Closet Factory - Colorado

STEP INTO MY CLOSET
Elegant women showcase their elegant closets

Written by Ellen Gray

Once upon a time there was a room. It was dark, it was narrow, and it was stuffed to the brim with clothes, accessories and bits of discarded items too numerous to mention. That room was called the closet, and its sole purpose was to serve as the holding area for items waiting to be retrieved from its dim, crowded depths.

Enter the new age of elegance and refinement. Step inside the doublewide French doors to a slice of heaven — a bright, spacious, and, yes, dropdead gorgeous room that is at once a work of art and the keeper of the wardrobe. When you think about it, a woman’s closet may well be the most important room in any home!

It’s no secret that most women crave a fabulous closet, and who can blame them? Just ask Mark Lestikow, owner of The Closet Factory, a 17-year-old company that caters to the whims and desires of homeowners seeking to create or recreate a closet that will knock the socks (or shoes or sweaters) off anyone who steps inside. “The closet has gone from being something nice to something that women want,” he says. “Women spend a lot of money on their clothes, and if they’re not organized or they can’t find things, that’s a problem. We see women who buy two or three of the same item because they didn’t know something similar was already in their closet. Their shoes are still in the boxes, so they don’t know what they own. The goal is to get these women organized and functioning.”

We stepped into the closets of three well-known Denver women to learn how they were able to design and create havens that truly match their lifestyles and needs. The beauty of it, Lestikow says, is that a wonderful and usable closet can be created from even a small space. All it takes is the use of creative lighting, wood finishes, glass and storage and, voila, you too can have an artistic masterpiece that is uniquely you.

AGATHA KESSLER
Developer

Agatha Kessler knows nice clothes, and her exquisite taste is now incorporated into her new home in the Watermark. Her goal was to create an environment that is both relaxing and beautiful and is equal to all the other rooms in her elegant home. The space includes a dramatic vanity that serves as a focal point in the closet, designed with custom crown molding, fluted panels, mirrors and maple finishes. This room truly is designed as a wow factor for the home and blends into the entire area’s museum-like feel. The closet’s glass door, chandeliers and subtle backlighting add to the drama and functionality of the space.

DIANNE REEVES
Jazz singer

When you step into Dianne Reeves’ closet, you quicklyrealize that for this high-class entertainer, function is a vital part of her fast-paced, nonstop lifestyle. The first lady of the vocals knows she must look picture-perfect every time she appears onstage. She converted her old closet into a shoe showroom, where she can quickly and easily match her shoes with her gowns and cut her packing time by two-thirds. Now, her beautiful shoes have an exquisite venue that Reeves can use to her advantage. And her English cottagestyle closet affords a wonderfully cozy space that doubles as a dressing area.

JAN NELSON
Broker

Realtor-on-the-go Jan Nelson wanted a closet that would fit in with her busy lifestyle. Her previous closet system was random and scattered and was not well suited to her day-today life. She redesigned her closet to create a more functional system that is clean, organized and pleasing to the eye. The classic look contains a series of smaller reach-in closets that hold her personal effects and provide a crisp display.

See this article on Denver Woman Magazine's website.

Behind Closed Doors

If you were to open the doors of your closet right now, what would we find? A figurative battle ground between spring and winter clothing vying for front row attention? Purses and hats stashed too high to reach? Maybe a tie or belt hanger, attempting an effort at organization, but with three times the appropriate number of items? Oh, and what about the shoes? No, we probably don’t want to go there.

If you’re like a lot of people, when you first bought your home, the builder or previous owner hadn’t put a lot of thought into the closets. They were probably little more than hollow spaces hidden behind closed doors. They may have been hung with a single pole or a do-it-yourself, set of shelves and drawers, but you told yourself that you’d upgrade them later, along with properly setting-up the laundry room and the home office too.

The problem now is, that was quite a while ago. Somewhere along the way, between unpacking, the kids, meeting the neighbors and well, everyday life, things never slowed down long enough to actually implement it all. So, here you are, trying to make due with an inadequate set-up, all the while reminding yourself that, “One of these days you really will get it all organized.” Sound familiar?

So, now, ask yourself honestly, how likely is it, that with the approaching great weather, the soccer games, the vacations and the yard work, that you or your busy spouse will really set aside the time to do it? If you can relate to this quandary, here’s some food for thought. What if someone would come out to your home, for free, assess what you need, what you like and give you ideas you never would have come up with on your own and with your approval, magically install it? If that sounds like a dream come true, you need to call Closet Factory.

Closet Factory designs and outfits all varieties of closets, from attractive, practical versions, to elegant, super-custom, walk-in dressing rooms. They do the same for home offices, laundry rooms, kitchen pantries and even garages. Where ever there is a need to organize and maximize space, Closet Factory has customizable products to greatly enhance the enjoyment and value of your home. They work with individual home owners, organization specialists, home builders, and interior designers to facilitate the simplest of projects up to the top echelon variety. This is their business and they know it like nobody else.

A quick look at www.closetfactory.com will reveal a sampling of what’s possible. Six highly customizable product lines let you pick from looks as diverse as American Shaker to Timeless Modern and everything in between. Colors, finishes, sizes and details can all be customized while specially engineered cubbies offer unique solutions for storing keepsakes to lingerie, or displaying ties, shoes and jewelry. Details like crown molding, fluting, oil rubbed bronze hardware, velvet lined drawers, decorative glass and ornamental accents are just a few of the possibilities for personalizing your spaces. With a Closet Factory solution, every item you have will have its proper place and every storage component a well thought out purpose. Isn’t it time to let someone get you organized?

For a free, in-home consultation call Closet Factory at (303) 690-6901or visit their showroom at 8480 Upland Drive, Centennial, CO 80112

When To Say When And Call In The Experts

Picture this: you go to retrieve a specific sweater or pair of socks out of a drawer and spend 5 minutes or more just digging through all the items stuffed into the same space to get what you were in search of. Along the way, you may even find old friends you had almost forgotten about, exclaiming, “Oh! There you are. Haven’t seen you in...” Sound familiar? Or, how about reaching up to get an item allocated to the top shelf, only to have several more cascade down around you, hitting you on the head and prompting some of your more choice vocabulary to escape your lips. It can happen any time and unfortunately, in just about any room of the house. In fact, if you take a good look around, where there is one over-cramped, ill suited storage space, there are likely to be others close by. Many of us live with spaces, that once upon a time, were fairly well organized, but slowly, have crept into almost complete disarray, bit by bit, as might be revealed in a surprising time lapse video.

It’s hard to determine just when the hair that will break the camels back will present itself, or, when to predict you might reach that critical threshold for disorganization intolerance, where you simply can’t take it any longer and resolve to change things. Unless you are highly disciplined about keeping the life around your home organized, it can sneak up on the best of us.

Closet Factory designers will tell you that, actually, there are telltale indicators to tip you off that your time may be close at hand. “Times of major life transition are huge catalysts for clients to contact us”, says Polly Lestikow, Co-owner of the Colorado Franchise as well as lead design consultant for the state’s biggest provider of closet and storage solutions. “You name it and we’ve probably dealt with it,” explains Lestikow, “Couples downsizing after the children have moved on, widowed individuals needing to simplify their lives but still needing space for cherished keepsakes, new home buyers designing the course of their futures, families welcoming a new child, families with children transitioning from one stage of development to the next, career transitions necessitating a well equipped home office and/or a different wardrobe, and on and on. When the way you live changes, the infrastructure and systems you use to navigate that day to day existence should evolve too. When there is a significant delay in dealing with those changes it can lead to an accumulation of stuff that overwhelms us. That’s where Closet Factory comes in!”

If you are not familiar with the name, Closet Factory is a high-end national brand, dedicated to keeping people’s often unruly closets, home offices, pantries, living areas, and garages, not just tidy, but living testaments to good taste, calm and control. Walk into a Closet Factory designed closet and the first word out of most people’s mouths is, “Wow”, accompanied by a jaw gaping pause. It’s amazing how beautiful they can make a space, that in years past, most thought to relegate to behind closed doors. Evolving trends in how people live and their growing appetite for good design have created a market for making beautiful what was once overlooked. Home buyers, especially in the $1million plus market, expect this level of detail throughout the house, not just in kitchens and baths. It’s for that reason that Closet Factory is working more and more on high-end residential projects both in Cherry Creek and throughout the state. Their highly customizable product lines appeal to those with modern to traditional tastes and are quite literally, just what the customer ordered, right down to the dimensions, finish and hardware. For many customers, a beautiful closet represents so much more than a practical place to store their wardrobe. It becomes a respite from the day’s hectic rush, a place where time is no longer important and one can plan for the next day, relish being alone, and admire one’s personal treasures. Essentially, it’s a mini escape, and precisely the kind of added value this audience is not only looking for, but expecting in new home design. Fortunately, Closet Factory knows how to deliver.

To really design somebody’s closet or personal spaces one must understand that person, their needs, habits, tastes and even their quirks, on a deep level. What works for one customer does not always work for another because people prioritize differently. “What we sell requires as much psychology as it does product”, says Lestikow, “and once customers see the possibilities, you’d be surprised at how much attention they are willing to spend on planning places like their closets. For many, their closet is one of their only truly personal spaces over which they have full control. They are willing to invest in making it not only highly functional, but also in creating a personal, aesthetic reflection of themselves.”

Few other closet companies can come even close to providing the kind of customization possible with Closet Factory. Drawers are hand made to individual specification, almost any finish can be duplicated – even matching the finish of existing furniture with extreme precision thanks to their in-house finishing department and special state-of-the-art air filtration system which allows for results that carpenters working in dusty construction conditions could never hope to duplicate. Solid wood, laminates or hybrid solutions allow for very customized solutions across all budget lines. So, if you’ve just about had it, or think you see one of the telltale signs staring you in the eye, call in the experts at Closet Factory and find out how easy it can be to get it together.

To learn more about Closet Factory, visit www.closetfactory.com or visit their showroom at 8480 Upland Drive, Centennial, CO 80112. Personal consultations can be made by calling (303) 690-6901.

OUT OF THE CLOSET

When you hear the name Closet Factory you might be tempted to think....well, closets. Although the national brand, with a Centennial showroom and multiple designers located around the state, did indeed start out focusing on just that when the concept was founded in 1983, as the saying goes, they’ve come a long way baby. It would be more accurate to say now that Closet Factory can enter almost any residential or commercial space, in or outside of the closets, and quickly identify the trouble spots where organization starts to fall apart. The kinds of trouble spots that result in the people working or living there, misplacing things, forgetting things, feeling out of sorts, feeling cramped, cluttered and well, stressed out. It’s easy to blame why we are not as productive as we’d like on outside circumstances or even our families and co-workers, but more often than not, the real culprit is just not having the physical infrastructure and systems in place to get organized and stay that way.

Offices, whether home or corporate, tend to be especially challenging areas to design. This is because, according to Colorado’s National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO) President, Teri Lynn Mabbit, there are 4 separate issues playing out in the office environment at once, which can be further complicated when multiple users are sharing the space:

- First, there is the space planning or infrastructure itself which is often lacking or an ineffective hodgepodge. Does each person have a personal work surface? Are the work surfaces sufficient to accommodate the tasks? Are key spaces being crowded by infrequently used equipment? Are you letting the room dictate how you work instead of the other way around?

- Second, there are life transitions that commonly disrupt the individual’s old system of doing things. What used to work, just isn’t anymore. Transitions like a downsize, a move, additions to the family or a new job might require that someone rework their space and routine.

- Third, are the psychological habits that some people hold onto, causing them to never get rid of things, complete tasks or put items in their proper place.

- Lastly, to truly be “organized” there is a need for disciplined time management and good filing systems. Some folks are guilty of leaving their tasks all over their desks, to “remind” them, but never really completing what they start. When trash items, task items, and to-be-filed items stack up together, chaos ensues.

Irene McKenna, a Senior Closet Factory Designer, with a hefty portfolio of office specific planning experience, explains that Closet Factory must look at all 4 of these considerations, simultaneously, during an initial consult with a new client.

Lipstick communications

RETHINKING CLOSETS

Home may be where the heart is, but it can also be where all the junk is. The holidays are over. The familiar rhythm of everyday life has resumed, and there you find yourself, after weeks of festive chaos, faced with piles of decorations and gifts, just waiting to be put away. It is this time of year, with another 12 months looking you in the eye, when so many of us feel compelled to roll up our sleeves, clean out our closets, storage areas and garages and restore order to our lives. Some of us, faced with those tasks, even resolve to look for a new home all together. One that suits an ever expanding need for space, or, one that allows for a downsize.

