There is an entire world of luxury custom closet ideas and retailers on the Internet. Now there is time for leisurely browsing the many sites with photographs and suggestions of how to plan and find the appropriate contractor to install an absolutely stunning and incredibly functional closet. A truly beautiful built in closet can actually serve as a private dressing area as well as a place to house and protect a wardrobe.

Photo by PrettyinPrint

When it comes to high end built in options, there is literally no end to the possibilities. While in the past, even luxurious closets were still only for carefully storing clothing, accessories and shoes, today the discerning closet designer can include sitting areas, storage islands and even built in armoires with mirrored doors. When constructing new homes today, builders realize that as much as 20 percent of the home’s square footage should be reserved for storage areas and closets.

The addition of islands in built in closets is a growing trend and one that provides the ability to add custom storage areas based on the owner’s needs and desires. These islands serve several functions with drawers that can be specifically designed with dividers for items like hosiery, jewelry and lingerie. Locking drawers make certain that valuable jewelry is safe and easily accessible too.  Island countertops done in granite or tile not only are beautiful but serve as a staging area when preparing for a formal evening out.

Built in closets can be beautiful and functional at the same time. Aesthetic treatments such as raised panels on doors and crown molding add a finishing touch and can actually make the owner want to leave the closet doors open all of the time. Form and function can co-exist when laundry hampers and iron boards are also built in, but hidden from view.  With all of the options available, today’s master closet can be everything from strictly organized and efficient to wildly luxurious and elegant.

Well, they don’t exactly love to hear this, but they simply must.  Children need a clean, tidy space for rest, relaxation, play and often, for studying. Oak wardrobe armoires are a clever storage solution for their bedroom dilemma!

Dressers are great pieces of furniture, but they often fill up quickly with things stuffed in them and on top of them. Wardrobe closets are a great way to expand children’s bedroom furniture space to keep clothing and such neatly tucked away. Oak wardrobe closets are perfect for hanging clothes, storing linen, books and more.

Cleaning and organizing juvenile bedroom space doesn’t have to be a painstaking chore any longer. The Prepac Oak Juvenile TV/Wardrobe Armoire will give you the added space you need to get the job done. The wardrobe closet has versatile dimensions and can be easily assembled. This oak wardrobe is a simple, all-in-one bedroom storage center in one box!

There will be no excuse for clothes and other bedroom items lying all over the room. Prepac Oak Wardrobes are well made with engineered wood that is made to last. Three drawers on the bottom of the oak wardrobe move with ease and have child-friendly, built-in safety stops. This armoire is well recommended and reasonably priced on Amazon.com for $197.00.

The Prepac Oak Juvenile TV/Wardrobe Armoire looks classic and polished with a clean, attractive appearance. The light brown oak has simple detail and will fit well with any bedroom theme. The wardrobe contains generous hanging space and shelves for children’s clothes, bedroom items and a small TV. You will be glad that your children can finally have a place to store their things!

Fitted wardrobes are wide, spacious and visually appealing space solutions, especially for master bedrooms. These elegant bedroom fixtures have plenty of space to go around to meet store all of your shoes and attire.  Fitted armoire wardrobe closets will turn any decent sized bedroom into a hotel-style living space.

The Milan Fitted Wardrobe aligns perfectly with your wall to give your room a discreet, roomy look. The Spring Birch is a pleasant neutral color that is adaptable for any bedroom color and style. You’ll have more than enough room for your clothes, shoes and accessories. The style is formal and stylish and accentuates the bedroom with class and flair.

There are a myriad of designer knobs to choose from to customize the drawers and closet handles according to your specifications. Play a part in creating the bedroom makeover that you love and deserve with a Milan fitted wardrobe.  This spacious centerpiece is a one-stop storage center that will set your bedroom in a class all by itself. There is a place for everything in your bedroom, and everything can be in its place!

This high-end wardrobe closet is available online through Spacemaker.  They will craft your armoire to look just the way you want it to. You can feel like a star and enjoy the bedroom makeover you’ve always wanted. Create a stylish bedroom look that is classy and timeless with beautiful fitted wardrobes.

