Our former custom home had fitted closets in all three bedrooms. They were custom built during construction, and like Janet’s, used solid wood and furniture-grade drawers and pullouts. I loved them, BUT I put a lot of time into designing each system right down to figuring out exactly how many pairs of sweaters I would stack on every shelf. Even then, when I retired, we had to adjust the configuration since I no longer needed to worry about suit jackets but, instead, where to store my stack of sweatshirts.
My best advice would be to look beyond the thrill of organized units and spend time figuring out EXACTLY what you could put in each of the cubbyholes, shelves, and drawers. How high do you like to stack items on open shelves? Do you like to fold or hang? Where will you store longer dresses or tops? Much like a kitchen, you have to know how your stuff will fit into a generic layout.
My take:
The best system is one that will hold YOUR wardrobe—with allowance for adjustments as your wardrobe items and numbers fluctuate over time. Designers show one pair of shoes per cubby and 1 or 2 beautifully folded sweaters on a shelf with a couple of color-coordinated shirts hung neatly beside. Unless you are a true minimalist, reality can be quite different.
Particleboard shelves will bow under even a slight weight and screws will pull out of lightweight anchors. Clothes are heavy, as any traveler knows. Solid wood, substantial hardware, and weight-bearing rails are as important in a fitted closet as in a kitchen.
Right now we live in a condo where the previous owner spent serious money having a custom system installed in the master bedroom walk-in. The system looked great empty when we toured the place with a realtor but I spent a couple of years rearranging our stuff while simultaneously cursing the person who thought that corner, triangular shelves were a good idea. A couple of trips to Ikea convinced us that two Malm dressers installed on either side of a narrow Pax closet (with adjustable shelves to hold shoes—because BOOTS ARE TALLER THAN SANDALS, duh!) on an end bedroom wall solved a host of problems. Those beautiful triangular shelves now hold extra supplies of toilet paper, laundry supplies, and extra bedding. Not very attractive, but much more functional.