Closet Factory, a national brand leader in high quality, highly customized closets and storage solutions, knows to anticipate this urge for order the first of every new year. This is the season when the phones at their gorgeous showroom in Centennial start to ring off the hook and when Closet Factory designers are dispatched to meet with discontented home owners and forward thinking home builders alike. Everyone is looking for insightful storage and organization solutions that use their space more efficiently, more creatively, and of course, with a unique eye for detail and aesthetic. If you’re not familiar with Closet Factory’s reputation, don’t be confused with images of do-it-yourself shelving. Closet Factory is the crème de la crème of home closet, workspace and storage design. They offer six distinct product lines, many featuring rich woods, custom finishes, traditional to modern designs, customizable hardware and just about any bell or whistle imaginable. High-end custom home builders, like Sattler Homes in Colorado for example, will settle for no one else but Closet Factory to collaborate with their discerning clients and architects. Deb DeLisle, Operations Manager with Sattler, says that in their custom homes, averaging in the $2.2 million and higher range, customers are looking for more organization throughout the entire home than ever before. She sees more husbands and wives, both actively involved in the design process, and they are less likely to strictly follow what architects dictate, but rather, are bringing more individual ideas that challenge what’s possible. These customers travel and often want to duplicate the things that they see. They want to go beyond and they want designs that are very individualized. As a result, architects bring builders like Sattler into the fold to collaborate early on to set cost expectations. The home builder knows what materials cost, and in turn, smart builders like Sattler bring Closet Factory in early on as well. DeLisle says, “We invite Closet Factory to meet with our buyers when the blueprints are detailed enough to think through and budget for spaces like master closets. A lot of builders greatly underestimate how much can be done with closets, pantries, craft rooms, and garage cabinetry; things that bring tremendous value and satisfaction to the home buyer. It’s unbelievable what they can do with space.”

According to Ann Failing, Senior Designer with Closet Factory, there really are endless options for personalization with the Closet Factory products, but that is what their consultation process is all about and what sets their company apart. “Discovering how people prefer to organize themselves and what aesthetic they are going after is my job”, says Failing. “Everyone has their own little particularities such as; do they need laundry bins, a place for luggage, or how many pairs of shoes must be accommodated? We personalize their closets and also consider the aesthetic of the rest of the house, so that details like molding and wood finish blend seamlessly.”

If you find yourself a little frustrated after you’ve begun the holiday pack-up process here’s Closet Factory’s number. You might want to write it down and put it in a place where you’ll be sure to find it.

Closet Factory: 8480 Upland Drive, Suite 200, Centennial CO 80112
303-690-6901

More Stuff Than You Know What To Do With?

You have probably not had much recent occasion to consider just how much STUFF the average person has in their house. Not unless you have recently undergone a move or had to prepare either your house, or that of an aging parent’s, for the real estate market. There are places in every person’s abode, even in those homes owned by the most organized, tidy and disciplined among us, where we simply stash things. Out of site, out of mind as the saying goes. Over the years, the accumulation of these everyday incidentals can result in a home feeling cramped, cluttered and cause you to feel just the other side of well organized. Even worse, other personalities grow so accustomed to their self-made jumble, that they don’t even notice the daily concessions they make to accommodate it. Oh to live where everything has its proper place!

Thank goodness there are those that have dedicated their careers and businesses to helping people expertly organize their lives. Closet Factory, a national franchise with a local presence right here in Centennial, Colorado, and with representatives in Vail, Frisco, Colorado Springs and Fort Collins as well, is the Grand Daddy of such companies. Mark and Polly Lestikow, along with their staff of 17, specially trained designers, are inside homes and offices everyday, working one-on-one with clients to determine, down to the smallest detail, the habits and priorities of each person. “What we do is highly individualized. Every customer inherently wants the order we bring to people’s lives, but they want it in a way that is uniquely them. I worked for many years as a counselor, and I have used this experience in training our design staff to be effective listeners and ultimately, to be excellent designers.”, says Polly.

The Lestikows ideally prefer to work at the very beginning stages of a project, with architects and home builders when at all possible. Most architects, after just one experience with Closet Factory, will recognize what they do as a specialty and see them as a valuable resource in fine-tuning their plans. But, they are equally adept at retrofitting existing homes. Like a well made suit that still needs to be tailored to fit the individual, many homes lack the custom storage infrastructure that can really support their individualized lifestyles. Instead, most of us defer our habits to what the house dictates. “With a little planning, almost any house can be greatly improved in terms of its functionality and comfort”, says Mark Lestikow. “We have helped clients stay in their homes by helping them to organize their space better. We like to say that we can do anything from the simple to the spectacular.” When Closet Factory is hired for a job, they begin by doing a careful inventory of each personal item. Nothing goes unaccounted for; number of shoes, socks, scarves; you name it. Next, they study the unique habits of each person, listening to each customer’s individual description of style and sense of space. “When we are brought in to help a newly retired couple downsize for example, or to help a widow transition, we realize we are not only dealing with people’s things. We are dealing with people’s memories and the cherished items that define their lives. These folks may be downsizing, but they still have substantial storage needs. Helping someone to incorporate all of that into their home, in a way that is both functional and beautiful, well, that’s what we excel at.”, explains Polly.

