Trending Now: Takeaways From the Year's First Dream Closets

Here are the closet photos getting the most saves to ideabooks so far this year. Which splurge would you choose?

Becky Harris April 3, 2017

Houzz Contributor. Hi there! I live in a 1940s cottage in Atlanta that I'll describe as "collected." I got into design via Landscape Architecture, which I studied at the University of Virginia.

Houzz Contributor. Hi there! I live in a 1940s cottage in Atlanta that I'll describe... More

Comment6

Click "Embed" to display an article on your own website or blog.

One quick look through the most popular photos recently uploaded on Houzz reveals an obvious common thread: When it comes to saving closet photos to our ideabooks, we are living in fantasyland. Many of us have had apartments that were smaller than some of these closets. But no matter — as savvy Houzzers know, there are still useful and attractive tricks to steal from the fanciest closets in the world. They inspire us to come up with better shoe storage solutions, use paint or wallpaper inside a small closet, configure rods and shelves more efficiently and organize by red carpet event, errr, I mean color.

Anyway, take a tour of these scrumptious closets and dream away. They are among the most popular recent closet photos, as measured by the number of people who’ve saved them to their Houzz ideabooks from January through March. They may even inspire you to go clean out yours.

Lisa Adams, LA Closet Design

1. Make Room for Fitness

Well, apparently a Revenge Body can get a lot of support from a closet. This is the fitness closet of Khloe Kardashian, host of the E! network show Revenge Body. The room includes a mini fridge for water, space for kettlebells and other equipment, drawers for sports bras and biking shorts, a display case for sweatbands, plenty of room for hanging activewear and shelves to display an impressive collection of colorful kicks.

Now, to keep this story useful for those of us with small closets, I’m going to list the ideas we can steal from these dream closets and adapt for ourselves.

Takeaways

Organizing by color makes things more attractive.
Lighting is important — notice the lighting on the rods that illuminate the clothing.
It’s a good idea to have all of your workout stuff in one space. If you can carve out a niche or part of a coat closet for free weights, resistance bands, kettlebells, yoga mats and balls, it will make it easier to get to that workout.

Gray Walker Interiors

2. Boutique Vibe

I wish my bedroom/dining room/living room looked as lovely as this master closet and dressing area. The color, the drawer pulls, the millwork, that chandelier — oh my!

Takeaways

Even if your closet is just a door with a rod behind it, you can improve it with color. And note the way the walls, millwork and cabinetry here are all painted in the same hue in different finishes. This will make a small walk-in closet look larger and more pleasing to the eye.
See that off-white coat hanging on the left? Having a space to plan out and hang an outfit is handy. You can accomplish this with a hook on the back of the door or on the wall next to your closet door.

Gray Walker Interiors

The very same closet took the No. 3 position in popularity.

Takeaways

This is actually something I do myself — frame favorite magazine covers and hang them in the closet — it’s a cheap way to add some good fashion art. I mostly use Bazaar subscriber issue covers (different from and, in my opinion, much more artistic than the ones sold on the stands). I also have Tina Fey on the cover of Esquire and Prince on the cover of Ebony hanging in my own small walk-in closet. An old Andy Warhol calendar of his fashion illustrations was also a good source for inexpensive prints, or you could cut pages out of that gorgeous Manolo Blahnik coffee table book. You can find reasonably priced 8½-by-11-inch frames at stores like HomeGoods and Michael’s that are a close enough fit.
If you’re lucky enough to have the space, a dressing table area in the closet is a big bonus.

Plath & Company

3. Elegance. Just Pure Elegance

The glass chandelier, the tufted ottoman, those crystal knobs … may Houzzers were drawn to closets with beautiful finishes and touches. I want to sit in this closet and meditate, or fantasize about a purse collection. Calming colors, beautifully crafted moldings and the required photo styling of an oh-so-casually-left-out pair of shoes make this shot a favorite new upload among Houzz users.

Takeaways

Hang a floor-length mirror in or close to your closet.
A skylight can be a great source of natural light in a windowless closet. Just make sure it won’t let direct sunlight fade your clothing.
Wood floors are a good option for a closet — easy to hit with a microfiber dry mop to keep the dust bunnies away. I don’t know about you, but I’ve caught a low-hanging sleeve in a vacuum more than once.

Margot Hartford Photography

4. Wall of Cabinets Solution

San Francisco chef Joanne Weir transformed a guest room adjacent to her bedroom into a dressing room. The walls are lined in efficient cabinets that include these handy pullouts for shoes.

Takeaway

You can hide a closet in plain sight. If your small closet isn’t cutting it, consider cabinetry or a free-standing armoire.

Closet design and fabrication: Bo Williams

See more of this home

Margot Hartford Photography

This photo from the same project also made the top 10 most popular.

Takeaway

Check out the rod — it pulls down for easier access to the clothes hung high.

Lisa Adams, LA Closet Design

5. Best-Placed Rods

As with the previous project, the designer carefully planned the rods and shelves for this wall of clothing.

I will never forget stylist and TV personality Brad Goreski’s hilarious driveway scene in Season 2 of The Comeback. So just seeing that this was his closet made me chuckle at the memory. I’m glad to know he had a clean, hygienic space to come back to after that disgusting disaster. (Seriously, watch The Comeback; Lisa Kudrow is a comedic genius.) But I digress. Brad may have an enviably large closet, but closet designer to the stars Lisa Adams has maximized every inch of that clothing wall.

Takeaway

Rods and shelves can be adjusted. If you have just one rod across your closet, you’re wasting a lot of usable space down below. Leave room for longer pieces like coats, long skirts and dresses, but install two rods, one over the other, for shirts/jackets on top, pants/skirts on the bottom. While you’re at it, you may also find you have room for more than one shelf above the rod, which makes it easier to keep folded sweaters and other items organized.

Lisa Adams, LA Closet Design

6. Serious Shoe Storage and Display

Smize! You’re in model-turned-mogul Tyra Banks’ closet. With all the square footage in here, there was plenty of room to use white space. And the boot rack for fashionistas is simply divine.

Takeaways

Display your shoes with one toe facing out, one heel facing out. You’ll be able to find the right pair more quickly if you can see both the front and back.
While I’d never mar this fluffy stool by standing on it, it’s a good idea to keep a cute ottoman or stool in or near the closet so you can reach the high shelves when you need to.

Adams + Beasley Associates

Takeaway

These shoe racks are angled so the shoes are easier to see no matter the height of the shelf.

Amy Cassell Atelier

7. Hallway Sacrifice

Yes, it’s narrow. But if you don’t have much room, look at wasted space, such as a hallway that leads to a closet or bathroom.

Takeaway

Extra space for shelving can be found outside the closet. For a lot of us, our accessories are some of our favorite things, so why not enjoy having them out in the open. If this looks too narrow to you, envision it with just one side lined with shelves. The other side could be lined with hooks for bags, scarves, belts or ties.

Share: Have you added a fancy flourish to your closet? Come up with a great organizing or storage solution? Please share it in the Comments.

More
How to Get the Closet of Your Dreams
Find more guides to closet design in the Houzz articles archive

Other Resources on Houzz
See the latest closet photos
Find closet designers near you
Browse closet storage products in the Shop section