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Measuring, layout, and the mistakes that make a custom closet worse than the one it replaced, for homes around Danville, Kentucky. From Scott Construction KY LLC.
A closet that works is measured against what you actually own, not against a catalog layout. Hanging heights, shelf depths and drawer counts all come from an inventory, and that is the step most closet projects skip.
Nearly everybody starts with a picture like this one, and there is nothing wrong with that. What separates the closets that end up working from the ones that disappoint is rarely the budget.
It is whether the plan was built around what you actually own, in the space you actually have. That sounds obvious. It is also the step almost everybody skips.
Measure your clothes, not the wall.
Pull out everything that hangs and sort it into two piles: things that hang short, like shirts, jackets, and folded trousers, and things that hang long, like dresses and coats. Count each pile, then measure how many inches of rod each one takes up when the hangers are not crushed together.
Do the same for what does not hang. Count pairs of shoes, and count the things that live in stacks, like sweaters and jeans.
Then note anything awkward, because awkward is what breaks a plan: boots, a hat you care about, luggage, a wedding dress in a bag.
Short hanging can be double stacked, which is where most of the capacity in a small closet comes from. One rod at chest height and another below it roughly doubles what that section of wall holds.
Long hanging cannot be stacked, and it is the section people underestimate. Coats and dresses need the full height, so every foot of long hanging costs you the double rod you could have put there instead.
Count your long items first, give them exactly the width they need, and double stack everything else.
Sometimes, and knowing when saves the trouble.
If the plan needs a light moved or added, that is electrical work. If it needs a wall shifted to borrow space from the next room, that is a structural question and a code question, governed here by the state residential code adopted in 815 KAR 7:125.
Older homes around Danville throw up a particular version of this. Closets in houses built before closets were expected to hold much are frequently too shallow for a modern hanger to sit square, and the fix is either accepting angled hanging or taking the depth from somewhere else.
Neither is a problem. Both are better known at the planning stage than discovered halfway through.
A kit works when your space is a rectangle and your needs are ordinary. There is no reason to build what you can buy.
Built work earns its place when the room is not a rectangle: a sloped ceiling, a chimney breast, a window in the wrong wall, a corner that a modular system will simply skip. It also earns its place when the closet is doing more than one job, or when it needs to look like part of the house rather than like something installed into it.
Where it would, the work becomes built-in storage made for the room, and on an older house it often arrives as part of a wider interior renovation instead of on its own. The same question comes up with kitchens, where the choice between refinishing, refacing and new cabinetry turns on whether the problem is the finish or the layout.
Less time than people expect, and the waiting is rarely the building.
The planning conversation and the measuring are usually a single visit. Materials have a lead time that depends on what is specified. The install itself is short by remodeling standards, because it is contained to one room and rarely involves shutting anything off.
What extends it is scope that grows: a light that turns into rewiring, or a wall that turns into a structural question. That is another argument for settling those at the start.
We start with what you own, because that is the only measurement that decides anything. Numbers first, drawing second.
Then the room gets its say. A sloped ceiling, a chimney breast or a window in an awkward wall is not a problem to design around so much as the thing the design has to answer.
We build the closet to fit the room and the person, which is the whole reason to build one instead of buying a kit. Where the honest answer is that a kit would serve you just as well, that is what you hear from us.
If you are somewhere in Boyle County or the counties around it and the closet you have has never worked, that is a conversation worth having before you buy shelving.
Usually, and the real question is what it costs the room. Taking three feet off a bedroom to gain a closet can be the right trade or the wrong one depending on what the bedroom has to spare. Mark it on the floor with tape before deciding.
No. A walk-in spends floor area on the space you stand in, and a well planned reach-in of the same width often holds more. Walk-ins win on comfort and on getting dressed in there, not on capacity.
Somewhere to put things down, and a full length mirror with room to step back from it.
Generally not for carpentry inside an existing room. If the work moves a wall, adds circuits, or changes a room’s use, that can change, and the Boyle County building inspector handles it locally. Anyone pulling that permit has to be licensed with the county and carry liability cover of at least $350,000. Your contractor should tell you which category the job falls into before it starts.
Often, yes. A single rod and one shelf can frequently be reorganized into far more usable space without touching the walls at all, so ask whether that gets you most of the way before committing to a rebuild.
Send the room and what has to fit in it, or call. Either way you talk to Ben.
