As part of remodeling our basement, I am adding a walk-in closet to my daughter's bedroom and a large storage closet to our bonus room.
While our house is relatively large (3600 sf), there is minimal storage. Since our basement bonus room is about 1300 sf of open space (in the shape of an L), taking 4 feet of the end of it is hardly noticed.
Here is the plan (orange walls are new)
This closet is basically 4" x 8", which I think is about the minimum you would want for a walk-in. You could argue its too small, but it provides 8 continuous feet of closet space, plus takes most of the area in front of the closet (the clearance space you need for standing) out of the room. This actually increases the footprint of the bedroom quite a bit.
We are moving my daughter's old closet to our boys' room. These are closets have just a four foot opening, and they need space as well.
Here is a diagram of the design we came up with. This eneded up being a combination of daughter, DW and me all putting our ideas in the mix. There will also be some shelving along the back wall, not shown here.
After looking at the prices, quality and options for closet organizers, I decided to build it myself (for more on cabinet building,
click here). We are using 5/8" laminated pine boards from Home Depot. I'll add pictures in a few days. I figure I can cut the cost in about half, and make exactly what we want.
Most closet organizer sites want to sell you a unit and are not focused on helping you with building and designing you own. After searching a while, I did find a good resource:
Designing a closet organizer by Ace Hardware. It provides typical dimensions (I inserted the table below), plus overall installation techniques.
| Five men's suit coats | 12" wide, 38" long
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| Six men's shirts (on hangers) | 12" wide, 38" long
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| Man's shirt (folded) | 8" wide, 14" long
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| Man's pants (on straight hangers) | 44" long
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| Man's pants (folded on hangers) | 27" long
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| Man's dress hat | 6" x 11"
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| Man's shoes | 9" wide, 12" long
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| Woman's dress | 68" long
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| Woman's robe | 52" long
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| Woman's dress | 50" long
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| Woman's jacket | 36" long
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| Woman's blouse (on hanger) | 34" long
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| Woman's blouse (folded) | 10" wide, 13" long
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| Woman's skirt | 36" long
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| Woman's shoes | 6" wide, 9-1/2" long
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| Sweater (folded) | 10" wide, 14" long
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| Boots | 9" wide, 12" deep, 14" high
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