Terri Pentz, licensed interior designer for Island Paint & Decorating and the East Coast Cabinet Co. finds an organized closet does much more than just store clothing. It can be a peaceful, pleasing space to dress in and prepare to begin your day.

“We’re so rushed,” said Pentz of today’s lifestyles.

Instead of hurrying through the chore of daily dressing, she suggests taking some time to consider your tasks for the day and selecting an appropriate outfit that will have you looking your best.

More than mere organization can be yours when selecting custom pieces of cabinetry, drawers, knobs and such to fit your personal needs. But before you set off to design your dream closet you’ll need to assess your existing wardrobe. “I find we wear about 20 percent of what’s in our closet,” Pentz said. “Eighty percent needs to be thrown out.”

The throwing out is easier when there’s an elegant, organized space to work with. Many clients end up giving away items, rather than introduce scuffed shoes or old tshirts to their new closet, said Donna Larson, designer for Closets by Design.

A redesign forces the homeowner to organize what’s sometimes the dumping ground for items that have no home. Before she comes up with a new system, Larson finds many homeowners use their master bedroom closet to stash things that need to find a home elsewhere.

She gets calls from clients when they’re adding someone to the household, such as a spouse or older parent, or when, as Larson says, “They just can’t take it anymore.”

She gives them a fresh start, along with the tools to stay organized, and charges them with paring down what belongs in the closet. And then the magic happens.

“A lot of times, stuff just doesn’t come back,” she said.

Tracy Giamarino is expecting to field plenty of phone calls this month. January is one of the busiest months for California Closets, where Giamarino works as a designer.

After the flurry of December, people tend to organize and simplify at the start of the year. Some men will want their garages organized, and business people will start thinking about tax time and looking into office organiz ation. “But closets are always our mainstay,” she said.

Vintage glamour
Interior designer Terri Pentz recently created a glamorous dressing space for a Rockledge couple who renovated their historic home. To create the space, the owners closed in a sunporch and converted a utility room and old smoking lounge into a well-dressed master suite.

The new layout of the master suite required a space connecting the master bedroom and bath. The new dressing space provides the pathway, but also evokes a sense of luxurious glamour. It’s a true dressing room now worthy of a Hollywood starlet. It’s no longer a space to just pass through, but one to pause, linger in and prepare for the day. Pentz worked with East Coast Cabinet Company on the custom closet design.

Her clients wanted a clean look, with clothing organized behind closed doors. Pentz selected modified pantry cabinetry for its depth and ability to accommodate clothes hung on rods. Door fronts were inset with antique mirrors accented by medallions. The diamondshape of the mirrored doors is repeated in the ceilingmounted light fixtures. Natural daylight pours through a new window and is reflected off the mirrored doors creating a golden glow in the space. Additional directional ceiling lighting adds to the illumination.

Open the cabinet doors, and a clear mirror offers a quick check of the back of your hair and clothes. For drawer space, Pentz used full-extension drawers with cushion close.™

Specially designed shoe shelving keeps everything within reach, as well as in view. Upper cabinets offer storage for purses and hats. An ottoman set in the center of the closet provides a place to sit and put on shoes, and opens for more storage.

Emperador brown light marble countertops provide space for a desk for him and a vanity for her. Pentz used Saybrook Sage paint from Benjamin Moore on the ceiling, and accented the walls with faux snakeskin wallpaper.

In with the new
Building a house brings the opportunity to personalize a space, and that includes planning a closet.

One Indian Harbour Beach couple brought in Donna Larson of Closets by Design to customize a master bedroom closet for their individual needs. “The most important thing about what I do is sit and listen to what they want,” Larson said.

She then measures the space to determine how much rod space is available, and whether the clients will need extensive double hang space for shirts or single hang space for dresses. She gets as detailed as counting shoes to make sure the closet will accommodate the couple’s wardrobe.

These beachside clients wanted a contemporary look, so she used a wood grain product with smooth door and drawer fronts and sleek molding. A countertop shelf over the drawers and continuous top shelf over the upper rod create a finished look and add storage. Slanted shelves hold shoes in plain view – no hunting in corners for a mate – and a lip keeps them from sliding to the floor.

Beyond listening to client requests, Larson also makes some suggestions. For example, she finds people like to have drawers in the closet, eliminating the bedroom dresser. “It makes it nice to get in here and completely dress without having to go back into the room,” she said.