Closet Factory has six product lines, each depicting a unique design aesthetic, and each being highly customizable in terms of the materials that can be employed. All of the pieces for each job are manufactured right at their Centennial factory utilizing an impressive investment in state-of-the-art technology, allowing for great accuracy and attention to detail. Each drawer is handmade for example, box and all, so odd custom sizes are easily achievable. Their paint room and air filtration system allows a level of control over finish quality that carpenters working in dusty construction conditions could never hope to duplicate. The end result is an extremely customized, high-end product that suits their customers’ lives to a tee.

If you would like to learn more about Closet Factory, visit their website at www.closetfactory.com or call their offices at 303-690-6901 to schedule a consultation. Happy organizing!

What Does Your Closet Say About You?

Like a CBS episode of C.S.I. where crime scene investigators painstakingly examine clues to piece together the details of people’s lives and subsequent tragedies, Closet Factory designers are trained to ask some pretty particular questions, to read between the lines and to look at the writing on the wall when doing in-home consultations. And to what end you might ask does this precise science apply? Well, certainly to deliver custom closets as the company name suggests, but ultimately, to deliver peace of mind, order and beauty in some of the most unexpected places.

In years past the closet was a place relegated to ditching your stuff conveniently just out of sight, but evolving trends in how people live and their growing appetite for good design have created a market for making beautiful what was once overlooked and largely ignored. For sure there are many closet and shelving companies out there that haven risen to the occasion of filling this niche, but make no mistake, Closet Factory is not just another pretty face in the crowd. They have made the efficient and creative utilization of space a hybrid between science and art. They by no means limit themselves to just closets. Any place within your home or office where there is a need to organize your things is fair Closet Factory territory. Studies, pantries, entertainment areas, built-ins, home and corporate work spaces – even garages.

Why would someone spend so much time worrying about a closet space? Well, unless you’ve ever had a custom closet it might be hard to truly understand just how nice it is. To really design somebody’s closet you must understand that person, their habits, their tastes and even their personal quirks on a pretty deep level. What works for one customer is not going to work for another. Each person has different particulars, different priorities and different habits. Like a kitchen or a bathroom, a closet is place where real life happens. If those places are not well organized you can easily feel overwhelmed, stressed, and generally dissatisfied with the space in which you live or work. For a Closet Factory designer, putting the pieces together in a way that will fit a customer perfectly requires as much psychology as it does design sense and know-how. Before the construction process ever begins, what is required is someone who can deconstruct your daily rituals, identify your personal sources of frustration or inefficiencies and come back with solutions for restructuring your personal belongings in a way that allows you to interact with those items very naturally, and intuitively. It’s a pretty tall order. Once it’s time to begin fabrication, Closet Factory has the in house infrastructure to customize down to the smallest details and finishes and the product lines in place that cater to traditional as well as contemporary tastes. Each piece is hand made to order.

What Kind of Shape is Your Personal Space in?

Whether be it the wind-down of the holidays, the change of seasons or a life transition such as retirement or new baby, we’re all faced now and again with the task of examining our personal storage areas – both figuratively and quite literally!

Our closets, work rooms, garages and home offices are the often overlooked spots where real life happens. A quick glance around can tell volumes about their owners; how productive they are, how comfortable they are likely to feel while at home and how they are handling stress in their every-day lives. It’s up to each of us to keep our homes tidy and functional, but when it gets out of control, the resulting disarray can actually exacerbate our feelings of being harried, unorganized, busting at the seams, or impatient.

Many jump to the conclusion that the only solution is moving or major remodeling, but often times, and at a fraction of the cost, just reorganizing and upgrading our existing homes and storage areas can not only increase their resale value, but create a wondrous amount of new-found space to be enjoyed today. Professional home organization companies can be a God-send in guiding you through the process. The good ones will normally provide an in-home consultation, giving you highly customized ideas for freeing up and creating space in ways that relate to your personality and preferences. They will evaluate your space, your lifestyle needs, map out a budget, guide you through the detailed process of selecting materials, finishes, and products (which are many!) and manage the full installation. It really could not be much easier to get your personal space into tip-top-shape! Not if you call Closet Factory that is.

For a free consultation with the very best, call Closet Factory at (303) 690-6901.