Looking for closet corner ideas and solutions? Or maybe you’re wondering how on earth you can maximize every inch of your closet space? As a Layout & Functionality Expert who loves every storage challenge this brings up, today I’m giving you the 7 smart corner solutions to consider!
Hands down, closet corners can be one of THEE most annoying problems to try to find the “perfect” solution for!
If you have closet corners you don’t know what to do with, I hear you.
If you have awkward “dead” spaces in your closet, I’m here for you.
If you’d just like to
burn your closet to the ground😆
and start from scratch, well…I can’t help you with the burning bit, but I can certainly help with the “start from scratch”! 😉
If you’re new here and haven’t seen what we did in our walk-in closet as well as the standard wall closets in our secondary bedrooms, you might want to click on those and check it out! It’s alright, we’ll wait for you here and you can come back…
For the rest of you, let’s blaze onward!
(Clearly I have fire on the brain today.)
CLOSET CORNER IDEAS
The 3 Things to AVOID!
Sometimes knowing what NOT to do is just as important (or more so!) than knowing what to do!
We’ll get to what to do down below but first let’s look at three things I’d like to AVOID at all costs. Read this post for the Closet Corner Conundrum: 3 Key Mistakes You’ll Want to AVOID!
Once you’ve seen those mistakes to avoid, you’ll even better understand what I’m about to tell you about the various closet corner ideas to do (and then you’ll be able to recognize WHICH of the below will work for you–or which might actually be “mistakes” for you and your closet corners!).
BUILT IN CLOSET CORNER IDEAS
#7: Wall or Built-In Closet Corner Ideas!
A great example of how we solved the problem of a simple wall or built-in closet was what we did in our secondary bedrooms, going from this:
…to THIS!
See exactly how we did it HERE!
I know it’s difficult to see in the “old” photo from the prior owners, but to the left of the closet is a “dead” space behind the wall. We removed that section of wall to build the above. (Again, you can see how we did that in this built-in closet/wardrobe post…
…and we also have the design guide with closet plans here so you can follow step-by-step how to do the same (or similar, with your own design/organizational needs!).
CLOTHING STORAGE IDEAS
#6: Walk In Closet Corner Ideas!
If you do NOT have a wall closet like the above, and you are lucky enough to have a walk-in closet…
…chances are lookin’ good that you’ll still have closet corners to work with. 😉
AND chances are you won’t have a strange attic door in one of your corners (like we did!) that you also have to work around, so you’re double-lucky! 🙂 (Betcha didn’t realize how lucky you are to have sidestepped the attic door thing, didja? 😉 )
We did write about why and how we worked around that attic door HERE in one of my posts (“How to Nail Your Closet Layout the First Time!”) so you can go read that one which has some EXCELLENT information about closet corner problems and solutions…
…and now I’ll move on next to discussing additional walk in closet corner ideas.
In addition to all those ideas (or should I say “better than” those ideas because it’s what we did for ourselves personally? 🙂 ), I share with you what we did for our walk-in closet corners.
WALK IN CLOSET CORNER IDEAS
#5: Utilize Hooks for Accessories!
One of the easiest alternatives for weird closet corners is to leave the wall blank and simply place hooks on your wall!
Then you can utilize those hooks for bulky and/or other accessories you don’t have wall space for, such as hats, scarves, belts, and even jewelry!
Another thing that’s great about this is it’s LOW COST! And temporary!
- Low cost: You won’t be spending money on shelves or rotators or anything fancy. You have a free wall and just need to buy some lovely hooks you love!
- Temporary: I looooove flexible design and if you’re just not quite yet sure what you want in your closet corners, doing this option is the free + “let me keep thinking about it” solution so you can later add what you feel you need AFTER using the space for a bit!
So I really love this closet corner idea although I don’t see it utilized much. At all. So enjoy chewing on this idea a little more! 🙂
CLOSET CORNER SHELF
#4: Closet Corner Shelf Ideas!
If you must do shelves (or can’t change your existing shelves for some reason), then it’s okay! We can make those shelves work 100% as best they can, wham bam thank you ma’am!
Instead of doing the L-shaped corner shelves I discuss in this post about closet corner mistakes, simply angling your corner shelves like the below is one idea that eliminates (most of) this problem.
Here’s another similar example, where the homeowner eliminated the corner and turned it into an angle for mostly-hanging rods plus a couple shelves:
CLOSET CORNER SHELVES
#3: Closet Corner Shelves Ideas: Think BASKETS!
Why do I love baskets, woven bins, or other containers for the upper shelves of corner cabinets?
- They’re like drawers up high that you can pull down.
- You can get a variety of stackable options for some containers.
