Inventing the Perfect Closet

My husband and I recently closed our historic Bed and Breakfast. The two of us had, until that point, shared a walk-in closet just off of our "innkeeper's suite." While it is a fairly good size walk-in closet, over the four years we have been married, it seems to have shrunk. After closing the B&B, we have been able to live in our entire house for the first time! That means that we have inherited a lot of extra storage space that we could never utilize before (our guests probably would not have appreciated their guestroom closets stuffed full of our personal junk!). We have been finding new homes for a lot of our "stuff," and have loved every moment of it.

When we moved our bedroom to one of our former guest rooms, we took one look at the teeny tiny closet and immediately knew it would never work. Historic homes, as you know, are not known for their abundant closet space, and I think I would be hard pressed to get my shoes in that closet, let alone my clothes, and pocketbooks and scarves and ..... (you get the idea). We finally decided to take one of the extra rooms upstairs and build a master closet. Needless to say, I am overjoyed about this! The room we have chosen is quite quaint with sloping ceilings and tons of character, but we are limited as to how far up we can hang clothes racks. I think we have come up with a fairly good solution, though, and it forced us to be a little creative with our space. I think we are going to like it!

The workers came today to begin the process. I had my sketches roughly drawn. Of course, they were not to scale. The guys began asking me questions like, "How deep do you want those shelves?" To which I replied, "Deep enough to get my shoes on them?...." and "enough height that my pocketbooks will stand up?...." Blank stares. I think in the end they understood me, though. I hope. I guess I will find out soon enough. As I was leaving them to go to work, I told them not to talk about my drawings or the way I measured the shelves after I was gone. I know they did. :-)

Anyway, this newest venture has had me considering all the possibilities this new closet will hold, and I have to say I AM SO EXCITED!!!!! I have stolen ....I mean, borrowed...a few ideas from celebrities' closets and closet sites and decorating sites and mixed them all together into something that would fit my own needs...and our room dimensions. I found so much inspiration, and below are a few that I really love.

My favorite closet designs came from Closet Tailors. Their design styles and material options are extensive. As you will see in the next five photos, their closets are to die for!

The closet below is from Affordable Closet Systems. Love it, love it, love it!

What do you think about this cutesy closet from Decorology. Isn't it adorable?! The colors are amazing and fun!

And this one, also from Decorology's blog, is Paris Hilton's closet. Isn't that the most amazing closet you have ever seen?! Check out the chandelier!
My closet may not be as flashy as Paris' or as cute or as organized as any of those above, but I do believe it will be a wonderful space! I can't wait to post the before and after photos and will do that soon!

Blessings,