How to Design a Built-In Closet

A well-designed built-in closet can be the difference between an organized life and an unorganized life. It will also help you take advantage of all the storage space inside your home. Designing a built-in closet does not take much experience and time. It is only a matter of understanding what you want inside your closet and going from there.

Instructions

Preparation

1

First figure out what your needs are by deciding what you are going to place in the closet, and obtain an inventory of it. Divide the items into different categories such as shoes, hanging shirts, jackets, folded shirts, pants, keepsake items and so on.

2

Take approximate measurements of each category so that you have a rough measurement of how big each category is when the items are combined together.

3

Write down all you measurements next to each category so you know exactly how big each space that you are designing needs to be.

Measure Your Existing Closet

4

Measure your existing closet with your tape measure. If you have a very tall space, have someone help you, especially if you need to use a ladder. Measure the height of each wall so you can use all the space inside the closet.

5

Draw an elevation of each wall with the measurements you took on paper using a ruler or an architectural scale. Each wall should be at the same scale.

6

Draw a floor plan to the same scale as your wall elevations so you have a good idea of exactly how big the closet is in plan.

Designing the Closet

7

Draw out boxes for each of the different categories you created based on the approximate size you measured earlier. Draw them to the same scale as you did your wall elevations. It is always helpful to make them a little bit bigger then you actually measured so that you have some extra room in the future for new items.

8

Cut out the boxes you drew for your different categories.

9

Lay out the different categories on top of the wall elevations of your closet.

10

Organize the rarely used items or seasonal items on the very top areas of the closet and the more often used items toward the middle of the wall.

11

Decide which items need shelves, drawers or closet rods.

12

Tape the boxes to your elevations and bring the drawing to your local home improvement store to price out the different items you will need to build your closet.