No rules for closet redesign

The first rule of designing a closet space? There are no rules.

In the end, it comes down to personal preference.

When Sue Price bought her condo in a gated Little Rock community a few years ago she was newly divorced and ready to customize her home for her current priorities. For her, that meant transforming the condo's 10-by-12-foot dining room into a custom-designed walk-in closet.

She says deciding to sacrifice the dining room for more closet space wasn't easy. "But I knew I had to because my [former] house was a lot larger than this and my closet was a big part of the house," she says.

"After having been married for 43 years, it was a lifestyle change as well," she says. She found that she traveled less and her wardrobe became more relaxed. "I really had to get rid of most things. I knew I didn't need a lot of those clothes and it forced me to look at my life right now and that was a mental adjustment as well. But it also puts everything into perspective."

Price took numerous interior design classes at the University of Arkansas and, while she does not hold an American Society of Interior Designers license, she has worked professionally for clients including banks, furniture companies and hospitals.

Shortly before her marriage ended she worked with an architect designing a new closet for her former home in Monticello. So when she bought her Little Rock condo, she knew what she wanted to do.

"I just hired a local cabinet builder, designed the whole thing, and just told him how to build it," Price says. She worked with Little Rock Capitol Custom Cabinets on the project. In addition to her new room-size closet, Price still has the original bedroom closet upstairs, where she stores some of her clothes on round racks and long commercial racks.

For Price, in this stage of her life, closet space has become more of a priority than a large dining room.

"I just don't entertain at the level I once did," she says. "And I don't do a lot of cooking; instead, when I do entertain, I bring catered food in."

The new condo's spacious living room can accommodate a small dining table and six chairs, which made the decision a little easier.

"I think dining rooms are just not as popular as they once were," she says, adding that the former owner of the condo, also a woman, used the dining room as an office.

"Before, I had winter and summer in the same room and, in the past, I had my clothes sorted by color or season but [I'm] not really doing it that way now," Price says. Now her clothes are sorted by type -- skirts, pants, suit jackets. The new closet has 5 mirror-lined, LED-lighted cabinets for hanging clothes with drawers below. Recessed lighting illuminates the rest of the room.

One wall has shelves for hat boxes. Another wall accommodates an office area with a chair and desk. Shelves above display Price's collection of perfume factices. The oversize bottles,

still sealed and filled with perfume, were displayed in department stores and used to advertise perfumes. They were originally lent to stores and were not meant for retail sale.

In the center of the room sits an island cabinet with drawers on three of four sides. This is where Price keeps her jewelry and accessories, including gloves, socks and scarves.

"Every drawer has a purpose," she says.

BEAUTIFUL DREAMER

Beautiful closets like Price's and the countless others shown in magazines are dreamy but, for most of us, remain just that -- a dream.

Helen Scott, retired former owner of Cantrell Gallery frame shop and art gallery, also had the chance to design her clothes closet when she and her late husband, Norman, built their four-level, modern-style house in midtown Little Rock 29 years ago.

Her walk-in closet, which she designed with the homebuilder's help, includes a built-in divided hamper for sorting laundry and she has converted one cabinet into a place for jewelry.

"I thought about what features I wanted my closet to have and made sure they were included," Scott says. The space has doors of faux-granite, eight drawers, and two open shelves across the top of the closet. Scott uses some of the shelves for shoes, others for sweaters. Two rods hold her hanging clothes.

"This space was originally going to be a wet bar but we just never got around to building it so we decided to turn it into a clothes closet instead," Scott says.

She has never updated the closet since building it and has no plans to do so.

"I've been very pleased with it," she says. "With the exception of my having too many clothes," she adds with a laugh.

UPGRADES

For those who don't want to take on a closet transformation from the ground up, the dream becomes how to improve what is already there. That's what Scott's daughter, Cindy Huisman of Little Rock -- who now owns Cantrell Gallery along with husband Clarke -- did. They worked with a closet organizing firm's designer to create order and efficiency in the small closets of their circa 1960s home.

"We did both of our bedroom closets after we bought this house," Huisman says.

"We measured our closets and they designed the layout based on what we needed," she says. The pair took careful measurements for the store that sold the closet organizers. Her closet includes sliding doors and is 8 feet wide and 2 1/2 feet deep. Inside the same bedroom is husband Clarke's closet: 4 feet wide and 2 feet deep.

"They asked us questions about how much of our hanging space needed to be full-length and how much could be stacked (shirts and short skirts), how much shelving space we needed," she says. The couple bought Elfa brand organizers.

"We do not live in a large house so constant purging helps keep things neat and orderly," she says.

Her husband supplemented her upgrade by adding hooks for hanging purses on the walls. His closet has a pull-out tie rack and an over-the-door shoe rack, which help maximize the smaller space.

HELPING HAND

While the Huismans were comfortable taking their own measurements, others may want a designer to come to their house to take measurements and assess the situation. So, some retailers offer in-home design services. One such program is the The Container Store's Contained Home in-home organization service, which offers professional advice on organization and the latest products, according to Melanie Graham with The Container Store.

"Items like adjustable closet rods, Huggable Hangers, Elfa ... door and wall racks and clear storage boxes can all aid in making the most of your available space," Graham says.

"Elfa is our best-selling shelving and drawer system," she says. The store also offers free design services for Elfa products. "It's component-based so it is easily adjustable to fit changing storage needs and can also be freestanding," she says. F̶r̶e̶e̶ ̶i̶n̶s̶t̶a̶l̶l̶a̶t̶i̶o̶n̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶a̶v̶a̶i̶l̶a̶b̶l̶e̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶t̶h̶o̶s̶e̶ ̶s̶p̶e̶n̶d̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶m̶o̶r̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶n̶ ̶$̶7̶5̶0̶ ̶o̶n̶ ̶E̶l̶f̶a̶ ̶c̶o̶m̶p̶o̶n̶e̶n̶t̶s̶.*

The store also sells closet systems by TCS Closets, which offers high-end, custom-built units with options such as glass or solid doors, locking jewelry drawers, island cabinets and soft lighting.

"Each closet is custom-built from the floor up to to fit the customer's space and showcase their wardrobe," Graham says. There are additional fees for in-home measuring, consultation, design and organization for those buying TCS Closets.

Even without the hand-holding that an in-home consultation affords, the Huismans are pleased with their closets.

"It can be modified if our configuration needs to change in the future," Cindy Huisman says. "I love it and wish we had done this to the [other] closets in our house before they got so cluttered and full."

HomeStyle on 07/09/2016

*CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story contained incorrect details about a promotion at The Container Store. The promotion ended June 30.