Recently there was a nationwide drawing to receive $1,000 towards a custom storage system. The winner was Shelly B. a resident of St. Louis, MO. Shelly was so excited to have me, Cassie Alsbach of Closet Factory St. Louis, come out and help her with her custom storage needs. As soon as I met Shelly I knew we couldn’t have asked for a more deserving recipient. Shelly chose to have me look at her pantry and an entry coat closet.
I went to Shelly’s home a few days after her name was drawn to help her with her custom storage needs. As soon as we met I knew this was something she had been wanting for a long time. Shelly is a proud mother and loving wife, who as it appeared had always put her family’s needs first, as most mothers do. Now with all of her children out of the house or in college she was looking for a way to get her life organized so she could focus on other things. I asked her which areas in the home caused her the biggest headaches and she said her pantry and the entry coat closet.
Shelly’s pantry is above the stairs going into the basement so instead of a full length pantry she could only use half due to the space allocated for the stairwell underneath. The space was also really deep so she had no idea what she had and would end up buying more than she needed at the grocery store. This is an issue we see in a lot of homes in the St. Louis area. The first thing I told her was that her shelves she currently had in the space were way too wide. All of the shelves were starting to bow because they were over 36” wide, they had little support and they were loaded to the max. A quick solution for all of her problems was the get her more shelves that weren’t as deep or wide. You might think this may not give her enough space but it actually gave her more than enough. Her shelves were made 16” deep so she could at max only have 2 to 3 rows of things stored depending on their size. She essentially now has two columns of shelving about 16” wide each. Made the columns the same size so she could interchange shelves between the two and this would give her more storage flexibility. She now is able to store her cute hook racks on the side walls for her apron and extra shopping bags. By doing all of this she is able to quickly find what she needs in her pantry and doesn’t waste any time when she is getting ready for a big family dinner.
The second space that needed help was her entry coat closet. She had an old system that was original to the home which consisted of a rod and a shelf. She was also noticing that the rod and shelf were bowing because they were far too wide for the amount of things she was storing in the closet. As we discussed her needs for the space she realized a lot of the items in the closet needed to be donated or her children needed to take them to their own homes. This is also something that a lot of my other clients realize through the process of getting custom storage done. You finally pay attention to what you need and don’t need and you actually gain space by doing this! One of the most important things Shelly wanted to store in the entry closet was her vacuum. There really wasn’t anywhere else in the house to store it. She also needed space for coats, board games and various items she just wasn’t ready to purge. To accomplish all of this I measured her longest coat and we realized it would easily fit in a double hang section. I gave her one double hang section and a shelving section next to it that was 16” deep. I chose this depth because her biggest board game was about 14” deep and we didn’t want it hanging over the edge of a shelf. To make space for her vacuum I decided to leave out the bottom shelf and toe kick so her vacuum could easily be stored and taken out. She had 96” tall ceilings so we made the system 85” tall with the top shelves recessed back to 12” deep so she could easily access the top of the system. Before there was so much underutilized space and now she can use every square inch of the closet!
Check out what she had to say about the project by watching this video:
As designers for Closet Factory we truly care about how you need things stored and how you will function in the space every day. This is why we spend such a great deal of time on going over your inventory. In the end you get a great result!
Visit our Custom Closet Series galleries for your own closet inspiration and make an appointment for a free design consultation! We have locations nationwide to serve you!
By: Cassie Albach, Business Development Specialist & Sr. Designer of Closet Factory St. Louis
Each of our custom systems is completely personalized and begins with a complimentary design appointment.
Schedule a ConsultDuring the consultation you and a designer will discuss goals, desires, and project budget, with the aim of designing an organization system that will: