I love having drawers in the closets, eliminating the need for dressers in the bedroom. Keeping folded clothes tidy on shelves is difficult. It's much easier to keep them tidy in drawers. However, I find it easier to keep linens on shelves. I think you have to lay out exactly what you want to store in each closet to get a feel for the best type of layout. For instance, If you want toys stored in the closets, you might consider some large drawers at the bottom of those closets.

The one thing I won't have in any closet is wire shelving. I hate that stuff and find it really hard to use.

I love my drawers and I love my dresser and mirror. I probably would have done full length mirrors in leu of glass cabinets now, but I do have full length mirrored closet doors. As many shoe shelves that I have, I could have added more LOL. I love my built in laundry (pull out) and my safe is also bolted down.

Impossible to get photos while in the closet because it isn’t huge but you get the idea. I keep all my underwear, bras, socks, etc in my drawers so basically I can just get ready in my closet!

Thank you Karen and Fun!

Helpful feedback. I too want minimal furniture in the bedroom. My problem is that my husband is sort of a slob. He’s good about hanging up work pants and dress shirts. Everything else he just digs through. T-shirt’s,
Polos, workout gear, jeans, shorts. So he might need a dresser with deep drawers so he can just root around like a piggy in a trough. (Ok, I kid. But sorta. My drawers are folded soldier style so I can see everything. His will never be that way. I just need to accept it and give in).

-I love drawers too.
-Plenty of counter space.
-Dust-protective storage (especially for shoes)
-I know this one seems kinda silly, and maybe doesn't apply to you, but a mirror that is angled to allow for selfies without too much clutter in the background.

@Mrs Pete thank you for all of that fantastic advice. You are completely correct about the need for hanging space. I was contemplating that late last night actually. I hardly have any items that require long hanging (1 dress and a few coats) I wonder if it wouldn’t be more prudent to house those in my kids giant closets vs taking space from mine. I forgot to mention that one of the 4 walls is occupied by a 9’ foot tall window. So that wall is useless. I think I really only have about 2.5 walls to work with, so it will be a nice bright space but not the most functional. Haha. Good point about the actual location. Of hanging storage. I prefer to not reach up. Down is much easier

Thank you all!

If you get sun through that window, it will fade your clothes. I had a window covered with mini-blinds and still had sun fading on my clothes.

@fun, so we are doing window treatments in all of the windows and i think I’m going to up the opacity in the closet. I don’t want to black it out. The other two windows that front the street are all the same 9’. So I’m going to do a double layer there (sheer roller with a blackout Roman). But in the closet just a way more opaque roller. I can’t move the closet nor the window.

You can put UV film on the windows that prevents sun damage but lets in light. I’ve done about 8 closets in 2 houses now with Elfa and I love the drawers. I like a mix of shallow and deep for different uses. I would leave at least some minimal space for long hanging, it would be weird to spend the $$$$$ on California closets and not have any and have to keep stuff in kids rooms.

I agree that “down” is better for short hang, unless you have a pet. Our cat loves nothing more than to play “hide and get as much fur as possible onto dad’s shirts” in the closet.

For the kids rooms: In my last house I had shelves constructed in half of my daughter's closet. We bought several sizes of plastic bins (Elfa ) from The Container Store to sit on the shelves -- jeans in one bin, t-shirts in another, etc. The other half of the closet had a rod (not too high) and shelves for shoes. Worked out great because she could just toss things in the bins rather than the floor of her room, a common teen habit. It was affordable and flexible. Good luck with your project.

Our master closet isn't huge but the closet system has made it very functional. I agree with having no wire shelving! The drawers are perfect for storing socks, tee shirts etc. Space for a hamper has been helpful. I also made sure that the shelving ran all the way to the ceiling, though I need a step stool to access the top shelves. That higher up shelving is perfect for out of season footwear and items I don't use frequently. We have double rods, allowing us to hang twice as many garments in the space. Also, having adjustable shelving makes the space more flexible as storage needs change. I have crammed an amazing amount of stuff into this closet! Our closet has drawers dead ahead and room for baskets above, just as Mrs. Pete recommended. It really does look nice that way and the baskets do hide a lot of little things beautifully.

@HKO HKO I think I read that UV film voids a windows warranty? But a good idea

@Bailey Martin GOOD POINT about pets. We have two cats and their favorite sleeping spaces are tucked in the back of closets

@einportlandor good idea about bins for the kids. No one in my house puts laundry back into drawers...except me.

If you’re worried about window warranty, depending on size you could get a square of plexiglass and put the film on that, and sort of tack it in place over the windows.

Following

I’ll circle back on this since it popped up on my feed:

I finalized all of our closets. Everyone’s advice was incredibly helpful. Our install is a month from now so I’ll update this with pictures. I certainly didn’t pick anything fancy, as CC id without a doubt expensive. It was a nice experience, and I did tell my designer I was “budget conscious” but didn’t want choices that wouldn’t hold up long term. That said, I didn’t do lighting, the super designer colors, multiple color fronts, etc etc

I created a sort of hybrid of level 1 and 2. I didn’t really want to-the-floor closets since I like the flexibility of being able to store things on the floor, but upgraded to the dovetailed slow close drawers and lago painted wood look finish in white with matte black interesting pulls and rods

For my master small walk I did do two banks of drawers, jewelry inserts, shoe shelving (but not angled and no metal bars) hanging, pull out rods, a few specialty hooks. And took everything to the ceiling to take advantage of the 10”’

The husbands 2 reach ins have some drawers, shoe storage, and a lot of hanging

The kids (two walk in closets)we implemented some lower pull out baskets in matte black, lower shelving and some lower hanging

The entry closet was just a little bit of hanging and some shelving

And because everyone wants to know this...all in it was about 12k. We had a credit for about 4K of that. And yes, I know, I totally could have done elfa or ikea for less. Probably a lot less. Where I live, CC is a buzzy word for higher end homes (2MM+) so it made sense for us especially considering the credit

It sounds like you made really good choices. I was in your position a year ago and we moved into our house 8 months ago. We also used California Closets and I was very happy with the experiences.

Having your shoe shelves be non-angled is very practical in case you want to use that space for storing other things in the future (which you couldn't do easily with slanted shelves).

I also upgraded to the soft-close dovetail drawers, which I love. The only thing I sort of regret is letting my designer talk me into a few frosted glass door fronts. She wanted it to feel more open and for me to be able to "display" beautiful handbags, etc. but the reality is that it's a closet and not a display space and I would rather have had totally concealed storage.

I am happy with the accessories I chose: a jewelry drawer, safe, tilt-out hampers, ironing board that tucks into a drawer, full length mirror, pull-out rod and belt rod.

For my kids' small walk-in closets, we got full-length mirrors (that fold away) and pull-out hampers. For my youngest daughter's (10 years old) closet, I did not pay close enough attention to the height of the hanging sections. One section is too high for her to reach so I ordered extra shelves to put in that area until she gets taller. Same thing for the drawer sections. She can reach the top 2 drawers to open them but she isn't tall enough to see what is in them. I also wish we would have been able to have pocket doors for the smaller walk-in closets but our room design did not allow for this.

For the benefit of other readers looking at closet options, yes, CC is pricey but they really do handle EVERYTHING from the design to the installation and the clean-up. I wanted/needed help to design our spaces to maximize storage space and could not do that without the help of the designer. I did look at The Container Store's custom system (not elfa) but when I went to the store to open drawers, see the finishes, etc. to get a sense for the quality, they felt flimsy compared to CC. I did notice, however, that they have recently revised their custom closet offerings so maybe they have improved.