TOP 5 CLOSET DESIGN TIPS

Are you looking to renovate your master closet? If so, then I have 5 important closet design tips to take into account when planning your closet design.

Figuring out what type of system you want and how to make the best of your space can be tricky. Especially if you are like us and are building it yourself!

If you want to know how we built our own master closet, please head on over to Home with Stephanie’s closet makeover blog post. She provides great step-by-step instructions on how to build your dream closet. We learned so much from her and built our own closet using all of her techniques.

But whether you are doing it yourself or hiring out, I have some surefire design tips to make this the closet of your dreams.

1. TAKE IT TO THE TOP!

Whether you have a 7-foot ceiling, or a 10-foot ceiling (like I do) take it to the top! Don’t leave any space left unused! Not only will this give you a lot more storage space, but it will make your walk-in closet look grand!

When initially creating our closet design, we did not expect to take the built-ins to the top because of our high ceilings, but I am so glad we did!

*Pro Tip: Think about the items you don’t use on a regular basis and plan to store those in higher, out-of-reach areas. This way your closet will be beautiful, functional, and organized.

*Extra tip: Take your shoe shelves all the way to the ceiling. Even if you don’t fill it up right away, you can never have too much shoe storage space! Now you can go shopping for shoes without worrying about where you’re going to put them! Make sure to make some shoe shelves bigger to allow extra room for boots!

2. PLAN FOR YOUR PERSONAL STORAGE STYLE

It’s great to have unlimited options for storage space nowadays. But when it comes down to it, you have to think about your own storage style and techniques and go from there.

For us, that meant less cubby space and more hanging space. Because honestly, we don’t fold many of our clothes. In fact, we hang everything from sweaters to jeans.

So even though we were tempted to add cubby spaces for these, at the end of the day, we did us. And you should do you too!

Pro Tip: When coming up with your closet design, think about WHAT you have, WHERE you will put it, and HOW you will put it in your closet. For example, do you have a lot of purses? Would you like to hang them or display them on shelves? Or maybe you’d rather put them in a purse organizer. Making these decisions early on in your closet design process will allow you to make the most out of your space so that you don’t end up having to cram items in places you didn’t want.

Our full closet design layout

3. DON’T SKIP ON THE DRAWER SPACE!

No matter your storing style, you need to have drawer space in your closet! I can’t stress enough how convenient drawers are for your closet design!

A closet dresser is a great place for extra items and knick-knacks that you don’t necessarily want to display but want within reach.

We got this Tarva dresser from IKEA and made it part of the built-in closet.

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4. LEAVE AWKWARD SPACES ALONE

Do you have awkward spaces in your closet that are hard to work with? We had a couple of these. For example, we have a window towards the end of the closet which left an empty area between my husband’s clothes and the vertical sheet framing the window.

When designing our closet this was an issue because we wanted to take advantage of every square footage but couldn’t figure out how to do it in that particular space.

We could have put cubbies to the right of the window, but they would have been too small and the whole space would have felt too crowded.

At the end of the day, we didn’t do anything to that space. But that doesn’t mean that it was left unutilized! We purchased this hanging shoe organizer to hang there instead.

This worked out great because I didn’t want to display my flip-flops on the shoe shelves, and this organizer was a perfect spot for them! Win, win!

Pro tip: Fill up awkward closet spaces with closet organizers that you can purchase later on. They come in all shapes and sizes and can store all kinds of items. Such as shoes, purses, jewelry, and more!

5. LIGHT IT UP!

Last but definitely not least, get under cabinet lighting! This was the icing on top of the already gorgeous and delicious cake! If you want to take it a step further… under-cabinet lighting is the way to go!

We added lighting to all of our hanging spaces, not the actual cubbies/shelves. We used LED strip lights along the edge (behind the trims) and covered them with this LED channel system.

Now, we did this purely for aesthetic purposes, but it has been a great source of extra light to see all of our clothing. Especially in those hard-to-reach corners where visibility and accessibility are limited.

Below is a picture of our closet with only the under-cabinet lights on, so you can see just how much it lights up those areas!

I hope you found my top 5 closet design tips useful! If you have any questions, please leave a comment below!

PIN IT FOR LATER! 5 Closet Design Tips

Make sure to check out my master closet reveal! Plus, learn tips for keeping everything organized and beautiful!