Get matched with top closet pros in Long Lake, MI

You can modernize an old-looking closet by just painting it, but beyond that, consider electric elements like recessed or accent lighting. If this is a large and deep closet, you can consider adding an island to the middle or a nice ottoman on a rug. Luxury closets will have even more items, like felt-lined drawers for watches and jewelry, in-wall safes, electronic shoe storage, or a tablet catalog of their items.

Bump-out additions can add some space to a closet without requiring any significant structural work. This entails pushing back the existing rear or side of the closet, simply moving the wall into either an adjacent room or unused space. For ground-floor closets, this could even be extended to the exterior of the home, but that has its own complications. Bump-outs are a good discussion to have with your contractor if you’re just looking to increase the space a little—not renovate the entire closet space.

If you’re on a tight budget, the least expensive material you can buy for DIY closet shelves is chipboard, a.k.a. particle board. This inexpensive material is made from a pulp of sawdust, resin, and glue that’s pressed together under high temperature and pressure. As you can imagine, it’s not very sturdy and might buckle under your blue jean collection, so you should only use it if you’re storing very light items. 

The differences between a built-in closet and a walk-in aren’t that different from a built-in wardrobe and a walk-in closet. It’s fairly simple—a walk-in closet is a closet you can physically enter, stand in, and walk around in. A built-in (whether wardrobe or closet) is more akin to covered shelves installed into a recess in the wall. Another big difference is walk-in closets almost always have traditional full-size doors, while built-ins either have no doors or use sliding doors.