Used to be that a single rod from end to end with a shelf above it satisfied most closet needs. Then the larger walk-in version with its U-shaped design upped the game.
“People's lifestyles are packed, and that means that their closets are packed, too — and not just with clothing. Open a magazine and you see a celebrity walking into a closet that is an entire room and a whole lot of luxury,” said Marla Tomazin[1] , a New York-based image consultant and closet organizer. “It's about customizing and maximizing the space.”
But in this celebrity-crazed culture where everything from a star's kitchen to a bathroom is as big as his or her ego, their closets, too, are elegantly supersized like a boutique — the operative word for closet trends this year and going forward.
Walk-in doesn't even begin to describe these luxurious outsized storelike closets that have the look of your favorite boutique tricked-up with a shoe wall, illuminated rods, compartmentalized storage, full-length mirrors, an island drawer, glass front cabinets and a wine bar.
And they have sizable price tags to match: upward of $100,000, but usually average from $10,000 to $45,000, depending on one's needs.
“It's walk in and hang out,” said Kyle Lindsey[2] , owner of Kyle Lindsey Custom Homes[3] in San Antonio.
“The rod-and-shelf-type mentality is gone. It's now one big space with built-in cabinets with glass fronts and lighting inside select cabinets. There's this upper-end boutique feel about closets,” he said.
Among friends and family, there's a running joke about Braden and Tracie Neiman[4] 's colossal closet, the one about Tracie having a cleaning sale because she's going through her boutique closet.
Nearly the size of a garage — “You could fit a car and a half in it,” Tracie Neiman said — the closet in her Dominion home, designed and built by Lindsey, is organized with skirts here, evening wear over there, her husband's tuxedos behind a glass door and workout gear folded on a shelf behind a wooden door.
It features customizable rods and shelves, deep drawers, ceiling-to-floor cabinets (several with glass doors), motion-detection lighting and plush white carpeting.
Camille Tackaberry[5] , also a Lindsey client, worked with him and his crew to achieve her boutique closet at her $2.5 million lakehouse. The closet includes shoe racks, wood cabinetry, windows to let in light, built-in laundry hampers, hidden hanging areas and a custom island with a granite countertop.
“It's very roomy, comfortable, practical and functional. You can dress in the closet. It's like having another room in the house,” she said about the master suite's 240-square-foot closet with leopard carpeting. “It's my favorite thing in the closet. It looks fabulous.”
Ginny Snook Scott[6] , chief designer with California Closets, a custom cabinet maker with a store in San Antonio, said it's not uncommon to find a flat-screen television or wine bar — or both — in a boutique-style closet.
Homeowners want a closet where “everything you need is in reach,” she said. “It's about incorporating anything you might want to have at your fingertips, whether it's early in the morning or at the end of the day.”
Extra-large closets provide space for extra activewear and accessories such as fitness gear for yoga, bicycling and Zumba as well as scuba-diving suits, exercise mats, golf clubs and tennis rackets.
Whether they are building a house or improving an existing one, Tomazin said, homeowners should not be shy about building their ultimate closet.
“Too often they're worrying about what stone the floor should be or the color of the carpets, and we settle for less when it comes to the choice of closets,” she said.
For starters, she said, get rid of that one long bar in the closet. “That is a total waste of space.” She suggested that double bars should occupy half a closet with a shorter single bar placed high for longer garments such as coats.
A closet wish list should also include built-in drawers, good lighting and top-to-bottom cabinets for storing items such as suitcases.
Krista Daries[7] of Imagine Homes in San Antonio said “the more closet space you can get, the better” — room for sumptuous amenities such as an upholstered chair or two, cabinet benches or a fancy ottoman “because a woman gets tired when deciding what to wear.”
And, she said, a chandelier would add a touch of class. “I think that's coming next.”
For Yvonne Katz[8] , a retired Harlandale Independent School District superintendent, chandeliers have adorned her 10-by-20-foot closet for a few years. Dubbed the five-chandelier closet, two of her light fixtures date to the early 1800s.
When Katz made improvements to her Whispering Oaks home in 2008, she added on the closet of her dreams “because I have that many clothes and purses and shoes and hats.” After a visit to the Container Store[9] , she presented her blueprint to contractors who constructed built-in areas for skirts, pants, jackets and dresses.
“I have all my golf stuff in one spot, my evening wear in one spot and my working-in-the-yard clothes in one spot,” she said. Her shoe collection, which numbers in the hundreds of pairs, is on full display on a shoe island as well as on a wall. “And if I need to press anything, I can do it in here.”
“I shop my closet because it really is like going shopping in a boutique. That's what I've said to people,” she said, adding that her closet and its contents have become so famous that “I give closet tours when I have parties.”
Tracie Neiman understands all too well.
“Whenever someone takes a first look into my closet, they go 'Wow!'” she said. Among the features are a full-length mirror, angular shelving and a high window to allow for natural light.
From the get-go Neiman knew she wanted a vast closet for her and her husband to share, and she wanted the couple's five children to have “nice-size closets” with built-in chests with deep drawers and lots of shelves.
She learned from past homebuilding mistakes.
“I was much more contemporary and modern about this house and the closets. I was all about square corners and open space. I wanted clean closets with good lighting, which was my problem with poor lighting in the past,” she said. “It's where you put on your face, so you need good lighting.”
And as large as her closet is, in hindsight, she would have upsized it. “I would have gone from 30 to 40 percent larger because the space shrunk after I put cabinets in.”
She's not complaining. She loves the space, especially when she and her husband are getting dressed for a special night out or other times when they're dressing and talking about each other's days or plans for the weekend with the kids.
With a glass of wine (from the fridge she keeps in the bathroom), she'll chat on the phone with a friend in the place she said has “become my mecca.”
Along with the kitchen, mom and dad's closet also has become a favorite family hangout, especially for the couple's four girls, all younger than 13.
“The girls love fashion, and they love coming in here,” she said. “Sometimes we'll all be in here and the girls will make snow angels in the carpeting. It's our new gathering spot. I love that.”
mquintanilla@express-news.net
References
- ^ Marla Tomazin (www.mysanantonio.com)
- ^ Kyle Lindsey (www.mysanantonio.com)
- ^ Kyle Lindsey Custom Homes (www.mysanantonio.com)
- ^ Tracie Neiman (www.mysanantonio.com)
- ^ Camille Tackaberry (www.mysanantonio.com)
- ^ Ginny Snook Scott (www.mysanantonio.com)
- ^ Krista Daries (www.mysanantonio.com)
- ^ Yvonne Katz (www.mysanantonio.com)
- ^ the Container Store (www.mysanantonio.com)
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