The Kinds of Walk in Closet Designs That Drive People Crazy

Lousy walk in closet designs are one strange phenomenon that would really amaze me over the years because of how frequently the same mistakes are being made. Most baffling is to me the fact that the remedies are already all over the place (it is hard to ignore the advertising of the closet companies), and yet builders and architects continue to reproduce the same faulty designs that no one wants to live with.

I have often heard of home buyers who ask not to have their closets installed in the builder's way after seeing it in the model home, who would rather have nothing in order to not damage the walls, and who get these obnoxious and frustrating designs forced onto them. Later they have to have them removed, the walls fixed, the texture redone and the paint applied, - all this at their own cost -, before they can have decent closets installed in their home.

It seems that builders and architects just do not get it.

Blatant Lack of Care for the Actual People Who Live in the Houses

We live fast paced lives, and having the stuff of our everyday life somewhat organized, easy to find and to get hold of, is essential. But it seems that the architects who design our homes do not take the time to even imagine how the space they design is going to be lived in by … yes, real human beings. Or maybe they do not know what a clothes hanger looks like?

What defines a walk in closet is not just that it is bigger than a traditional reach in closet. It has corners that need special attention, and the closet industry has figured out 100% effective and convenient ways of organizing them.

There are several more or less frequently occurring "design errors" that I find in my clients' closets. Some happen a lot and some are worse than others.

They all relate to space and how efficiently it is designed.

All of them have in common lack of care, stinginess in the choice and the amount of materials used, and the total absence of both beauty and efficiency in the looks of the closet once it is in use.

These features are all at the source of the frustration and irritation I hear about when I am shown into my clients' homes, and there are remedies to all of them.

Funky Walk In Closet Designs Involving Rods

This very common design allows for one rod, one shelf and one cleat for support. It does not use the space above the shelf and it ignores completely the space from the floor up. People end up building very high piles on the top shelf, and we all know what happens with those. On the floor the result is usually messy piles of shoes and other items.

In this case, also very common, the rods are designed to cross at the corner, ignoring the fact that rods are made to accommodate hangers, and that these will be vying for the same space. The corner space is not intended at all to be of any use, it is simply cut off on both walls.

A variation to this design is when one rod is higher than the other, but they are still competing for the same space.

Another Walk in Closet design that denotes a total lack of imagination on the part of the builder: the rod is installed so close to the door, that the hanger will actually block the entrance to the closet. In some cases I have seen this design prevent the door from opening or closing.

Another version of this rod problem is when the rod is too close to the shelves on the adjacent wall, with the effect of not allowing the space to the wall to be used, because no hanger can fit there. Nothing else fits in that space either, since the rod runs through it.

Miscellaneous Other Irritatingly Ill-conceived Walk In Closet Designs

On this picture you have a very common design for a shelf section in a closet or a walk in closet. The shelves are too far apart and they are non adjustable. When shelves are too far apart, the result is a mess.

The drawer equivalent of a very tall shelf is the very tall drawer. Most irritating unless you wear only skiing outfits.

Triangular shelves are practically useless in a clothes closet. Most people know intuitively that what goes onto a shelf in a clothes closet needs either a square or a rectangular surface.

Similarly a very deep (in this case the shelf was 48" deep) triangular shelf is a very poor use of a 90 degree corner in a walk in closet.

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