I just had a closet company come design a plan for a 12 x 10 bedroom I am turning into a closet. Things I included were of course double hanging space, day length hanging space, long length -- nightgowns robes etc- shelves for sweaters hats handbags. a standup vanity with space for makeup and hair supplies. a built in ironing board for touch ups, several valet rods for setting out clothes i will wear, laundry hampers, and in the middle of the room is an island with chrome bins (so I can see what's there) for underwear, socks, tee shirts, slips, scarves, jewelry etc. The island can be a landing space for clean clothes or a space for packing a suitcase. We also left two open spaces so I can hang costume jewelry that doesn't need drawer protection and a base space for laundry bins. We also left space for a half mooon ottoman I use when putting on shoes. The best part was we discussed what my dressing routine is and designed things to flow according to how I dress and undress. It's amazing what the right (and patient) designer can do. She also measured my clothing so I didn't lose an inch. I am only 5 feet tall and don't need the hanging space tall women do. But I have TONS of shoes and I don't want to have to switch them seasonally the way I did in my last house. (sorry this was so long) but i hope it gives you some ideas to think about. I am going to design a workshop for my husband in the winter ( he hates to organize) and that should be a heck of a lot of fun too) and less expensive.

Here is a link that might be useful: Closet Company I am using

Thanks movingwest...Your ideas inspired me, as I have been stuck in neutral as to what I need to put in this closet. I really hadn't thought of an island or ottoman, but those are both great ideas. My closet, I think, will be 9 ft wide. I am 5'9", so I need the long space, but most of my clothes are tops and skirts or pants. What is the section you mentioned for costume jewelry? Is it similar to long hang? I had a jewelry drawer in our last closet, but I put my costume stuff in a box from the Container Store. I like your idea better. We are also going to build storage in the garage and a home office for my husband. Thanks for all the ideas.

I had my "good jewelry" in a velvet lined jewelry drawer but the funky stuff was hung on a wire grid and on a ribbon wreath I made that circled my mirror. earrings had the earwire hang on the grad, bracelets and watches could hang from the grid too, and pins went into the ribbons. maybe i can dig up a photo. yep here one is. the new closet isn't done yet

{{!gwi}}

movingwest, I really like your wire grid. It looks like a finer grid than I usually see for shelving or what not. Any ideas where I might find one?

grid is at container store and storables.

As we were planning last night regarding the half hanging, it struck me that double half hanging shouldn't be equal unless both the top and the bottom are shirts for instance. If you hang slacks by pants hangers they are longer than blouses, shirts or suit jackets. How is anybody addressing that problem? Previously I have had shirts hanging over a dresser and that was a simple solution. I had the slacks hanging over shoe cabinets. In this house I would like them over each other. Any ideas? I forgot to add that I am 5' 9" and live in So Cal so I don't have that much heavy weight clothing, but its long.

Our's has a full pole across the top at the correct height for Mike, who is 6'2". We then measured all of his dress shirts so that they wouldn't be crunched by the bottom pole and put the bottom pole at that height. Since we also didn't want the bottom pole to run all the way across, we measured how much room he needed for his slacks to hang full length. Around 24". So we put a support that far in, cut off the bottom pole to the correct length. One long pole across the top and one shorter pole on the bottom.

At 5'9", you might want to measure what is a comfortable reach for you and set the top pole at that height. A traditonal pole is hung at 5'6" and doesn't allow for room to have a double layer of some adult clothing, in my opinion. You could go higher. We decided that we didn't need shelving over the poles, so our top pole is at 7', which Mike can easily reach. The key for us was to measure and see how much room we really needed. Since Mike's dress shirts are custom made, they are a tad longer than you would normally find off the rack, but there is still adquate room on the bottom pole for my shirts.

I'm 5'4", so hanging his shirts is no longer on my job list.

Gloria

Thanks, we are at the end of fixing the house, and getting tired I think; we are going to move in before the end of oct. frankly i would be willing to sleep on the floor if necessary,
We are halfway through with the closets; just finishing.
marge

There is something about that home stretch that really wears you down. We moved in before the flooring was in. I would have preferred it been done and we were still in the old house, so we hadn't been displace like you two. I was having contractor problems and he had pushed me back almost two months. I knew he would just keep pushing it off, so I finally told him we were coming in. We didn't have a functioning bathroom until the day before the move.

Almost two years later, I'm still living with light bulbs hanging, no towel bars up, have to pull a toilet and redo because the floor guys didn't put a new wax ring and it's had a leak. I'll probably have to redo the subfloor-not sure. No baseboards. Not fully painted....The list of stuff we have completed since being in is really long.

I remember when my parents built a house when I was 5 and they moved in before things like the woodwork was up. Mom said she would never move into anything again which wasn't finished.

Gloria

I have a neighbor who is building their house and they are evidently waiting until the last toothpick holder is firmly in place with doilies under it. They have yet to move in I think the sooner you are in the sooner you know that the lightswitch has been cross wired or a switch doesn't work. The electrician is still around so you can just leave a length of wire for him to trip over if he doesn't fix it immediately.
My adorable husband has been the G.C. and it will be easier for him to just get up and be in the house to supervise the workmen. They sure need it. He makes them rip stuff out if they have screwed it up. The guy installing travertine decided to go in for creative madness and do a different tile layout on one side of the room, but very slowly.
I've had houses built before--but I think the old time workmen who were proud of their work and didn't need constant supervision are gone. Some of these guys have evidently had limited apprenticeship or training.
Other workers are amazing and patient. With a building boom its hard to get good workers.
So we will move in before Halloween I'm pretty sure./
Leibrook--our closet is almost exactly the same size as yours. I will take photos when they are through painting. I am using Gloria's idea about measuring the clothes to influence the height of the poles, etc.

Good point, marge. Our GC had done other projects for us, but this time it just went south. Had we not moved in with things incomplete we wouldn't have found lots of the problems which weren't apparent to the eye. We had to have the fireplace all ripped out and redone because they had left the raw 2x4's exposed to the firebox. Lots of stuff. We would have walked through, paid him in full and then we would have been out the money to get all of this fixed.

As it was, I withheld quite a bit of the funds to fix things. When he wife called me ranting and raving, I just let her know that she could count her lucky stars that I wasn't taking them to court, so shut up! The fact that they left us with a life-threatening situation as well as just a bunch of PITA factors really made me testy.

I've not built, but have remodeled and done an addition. It's all just way too much work. We'll be 62 when the youngest gets out of high school, so at that time we're planning on re-evaluating and seeing about building a handicapped accessible ranch. I'd don't think I'm going to be too happy about all of these stairs when I'm 75. At least I get some exercise now.

Gloria

my final closet plans go in October 27 so I will post pics soon after unpacking the endless boxes.