Custom Closets 101: K.I.S.S.

In the custom closet business, especially in Northeast Tennessee, you don't see too many customers with the financial "ability" of Kim Kardashian; however, that doesn't stop the customer from wanting the same look, style and design of the over-the-top celebrity closets you see posted all over Houzz. If I could pass on one piece of advice in this respect, it would be an age-old acronym: K.I.S.S., or "keep it simple, stupid."

Of course I don't think you're stupid. We've all been guilty of overdoing something in our lives - at this point I think of Chevy Chase's Clark Griswold character in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, looking at his Christmas light display, asking his son Russ, "when was the last time I overdid anything?" The point I am making: this is human nature. What we need to do is step back and realize that what we need and what we want aren't always the same, and before the cost of a project is overly inflated with add-ons like sliding doors, LED lights, polished concrete counter tops, etc., we should all consider what would make the closet useful and functional, and strive to achieve that first.

Here's an easy comparison: in sections for hanging clothes, we typically make the side vertical panels "suspended," i.e., they hang on the wall, and do not touch the floor. This is an attractive look as we soften the corners with a nice rounded edge, and the wood material used is minimized, keeping costs down. A common request we receive is to take this panel all the way to the floor and "frame" the clothes, creating a box around the hanging clothes. This serves no functional purpose, only cosmetic. My suspicion is that a good number of these specific requests come from comparisons of our product to our competitors, who don't utilize the same system we do for hanging the panels and therefore must rest their panels on the floor.What is created in this situation is an increase in cost and time - more material is used, and installing a panel down to the floor requires the installer to spend time adjusting for rise and fall of the floor. (even in brand new construction)

I don't say this to tell you not to build the closet of your dreams. On the contrary - you should do it the way you want it the first time. Don't try to duplicate a closet you see online - make the closet what you need the closet to be. And if you have some money left over, make it what you want it to be. And don't ever sacrifice function for form.