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Beyond the Rack

by Amanda Bedgood

Today's closets take on a life of their own.

There is a scene in the movie Sex and the City in which fashionista and clotheshorse Carrie Bradshaw muses that a couple could never fight in a home as large and luxe as the one she is touring on a real estate hunt with her boyfriend - and then she sees the closet. The slight space gives her new understanding as to why the previous owners divorced. Closets, you see, matter.

Photos by Robin May

Just ask Michelle Moss. Her new closet serves as far more than a place to hang her clothes. It is a place where her hopes of becoming an utterly and absolutely organized person reside.

"My goal in this life is for there to be a place for everything and everything in its place," she says with a laugh in the expansive new closet of her Greenbriar home.

Larayn Guidroz, who designed the space, says closets are the new kitchen or media room - people are spending time and money creating super luxe spaces we once considered an afterthought.

"There is a packing island with storage and everything is behind mirrored doors - no dust problem. There is a built-in ironing board and steamer and a pull out for you to iron and pack," she notes.

These are not your momma's closets.

"These are boutique closets," Guidroz says. "They look more like a store boutique than a basic closet we all grew up with. A place for everything and everything in its place. People travel so much more today and they want the convenience."

Closets - like the one in Moss' home - are created to function for nearly all personal belongings - making a chest of drawers in the bedroom unnecessary for some thanks to a boatload of personalized options.

"You can do as many accessories and add ons in a closet now that you can do in a kitchen," Guidroz says. "It's phenomenal. I have a client who did their closet in tiger wood - you make furniture out of that."

Guidroz says people can make a closet as elaborate as they want - and they are. One client had a recent party where guests were busy touring the closet, so fascinated by the extravagance of it.

"They've become another luxury room in the house rather than just a place for function," Guidroz says.

Some boast seating - something Guidroz loves about her own luxe closet. And all certainly to keep up with even the most avid clotheshorse. But for luxe closet owners like Moss, the space is truly about getting things organized.

"I hate to shop," she admits, noting that her husband takes up far more room than she in the closet.

Rather than a place to house mountains of fashion finds, Moss loves the space for its function and expansive storage options. A built-in hanging rack for pants makes life easier for her husband, and a line of cabinets ringing the top of the space gives home to out-of-season sweaters and the like. Her favorite part of the closet thus far was when she was able to organize, wrap and store all of her Christmas presents in the space.

So while the space looks super luxe, it's really quite practical. - AB