In some ways this topic reminds me of the old saying “Give a man an inch and he’ll take a mile”.
Clients start planning their home renovation project by thinking about their spaces, use of natural light, and material selections they want along with their must have things like granite and certain types of appliances, or electronics.
They want “spa like” bathrooms and open concept kitchens for entertaining, which are all terrific ideas. That’s the “mile” in terms of design.
Let’s talk about the “inch”. The “inch” standing in for where you’re going to store all your stuff. Your clothes. Your electronics. The kids toys. Sports equipment. Office supplies. Holiday decorations. The list goes on.
Bringing on a closet design consultant as part of your team in the early stages allows you to maximize the space you have.
It also lets you make the most of spaces. Closet design consultants think in terms of utilizing every inch of space. So they’ll often be able to identify nooks for special storage needs.
They’ll also be able to help you plan storage space for specific needs. Maybe you’ve got sports equipment, artist supplies, or some really over-sized trophy item from your great, great grandfather that you don’t want out in the family room, but can’t part with.
And there are the functional things like whether a door swings into a space or out of a space. As closet designers, we like to minimize the effect doors have on our designs as much as possible, mostly because if the door swings into the room, we lose that storage space.
Similar issue with light switches and location of lights. We can help you plan so that maybe the switches are in the hallways instead of inside the closets. We can guide you on making sure light fixtures don’t interfere with storage fixtures, or the lighting helps properly illuminate a given storage area.
And what about power? Do you have outlets located in spaces that don’t interfere with the structure of the storage solution? We don’t want drawers blocking outlets if we can avoid it. Yet, we don’t want to design your entire closet around where your outlets have landed. Talking with us in the early stages of construction can help you avoid those unforeseen design obstacles.
Having a closet design consultant as part of your renovation team is one of the best investments you can make. And it will net you one of the greatest returns. So give us a call, we’d love to talk with you further about ways we can help you make the most of your project.