- I especially like labeled bins for seasonal items and lesser-used accessories. (Bonus points if the above less-frequently-used items in your closet corners have lids! Can be more difficult to find in woven options but they’re out there! I’ve used them for clients!)
I even used baskets INSIDE our “built in armoire” on the focal wall in our closet.
While I don’t have a perfect picture of the baskets behind the doors on those closet shelves (except for in this post about our folding ironing board drawer in our closet, also hidden in the “armoire”!)…
…but the baskets DARN NEAR SAVED MY LIFE as I didn’t have to get a stepstool to reach up to the topmost shelves to dig out goodness knows what from there. I just stood on my tippy toes and pulled the basket down to access what I had stored up there.
ONE BAZILLION TIMES BETTER than shelves, let me tell ya!
The same principle would work for closet corner shelves (if you must have them!).
CLOSET CORNER ROD
#2: Closet Corner Rod Ideas!
As you can tell from our own walk-in closet corners (as discussed above in #7), you can see we preferred to use rods in our design.
Here’s another visual of a closet using rods in their corners similar to ours, but with open shelving and drawers instead of the built-in mirrored “armoire” we did.
Speaking of closet rods, another idea is to do pull-down hanging rods that utilize your upper space:
Get them here.
Although they’re not the most attractive solution, they certainly are a great one if you have particularly high ceilings, don’t mind this look in your closet, and are determined to eek out every inch of your closet space.
CLOSET CORNER HANGING ROD
Hanging Rods: A Few Things to Watch Out For!
There are some good things happening in this closet below, but their back closet corners look questionable. You want to make sure you’re extending your rods all the way to the corners and not leaving dead space (unless of course you have SO MUCH STORAGE that you don’t care about the dead space!).
You’ll also want to make sure to MEASURE both the back and front depth your hanging rods will allow in your corners BEFORE you finalize your closet design and material cuts!
Why? I’ve seen too many free “how to build a built-in closet” tutorials that have SO MANY PROBLEMS because of this, because they didn’t do things properly in the right order. (We have our Closet Design Guide that walks you through this OUR WAY step-by-step!)
INTERIOR DESIGN IDEAS
Bonus Closet Corner Solutions!
My #1 closet corner idea is below, but here’s one more bonus idea I came up with while writing this post:
USE MIRRORS!
I haven’t seen it done properly so would need to mock up some designs for you, but instead of using up valuable wall space for a mirror in your closet (as so many people do)…
…what if we started using the closet corners for mirrors?!? A la a fancy changing room with multi-mirrors?!
Of course, this all depends on the space you have available, what’s located to the sides of each of this mirror space, how deep it is, how much floor space you have, your lighting, etc…BUT this is a viable option in some cases and can help you avoid having an awkward closet corner!
I am NOT thinking something exactly like the below photo, but something kinda like it. My brain SEES it! 🙂
A SECONDARY idea to this is even if “all” you can do is literally hang a lovely thin, tall mirror over your corner shelves (as discussed in my Closet Corner Mistakes post), it could potentially be a better use of your space than anything.
The below isn’t my photo and isn’t at all what I’m talking about other than showing you another way a mirror could be incorporated, to get those “little grey cells” in your brain going! 😉
CLOSET CORNERS
My #1 Favorite Closet Corner Solution!
I’m grinning as I tell you this one:
Get rid of the corners! 🙂
Yes, you heard me right! The best closet corner ideas are, in my opinion, the elimination of them entirely!
And yes, you can do it! Check this out:
Instead of feeling like you must do some kind of built-in on every single wall of your closet, why not let it breathe a bit and just do two walls of storage?
It’s also essentially what we did in our own walk-in closet (but we did more storage): we simply made each wall like it’s own corner-less design and then turned and put our built-in mirrored armoire in the center of the middle wall.
Next…
If you haven’t yet seen the 5 closet corner mistakes (plus one you can vote on!), you’ll want to read that post.
(Or you can find ALL our closet posts on THIS page!
You also won’t want to miss
- Closet Built-Ins: The Genius Way to Convert Your Basic Space for Max Storage!
- 11 Master Closet Must-Haves
- Don’t miss out our Closet Design Guide! (price is being raised tomorrow!)
- How to Nail Your Closet Layout the First Time!
- Folding Ironing Board Hack: The Genius Built-in Drawer (Hidden) In Our Closet Cabinet!
PS: To see all our home & design projects by room, click HERE!
PPS: Before you leave and lose track of our blog forever😂, join our “Insider’s List” (we only send one helpful home-related email full of tips, new ideas and design insights per month) and you’ll get our Design Mini-guide FREE when you do!
