Turn about is fair play, and the resident who asked about opening up the upstairs hallway is now kindly sharing closet designs he had done up:
“Thank you so much for the information you provided regarding the hallway upstairs. I knew there was wasted space there. Also, a side benefit to redoing that area there is to block off the air movement between apartments. I get some odors coming up through that area.
I have attached some design documents I had done by ClosetMaid for my two bedroom closets. I thought I would share this. Just some ideas here. This didn’t cost too much and is much better than what I had to start with. One thing I decided to do was to get these bins which act like drawers. I have no dresser. This opens up so much space in the bedrooms.”
I’m always jealous of people with marvelously open bedrooms; ours is pretty crowded with three dressers. But that’s what happens with three adults and too many ballgowns sharing a two bedroom condo! For those of you who can afford to get rid of some bureaus, here are links to pdfs of the designs: Bedroom 1: option 1 and option 2. Bedroom 2: option 1 and option 2.
Here is some pointers which should save you a few dollars:
1) If you can, get a kit. Buying the bins separately is more expensive. There are kits for 4 bins and kits for other things.
2) The anchors come 5 to a box. Take a package of the anchors, go over to the hardware area (Home Depot) and buy the same thing cheaper 30-50 to a box.
3) All the add ons such as the rods and such are expensive. I do like the rods since you can slide the hangers back and forth but I could have done without the curved rods.
4) The shelves themselves are cheap. They come in lengths up to 14 feet I think. You can buy a long shelf and have Home Depot cut it to length for you.
Here is a link to some pictures:
https://plus.google.com/photos/115345677695589408216/albums/6092780418198338337?authkey=CNbK6-uT-PqBtgE
The final few pictures are what I ended up with. I did not follow the designs verbatim. The second closet (the smaller of the two) cost me a lot less but has the same amount of shelving.