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California Closets: My Dream Nursery Closet

Last year, Matt and I moved to the most charming town in the whole entire world, if you ask me, Coconut Grove, FL. We bought a beautiful and incredibly charming (dream) home built in the 1920s, which had several modern additions added on to it in the 90s, and again in the early 2000s. When we moved into this home we loved it as is, a traditional florida home with dark floors, cozy nooks, and a bunch of quirks, but we had plans to make it ours, eventually. That time came as soon as we found out we were pregnant. That nesting vibe hit me hard! I'll make sure to include before and after photos of the entire home on another post!

One of the trade-offs of living in an older home is the smaller room sizes and closet space. As a lover of minimalism, I admire how people in the 20s and after lived with such "little" closet space, and as an ex-NYer who lived in an adorable 250 sq foot box in West Chelsea, I wasn't concerned with the challenge we faced: design an organized space for baby Oliver, who inevitably got the smallest room with the smallest closets in the house.

Matt and I researched the heck out of closet designs on Pinterest, and I contacted several custom closet companies and I also got a quote from that fall-back on DIY Swedish company. What shocked me was the high end custom shelf and closet maker quoted us over $10,000 for custom closets in our house, and they didn't provide any organization solutions. The DIY Swedish company was still pretty expensive considering all the elbow grease that we'd have to put in ourselves to build it. And then...California Closets. The answer to my organization prayers!

California Closets sent the kindest and most understanding closet designer, Mariel, out to my house several days after I called them for a free quote and custom design, but you can also visit their local showroom. She came very prepared and took all the closet measurements and offered organization solutions I hadn't thought of before. As a self-proclaimed organization freak (Staples was always my favorite store as a child) I was in heaven. Within a few days after Mariel came over to measure, she sent me thorough closet designs for all the closets in the house, and came in under the DIY Swedish company quote, and promised she could get the job done before Oliver made his debut! I couldn't believe it.

Mariel came back to my house and showed me sample colors of the wood. She included California Closet's sustainable wood options with low emitting formaldehyde, which is the perfect option for a child's space and Oliver's open-closet design. We picked a color palette out that was absolute stunning and a perfect match with our fun Scandinavian design feel we were going for. We are so thrilled with the results of our California Closets, especially Oliver's open concept nursery closet, and even more pleased that the whole project fit into our nesting home renovation budget.

Photo credit: Christina Craddock

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