell in the next 5-10 years, a custom closet might be worth the investment. After the "big four" improvements that buyers look for (kitchen, bathrooms, flooring and lighting), smaller upgrades like good storage and luxe master suites make your home that much more attractive to prospective buyers.
Cons
1. They're designed for your stuff- now.
This may fly in the face of the first point above, but think about it. Our style changes over time, just like anything else. Sure, you may need an entire wall for your scarf collection now, but what about next year, when you're into hats instead? While some closet systems are quite flexible, the bespoke built-in options will be expensive to change later on.
2. They can encourage hoarding.
With so much efficient storage space to work with, you might be tempted to fill it. You'll never convince me that having wardrobe options is a bad idea (I used to work in the fashion industry, after all), but I do know that having too many clothes, like anything, can weigh you down. A regular clear-out is key to keeping your style and home fresh, and this can be difficult when your closet stores more than you need.
3. They're expensive.
The cost of custom closets is probably the number one reason why people don't install them. For a room that you don't actually spend much time in, closets sure can suck up a lot of disposable income. These days there are loads of options, from the slightly more affordable systems from IKEA and The Container Store, to high-end bespoke spaces from California Closets and Closets by Design.
Images: 1. The Container Store, 2. Better Homes and Gardens, 3. California Closets.
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i'm going to hoard shoes with or without a custom closet!
Con #1 is easy to fix -- I have Elfa in my walk-in closet and the shelf/bar configurations have been changed several times depending on what I needed to store.
I love my custom closet! It's just a reach in closet, but it made a world of difference. I kept the work to a local company and in a downtime like this, they were thankful for the work.
We went for an Elfa closet about ten years ago and have been really very happy with it. It's pretty affordable, even if you have a large, walk in space and you can up or downgrade (plain metal or wood fascias) based on your needs/aesthetic. It has held up well, was super easy to install and they have a good annual sale that makes it easy to add to it over the years. I'd highly recommend them.
If anything, having a spot for all your belongings discourages hoarding.
i wish i can customize my 2 walk in closets but with all the renovation and updating i am doing to my new apt, i just can't afford it. I plan on buying a small Elfa configuration for one wall in one closet, but it will have to wait til next year. In the meantime, I have started to make little changes that cost very little money. I have added some smaller metroshelving units on one wall, adding durable hooks to the inside door trim, and attaching extra shelving. The result is a much more efficiently laid out closet. It's quite amazing that small and inexpensive changes can make that much of a difference!
I'm another Elfa fan; it is highly adaptable and flexible. The Container Store has a 30% off Elfa sale every January; I do my purchasing of new components then.
Closet whore, signing in.
Most custom closets you can adjust and change, so con #1 is really a moot point.
#2 is moot, in my mind, because I feel that having a gorgeous space encourages you to only keep what you love.
And since you can do pseudo-custom DIY closets, they can be more budget friendly.
In other words, there are no cons to a custom closet. :)
Yet another closet whore signing in ... If I were in the market for a new home, a custom closet would take my breath away no matter how big, how small or how it was configured. Organization is a beautiful thing and should become a new religious movement.
I actually disagree that they encourage hoarding. In my old house, I had a standard closet with bi-fold doors. About half of the space was inaccessible back behind the walls. Things would get shoved back there that I would forget about for years. And since I had no shoe racks, my shoes were just one huge pile on the floor. Now that I have a large custom closet, I can see everything I own, all the time - all organized by color and item type and very easy to find. That has led to a lot of purging of unneeded and unworn items, as well as wearing things that previously got forgotten about. Con #2 can be addressed as well - the company that installed mine can rearrange things fairly inexpensively to add additional shelves, swap out shelves for hanging racks, etc.
I paid for Cal Closets to do our 3' and 5' reach-ins and have moved into a house since that has 2 custom fitted closets in the master bedroom. I don't have that many clothes but even so with a custom closet they are kept in a much better condition because there is space to properly store them, be they folded or hanging. In a simple closet with the builder's basic wire shelf all our clothes just looked like the dog's dinner. Sweater avalanches anyone?
No regrets for paying the money and to be honest, CC were cheaper than I expected.
Pro3 seems like a tricky one, if it's designed for your stuff and a prospective buyer has very different needs....
I second Sonje, organization is a beautiful thing. I see no negatives to customized storage.
i'm a huge fan of easyclosets.com. It looks the same as California Closets and is about 1/3 of the price. When redoing our closets, I compared similar layouts with the elfa systems, and even when elfa was on sale the easyclosets were the same price. And they look way better than elfa. Their customer service is amazing too.
Also, easyclosets are really flexible. The previoius owner of our apartment had it, and their configuration didn't suit our needs. I called the company, they pulled up the design file, and we ordered shelves where they had hanging, etc, and we had the pieces in a day or two. Very awesome. Oh, and when I did a renovation on the apartment, we took apart the system and were able to reuse most of the parts (mostly verticals) in a new configuration, just by ordering shelves/hanging rods of different widths.
I have to say - these closets make my heart beat faster. If that makes me a closet whore, then I gladly accept the title.
For whom is hoarding a con?
Another Container Store and Elfa fan here.
I disagree with Pro 3, I don't think they add value to your home but are a feature that help to sell your home.
I disagree with all of the cons.
Things like Elfa are very easy to re-config so as your needs change it can change. Are your needs really going to change that much?
A well organized closet allows you to see the clothing you have and so you aren't going to buy something that you already have. And, most people, don't want to mess up their nice space.
Depending on your choices a custom closet can be very expensive. The simple Elfa design in my odd shaped reach in cost $250 and gave me more than double the space of the old shelf and rail system.
Now I've a little more money, I'm going back to the Container store to add some drawers to the space.
I bought a great hanging system at Macy's called Closetmax. It's super easy to reconfigure and when I move I can just unhook it and take it with me!
A good closet designer will do his or her best to design for now and the future and the beauty of California Closets is it changes and adapts with you. A great new closet will help one to purge, but once a hoarder, always a hoarder.