When creating a spacious bedroom, clothing and shoes are often the biggest hurdles the get over. After deciding what to keep and not to keep, the clothes that remain need a place to call home. Beautiful pine wardrobes are attractive, spacious and practical space savers that fit nicely in traditionally styled bedrooms. The smooth, golden brown wood will look great with any color scheme for a stylish, practical look.

The top-selling English Heritage Wardrobe Triple Armoire is made with beautiful solid pine that is visually appealing and long lasting. There is no lack of space with this huge wardrobe that more than suffices to provide needed storage space. These beautiful pine wardrobes have fine detail on the panels and a lovely mirror right in the center. Behind the left and center doors there is plenteous hanging space. The remaining door has several shelves for shoes, vanity items and accessories.

The English Heritage Wardrobe Triple is expertly crafted and hand waxed for a great look and a maximum lifespan for your bedroom storage needs. In addition to the abundant space inside the wardrobe armoire closet, there are also drawers underneath to store items such as papers and books. These wardrobe armoire closets will help to cover all the bases for your comprehensive space saving efforts.

This English armoire comes partially assembled for ease and mobility as it is transported and delivered to your front door. It is rather large, so remaining assembly for the wardrobe closet should be completed in its designated bedroom space. These lovely English furniture centerpieces can be found at PineSolutions.com for about $1119.00.

These lovely mirrored wardrobe armoire closets will take center stage for your princesses to bask in for years to come. Mirrored wardrobes will be one piece of furniture your daughter may even want to haul off to college! The Enchanted Kids Mirrored Wardrobe is mesmerizing and delightful for sweet, feminine look girls will love at any age.

This attractive antique white armoire features a large oval mirror encapsulated by detailed solid hardwood accents. The mirrored door opens up into a discreet storage space with a pull out drawer for girls to store their vanity items, books or even a 23-inch TV! This attractive centerpiece has very nice features and serves as a great storage option for your space solutions.

In addition, there are two spacious drawers at the bottom of the mirrored wardrobe for additional space options for all the girl stuff! The Enchanted Kids Mirrored Wardrobe is featured on Amazon and available for your purchasing pleasure for $590.00. This is not cheap, but it’s a priceless investment in a little girl’s memory bank.

This Victorian style wardrobe armoire closet also has such safety features as nice round edges and corners with drawer stops for every drawer. The Enchanted Kid’s Mirrored Wardrobe’s sophisticated look, attractive finish and timeless style will be a mainstay for a girl’s bedroom space. Take a step back into fairytale land with this quaint, feminine wardrobe closet for your little princess.

Dark wood has a very durable, appealing look and looks great in almost any furniture style. The lovely dark finish looks shiny and unblemished for your practical wardrobe storage needs. Dark Alder bedroom wardrobes are a part of the Brookstone Collection of furniture and are available on Amazon.com for about the affordable price of $145.00.

This beautiful piece of furniture has wide, spacious shelves to store grooming items and bedroom various items. This attractive two-door wardrobe closet opens up for a neat, concealed space option. There are also two adjustable drawers cleverly concealed behind the doors for added space options.  These lovely bedroom wardrobes are easy to assemble with metal runners and safety stops for the drawers.

You can store bulky items such as sweaters and thick attire without taking up too much storage room. The dark Alder wood has a traditional, impressive look that is in a class by itself. You can easily find this wardrobe armoire closet on Amazon.com in the Home and Garden section.

In addition to a sleek, dark wooden finish, you can enjoy the practical design that features a big pullout drawer at the bottom to store such clothing as shirts and slacks. This armoire is priced right, looks great and is a great showcase for your bedroom décor. It can serve you well as a great storage piece that is stylish, sleek and attractive for years of enjoyment.

Nearly every home is now built in with a linen closet by the bathroom. These are the tall, narrow closets you find in the hallway near the bathroom or sometimes the bedroom.

But what if your home doesn’t have a built in linen closet? This article will address this question by pointing to some helpful products and ideas you can use as linen closet storage.

Options for
Linen Closet Storage

Or “What Do To When You
Have No Built In Linen Closet?

You use a free standing
closet instead, most likely!”