Other features she likes:
Valet rod. This is Larson’s favorite closet gadget. The rod slides out to create a space to hang clothes. It could be dry cleaning that you just brought home, or items that need to be taken to the cleaners. People who travel a lot can hang their garment bag on the rod for easy packing. It can even serve as a makeshift mannequin while creating an outfit. “Every single time I suggest it because I do believe it makes people’s lives easier,” Larson said.

Sliding belt rack. Another space-saving feature, the rack slides in and out and can hold ties, belts, and scarves.

Slide-out wire basket hampers. Storing and transporting clothes to be laundered is easy with baskets that tilt open for tossing in soiled clothes, then lift out for taking them to the laundry room. Accessible outlet. Outlet on dresser top. Cell phones are part of our lives, and a place to charge them should be, as well.

Having a designated spot makes it easier to remember to charge the phone at night, and take it in the morning.

Starting from scratch
Sometimes there’s just no fixing a design flaw. Lisa Marie Sanders and Siggy Reeves reached such a conclusion recently, when they called in California Closets to build a bedroom wardrobe.

The idea behind the original closet in the room was to offer extensive storage space, but in practice, it was unworkable. The closet ran the length of the room, with two bi-fold door openings.

That left a lot of space unreachable, and therefore, wasted.

The couple tried to fix the problem by enlarging the openings, but even wider access doors left unusable space.

Sanders counts the next occurrence as a blessing. Tropical storm Fay blew through Brevard County, leaving water damage in the Cocoa Beach closet. The couple had to tear out the existing closet, and got the chance at a do-over.

They met with Tracy Giamarino, a designer for California Closets, and described their wish list. They wanted a custom unit with contemporary design that would reach their high ceilings. They needed to accommodate Reeves’ wide shoulders with a deep enough unit to hang his clothes.

The wardrobe is made of up five main areas: two identical hanging storage areas, one for him and one for her; two dresser sections; and a center stack of shelving for shoe storage. There’s a charging station for cell phones and outlets and cords are hidden. The back of the wardrobe is finished in wood grain melamine for a more upscale look when cabinet doors are open, and edges are smooth to prevent clothing snags.

Giamarino used a profile header to trim the wardrobe in place of crown molding for the sleek look the couple was after. She used fluted glass on the cabinets. “You can see colors but not exactly what’s behind there,” she said.

Giamarino touts the California Closet advantage for resale value: Although the product is made custom for the client, the closet can be re-customized easily for a new owner. For example, poles can move up or down. A double hang section can be changed to single hang, and shelves can be added.

Sanders and her husband have been living with the result for about a year, and they’re thrilled. “It makes our bedroom look like a spa retreat,” Sanders said. “It really does look like a piece of artwork every time we walk into the bedroom. That just makes you feel peaceful.”

Giamarino is seeing a lot of people in a variety of price points turn to storage solutions as a way to make their current homes more livable in a down economy.

“If you can’t move out and you can’t build out, you have to make what you have more efficient,” she said.

On the go
One of the best features of Wes and Sherry Covell’s new closet is how it helps them get ready to leave it behind.

Both of them travel frequently on business, prompting decorator Michelle Croswell to commission a custom packing island from Artistic Closets.

The unit is the centerpiece of the closet and has become a major timesaver.

The traveler can plop a suitcase from the shelf onto the island and begin packing.

No trudging from the closet to a suitcase on the bed. All items are in view while packing, and there’s even a valet rod to try out different ties against a suit. “It allows us to get organized and packed right in the closet,” said Sherry Covell.

The top drawer is lined in felt for jewelry storage, to augment the wall-mounted jewelry system. Cabinet doors conceal shelves, and there’s an outlet on the side to allow for cell phone charging.

The new closet is more than a reorganization; it’s a reconfiguration of the master suite. The former layout included two, small walk-in closets. Croswell, who did the work with business partner Donna Williams of Home Sweet Home Designs, took out a wall to create one large closet, and borrowed about 16 square feet from the oversized master bathroom.

Double hang poles create more useable space, and floor-to-ceiling shoe shelving keeps shoes organized and accessible. By using a pocket door rather than a hinged door, the design eliminated the wasted space needed to accommodate an open hinged door. The increased space allowed Croswell to add a small ironing board and a full-length mirror mounted on the wall.

Color corrective fluorescent light mimics natural lighting, and prevents adding heat energy to the room. The light is on an occupancy sensor, so it goes on when someone enters and turns off a few seconds after the person leaves the room.