Thank you California Closets for sponsoring this post.
Welcome to my closet. It’s builder grade, has fluorescent lighting and isn’t exactly #closetgoals. However, it is a nice size, and it’s ALL mine! Steven and I have two closets in our room, his closet is 1/4 of the size, which made our builder laugh when we drew up the plans. Girl needs a big closet right? If you’ve spent any amount of time on Pinterest scanning closets, there’s a good chance you’ve come across California Closets. The dream closets that are sometimes just beautifully curated in a small space and other times, they are closets that are the size of my kitchen, complete with glass front cabinets, mood lighting and a sitting area. Major #closetgoals!
When we were building our house, we had budget in mind, and I decided to go the cheapest route possible and get ventilated shelving. It’s adequate, but you know, your heels fall through the holes, and if you’re not careful, the whole thing will rip out of the wall. It’s quality. I never even considered calling up California Closets for a closet consultation, simply because I pictured their closets as being extravagant, beautiful, and well – wayyy out of my price range. However, as blogging often does, this blog presented an opportunity for me to learn a thing or two from California Closets, so I invited Harlan from the local Richmond branch into my home for a consultation. What I learned is that California Closets are grand, but they’re not so far out of reach, like I previously thought. I also learned how to better optimize the space I already have, which was a plus!
What I Learned From California Closets About Closet Organization
Harlan visited my home, and first asked me what I didn’t like about my current closet and what I was seeking. Personally, I think my closet is a good size, but I would love more options for storage, like drawers, and accessories like belt holders, and scarf holders. Harlan was kind, talented and you could tell, had been designing closets for years. He quickly put together a dream closet for me that not only added two feet of storage to my closet, it fit my taste, budgets and it made the space beautiful. Let’s say it together total #closetgoals. The part that surprised me the most, was the fact that California Closets can be within a reasonable budget, and they often run promotions. Had I entertained the thought of California Closets during the building process, I would have been all over it! There are a large selection of finishes to choose from; their base model is called cashmere – it’s a beautiful dark gray, but they also have simple white, to proprietary textures imported from Italy, all of which are environmentally sustainable and California Air Resources Board (CARB) compliant. The customization options are impressive. The drawers are soft close, the rails are covered in a plastic cap, so your hangers glide easily and the system is attached in so many places to the wall, you’ll never have to worry about it pulling out. While Harlan was designing my closet, he gave me a few tips for how to get better storage out of the space I already have or in my future closet.
1. Store Away Special Occasion Items
My shoe collection has become vast. Not because I have a collection of beautiful shoes, but more or less because I hoard things. My wedding shoes will be something I will always keep, but I can almost promise you I’ll never wear them again. They are Kate Spade, white satin sandals, and they were ruined in mud on my wedding night. Harlan suggested storing my special occasion shoes in containers at the very tip top of my closet, instead of displaying them year round. It was one of those, why didn’t I think of that moments. By only displaying the shoes I wear regularly, the shoes looks neater and cleaner.
2. Make Your Shoes Uniform
California Closets shoe shelving comes with an option to tilt your shoe shelves and put a little bar in the front. By doing this, your shoes are always in a uniform and level line, which makes everything look neater. It also makes it easy to see your shoes! To apply this same concept to my own closet, I moved all of my shoes to the same line in the shelving. To solve the problem of my heels falling through the holes in my ventilated shelving, I put a thin piece of wood at the back of the shelf to place the heels on. It made such a difference!
3. Uniform Hangers
I started to notice a trend when looking through the California Closets catalog – everything looked uniform, and it looked nice! When all of the hangers are the same, they hang at the same height, take up the same space and instantly make everything look neater and cleaner!
I started to replace my hangers with velvet hangers to not only get the uniform look, but also to get the non-slip benefits from the velvet hangers.
4. Accessories
California Closets offers so many options for their closet systems to organize and hang. They have belt hangers, scarf hanger, tie hangers, pull out mirrors and what they call a valet bar. The valet bar pulls out for you to hang one outfit on – so if you’re the kind of person who likes to lay out your clothes for the next day, this gives you a place to hang them. He also said he sometimes uses belt hangers as necklace hangers in closets! The pull out mirror was so cool to me, my closet doesn’t have a space to hang one on the wall, so this option would allow me to finally have a mirror in my closet!
Then I watched this video from California Closets and Marie Kondo and was inspired even more!
5. Color Code
After watching the video, I noted the final closet was grouped by colors, and it looked so clean. So, in my own closet, I made a few sections; long sleeve tops and jackets, short sleeve tops, skirts, pants, and dresses.
Within those categories I grouped everything by color, and put them in ombre in my closet. Not only did this simple effect make my closet look cleaner, it’s really helped me with getting dressed and mixing and matching my clothes! The concept also works beautifully with shoes, bags and any other accessory you have.
6. KonMari Method Folding
The closet that Harlan designed for me had beautiful, deep drawers – something my current closet is lacking. I was previously sloppy folding my pants and tees and just stacking them on shelves. I decided to finally take the time to hang my pants, then I used the KonMari Method folding technique to better store my tees. The result – clean, uniform, and well organized shelves!
7. Add a Rug
My closet isn’t big enough for a fancy island or sitting area, but I decided to add a little character with a rug. It immediately dressed the space up, and made my closet a place I wanted to be. Next up on my list of things to change, is the lighting. I hate the fluorescent lighting. The building code required it in the closet, but it is just so blah! One of these days I’m going to put a chandelier in there, because according to Pinterest, that’s the lighting of choice for closets.
My consultation with California Closets not only opened my eyes to the possibilities and storage solutions – it also breathed new life into my current closet. I was also surprised to learn that they design storage solutions all over your house, not just a master closet. Now, I’ll just be over here saving up for that goal closet. If you’re in the market for a new closet, pantry, laundry room, etc. – I encourage you to schedule a consultation with California Closets, it’s free and you’ll be surprised what you can learn about your space!
– Brooke
I was selected for this opportunity as a member of CLEVER and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.