If your home or apartment doesn’t have a built in linen closet, or any closet nearby the bathroom for storing extra blankets, towels, sheets, and so on, short of designing and building a closet into the walls (a topic for another article!), your options basically all revolve around buying a stand alone closet or a combination of closet organizer or closet furniture accessories to hold such items. The amount of storage closets and related accessories that fall under this category is immense, as just about every article on this discusses a different type of closet that fits in with this definition. So let’s separate the wheat from the chaff and recommend some products specifically for linen closet storage.

Since we want to be budget conscious about this, we’ll start with the cheapest items first and move on to progressively more expensive linen closet storage solutions.

1. The ever classy *wink wink* “over the toilet” storage option.

This option works in real life much better than it sounds in print. The term “over the toilet storage” is unlikely to be found on any company’s website as part of their sales pitch. Lucky for us, we’re not selling anything, so we can call it like it is!

Anyhow, an open “closet” storage item like this, with two legs and a metal frame (often wrought iron) consisting of multiple open storage shelves, works very well for holding many of the same items a linen closet is purported to be used for. It also ironically makes them even more accessible for someone who needs them.

For instance, if you realize you need a towel when you’re out of the shower, would you rather walk down the hall and get it from the linen closet or simply reach above the commode and find a fresh towel to dry off with?

By the way, the one featured here costs $89 from Target, is made of wrought iron, and can hold 25 pounds – more than enough for our purposes here. It’s not “really” a linen closet or linen cabinet, but for many people, it’s just as good and will save them money, so I wanted to start it off as the first one on our list!

2. Bath Storage Tower from Ameriwood

You can also buy a free standing storage tower like this one from Ameriwood, designed with bathroom and linen storage needsin mind. As you can see from the picture above, this bathroom storage tower lets you store items both openly and behind closed doors – perfect for keeping extra towels and wash cloths on hand while keeping more private needs nearby, like extra toilet paper.

Available from Target for $89. Assembly required. Note that some reviewers found this bath storage tower’s assembly instructions to be kind of hard to follow and/or flat out noting that assembly was a problem. I’m including this here now just to let others know who may have read this before and thought about buying it.

3. Bathroom Espresso Towel Shelf/Rack from X-Frame

Spending a few more dollars – $130 versus the two items above priced at under $100 – you can really get an awesome looking storage unit from Target for the bathroom.

This is my favorite one on the list – just look at that photo! It looks awesome.

I wish there was just one or two more shelves for storage, but with 4 swuare storage areas boxed in on this shelf, you can definitely hold a respectable number of towels, sheets, and linens.

And while this tower could stand to be taller or equipped with at least one covered shelf or drawer, it makes up for it with it slick looking design.

4. Bathroom Storage / Linen Cabinet from Ameriwood

Ameriwood is making it twice onto the list, and for good reason. Costing $150, for about twice as much as the item featured in number two, you can buy a fantastic wooden bathroom storage cabinet. This solid wood cabinet features both open and closed storage areas and tops it all of in an espresso finish.

Mimmicking the design of a real built in linen closet, it’s tall and narrow and provides enough space for all the things you’d normally hold in a linen closet, except now you will probably have them directly available in the bathroom – exactly where those items are needed the most!

This is a close tie with the previous item in terms of how cool it looks. What this cabinet offers in additional to looking great is twice as much functional storage space!

I live in the south, and we’ve recently been hit with our sporadic dose of Carolina winter weather. You never know when it’s going to come – it may be November, it may be January, heck, it may even be February or March. But despite our winter season being quite mild, at some point those winter jackets are coming out of hiding and onto our backs.

Our home has no closet by the door. It’s almost an odd thing to notice – the house itself (not mine, my roommates) is very nice, and there’s ample opportunity as far as storage space to have had a closet built in by the door for us to store our coats.

But nope – no closet.

Which is what led me to look at shopping around for good free standing coat closets. I learned a thing or two about them in the process; important points about coat closets that I thought I’d share here with you, dear reader.

Coat Closets: What to Look for in a Good Coat Closet

1. There are a lot of options. It helps to know first what you are looking for.
What I mean by this is that there isn’t just a single type of closet furniture that you can point to and say “that’s a coat closet” that doesn’t have other uses, and vice versa. Many storage closets are sold to hold a variety of items, from office supplies to a persons wardrobe to coats. Some are wide open, like a wood garment rack, and others have closed doors, like a 3 door wardrobe armoire. Some are meant to be lightweight and basically portable. Others are meant to be heavy duty. The latter we are more interested in, which brings us to the next point.

