Kathleen Jacobson, The Couture Closet, is a 2024 Top Shelf Design Awards finalist.

Category:
Closet: Wood Over 18 linear ft.

Project title:
High Gloss & Glamour in this Luxury Walk-In Closet

Project Description:
Our clients had just moved into the city from back east and were excited to remodel an existing old Tudor home and hire us to build out "Her" new walk-in closet. The contractor gutted the house, taking it down to the studs. We pushed out some walls in the closet, bringing extra storage space into the closet. We designed the layout around AC duct work and a fireplace intrusion. It was the perfect spot to build a shallow handbag display case, hiding that the wall didn't align. We strategically placed three 14-inch deep shoe storage units to maximize the hanging space. Taking the cabinets to the ceiling with crown molding also helped the space feel larger. The client wanted a glam feel, so we painted the closet and the ceiling with a high gloss finish in a custom-blended color to match the wallpaper she selected! High gloss paint adds such a fabulous reflective value to any luxury closet.  

Project Construction:
Our cabinet team, J & J Construction & Cabinetry, used paint-grade maple plywood for all the woodwork and Baltic birch inside the drawers.  We designed an inset-style beaded shaker drawer and door front.  Our clients wanted to dress up the cabinetry, so we added a bone trim to all the custom millwork. We integrate lighting in all our closet designs, hiding the LED behind a custom-cut face frame. We used Hafele Loox 5 LED tape housed in a 45-degree angled channel to distribute the light back into the 24" deep wardrobe boxes. All wardrobes and shoe boxes are lit vertically. We designed a wide dresser with six drawers for storage and a framed mirror above it. We did not do an upper cabinet to make the closet feel more open as you walk in. It was also a perfect location to show the clients' personal style with wallpaper and a framed mirror. We built a separate handbag display unit with Starphire (clear) glass shelves and drawers below for her accessories.  We enclosed all the upper cabinets behind solid panel doors to provide storage for items they didn't care to see. We allowed enough room for a small chair tucked near a window and adjacent to her shoe storage. Brass wardrobe rods, recessed valet rods, belt racks, and brass pulls dress up this high gloss and glamorous walk-in wardrobe!    

Materials Used:
*All wardrobe boxes built with paint-grade maple plywood *Baltic birch inside the drawers  *Grass brand under-mount soft-closing full extension glides *Blum full overlay soft-close hinges  *Hafele Loox5 LED tape lighting and WAC 45-degree channels *Colonial Bronze inset style pull out valet rods  *Marble Countertop *Hafele / TAG Belt Racks *Richelieu Brass wardrobe rods  *Schaub Hardware pulls  *Starphire glass & mirrors  

Equipment Used:
CAD drawings were used for our clients' conceptual design work.  J & J Construction & Cabinetry field-measured and laser-leveled all walls & floors to begin fabrication.