Closets are built to be convenient but unobtrusive.
Closets are included in most residential construction as a place to store clothes and other things that would be underfoot without storage space. Closets are usually integrated within interior walls to avoid taking away window space along exterior walls. Closets can range from three-foot-square broom closets to large walk-in closets with wall length organizers and changing facilities. Does this Spark an idea?
Closets in New Construction
Closets work best in a floor plan when they are included in a house as it is designed. Typically, in a multiple-bedroom house, the wall between two bedrooms will be dedicated to two closets, with a door facing into each room. Closet walls are constructed in the same way as the rest of the house walls, usually using 2x4 construction faced with drywall.
Retrofitting Closets
Many older houses have insufficient closet space to meet modern standards, so homeowners often find themselves fitting new closets into existing buildings. Fitting a new closet into an existing floor plan is more challenging than designing the house initially with large closets, but it can be done. Narrow rooms can have a wall built across one end, three feet in from the original wall, creating a closet in the space between the two walls. Open stairways can be closed in to create closet space underneath them. Two new walls at right angles can be installed in the corner of an existing room, creating a closet.
Organizers
High-end closets are fitted with organizers that are designed to keep clothing and accessories neat and accessible. A closet-organizer system usually has some combination of hanging bars for shirts, suits and dresses, shelves for sweaters, racks or cubbies for holding shoes and drawers for folded clothes. Organizers can be purchased and installed in an existing closet, or they may be built into a new closet.
Closet Doors
Narrow closets usually have standard hinged doors, which provide adequate access for a closet space that is three feet wide. Wider closets have bi-fold doors fitted into an opening that is nearly as wide as the closet. Bi-fold doors make it much easier to access everything in the closet without having to squeeze past things to the back of the closet. Closets may be fitted with latches that hold doors shut or with standard doorknobs. Safety doorknobs include a knob or lever on the inside that prevents anyone from getting trapped in the closet.
Tags: closet space, closets with, creating closet, fitted with, floor plan, into existing
