Check Out This Super-Luxe (Organized!) Closet

California Closets transforms an unused second bedroom into a client's dream dressing room.

What better thing to do with an unused second bedroom than transform it into a fashion-display space? When a wife's desire for a dressing room won out over her husband's to renovate their two-bedroom suite, Melanie Baudot, Design Consultant for California Closets, created a dream dressing room for her client.

The project featured two of Baudot's favourite challenges: spatial constraints in need of creative solutions and a sceptical spouse. Structural issues prevented us from tearing down the existing closet, Baudot explains, so our very best Installation Technicians built in and around the existing frame, making it disappear.The client wanted her designer-shoe and -clothing collection to play the staring role, says Baudot, Her wardrobe had to shine, and the space couldnt detract from it. Her top request was a shoe wall.

Baudot added a rich variety of neutral texture that would highlight the client's colourful clothes and accessories: Italian textured finish throughout, modern light-grey high-gloss drawers and doors, light-grey Italian linen on the island's sides and back, luxurious textured veneer on the island's front topped off with a beautiful framed glass top to display her treasured jewellery and accessories.

Although the space benefits from natural light, Baudot added built-in lighting to keep it bright all day (and rainy-winter) long. Puck lights provide ambient light and brighten the front of the closet, while strip lighting illuminates hanging clothes, making it easy for Baudot's client to quickly find what she needs.The client's extensive fashion collectionincluding her shoesis strikingly showcased in her new dressing room, and she loves it. My closet is my happy place, she says, It's a magical place that holds the things Ive collected. We all need a safe placea space of our own. I found mine. And It's perfect.

Happily, her supportive and understanding husband is equally thrilled with the outcome, and now he's got more space in the master-bedroom closet. Win-win.California Closets creates locally built, custom storage solutions for homes of all sizes.