2. It should hold a lot of weight since winter clothing is heavy.
A coat closet gets the most use when it’s the coldest outdoors, and this is precisely the time when the durability of a coat closet comes into play. When shopping for a coat closet, look for the maximum amount of weight it can hold. The more, the better.

3. You can definitely keep find a coat closet under $300.
The wide range of prices in coat closets reflects how willing we are to pay for a nice piece of furniture. But there come a point in which you don’t really get much more functionality for your money. Now by all means, if the coat closet is intended to add to the room as a piece of furniture in its own way, then feel free to leave the budget out of the picture. But if your main concern is simply having a solid wood coat closet, you can find something like this for about $300 or less that will do the trick. Any more than that and you’re paying for aesthetics, which may or may not be worth it for you.

4. Before you spend all that money, organize any nearby closet first that could function as coat closet.
If you’ve already got a closet by the front door, why not use that as the coats closet? If the reason is that it’s jammed pack full of clothes already, you might be surprised to learn how much space can be leveraged out of a messy closet by first organizing. For some ideas on closet organization, take a look at our articles on closet organizers.

5. High quality, durable hangers belong in a high quality coat closet.
After going to the trouble of buying, shipping, unpacking, and then assembling a coat closet, don’t bring things down a notch by using cheap hangers that will end up being more trouble than they’re worth. Coats are heavy, and if you use light, cheap hangers, they are going to either snap or hold the coat lopsided, or worse yet, let it slip off. It’s better to invest in a good dozen set of quality, strong coat hangers from the start than to buy bad ones and then replace them when they break.

The Modis Nevis Armoire in Espresso retails for about $815 on Amazon.com and is available via their Prime Membership. This means expediting shipping that is 100% free. The cost of shipping this product alone will make up for the annual fee of $79. This is the ideal bedroom armoire that can serve as a beautiful wardrobe closet or for the TV. There is also storage featured via two pull out drawers.

The Modus Newport Armoire is also priced around $815 and has all of the same Amazon.com benefits of the Nevis. It is made from pure Tropical Mahogany and is solid wood. Like the Nevis, it is ideal as a wardrobe closet or to tuck the television away in. The English dovetail joiners and contemporary brushed chrome knobs (also available in shaker-style) really set this apart from all others in its class.

While both of those models are beautiful, the Modus Hudson Armoire is truly a signature piece. Once again, it is available on Amazon.com with Prime benefits and sells for about $1,100. That price is actually a steal as it is listed for well over $1,500 at many other online retailers. Made from Eastern Ash and featuring English dovetail joinery, any bedroom immediately moves up a level in class when this is placed in the room.

Modus is just one of many makers of expensive wardrobe closet furniture. Many of them can be found on Amazon.com and a variety of other sites. For this type of furniture, it is hard to beat the deals that Amazon offers. Their prime membership can be put to great use on something like this and if you don’t already have it, sign up and take advantage of the 30 day free trial to get the free expedited shipping. While you may get lucky and find this item slightly cheaper on other sites, they will charge at least $100 shipping and that will more than eat up the small discount.

When winter rolls around, all of the cold weather gear is pulled out to be worn, which can create issues with storage. Would it not be much easier to simply have a space for all of these items where they can be stored safely when not in use and yet ready for the cold days of winter? Using wardrobe coat closets or even the classic wardrobe closet armoires are a great way to do this.

These come with drawers for storing hats, mittens and gloves where they can be out of the way and still easily accessed. Everything that is worn in the cold weather can be kept in these wardrobe coat closets without having to drag them out of other storage areas.

Not only are all of the cold weather items going to be safely stored, but these wardrobes and armoires are quite stunning to look at. Many come in all of the popular hard wood types as well as stains. They even come in more modern looks for those who have a more contemporary décor style.

There is no need to look at jackets, hats and gloves strewn all over the house when it is so easy to organize them. Using a wardrobe or armoire is the most practical as well as aesthetically pleasing way to keep these garments organized and ready to be used when the weather gets cold.  And to think, your clothing will no longer smell like moth balls from digging it out of storage every September!