The following was originally posted on October 13, 2011.

Today our friend, stylist Stephanie Saunders presented a makeover of her condo on CityLine’s Home Day that we contributed a closet renovation towards. She’s done a wonderful job of bringing modern and traditional looks together, and shows you that white need not be boring! You can watch the entire episode by clicking here.

This reach-in closet interior (click the image to view the original sketch of the layout in a new window) is constructed in white melamine, with high-gloss white drawer fronts. We’ve provided clothes hanging on either side of the tower, and ample shoe storage below the long clothes hanging; Stephanie has selected some of her favourite shoes to sit in a prominent space atop the bank of drawers. It looks great. We’ve also closed off the closet with a set of our sliding doors. The aluminum hardware uses the Niagara profile, and features mullion strips on top of high-gloss white insert panels, carrying the look that she has employed in the rest of the bedroom to the closet, both inside and out. Stephanie’s entire project looks great, and Space Solutions is proud to have been a part of it.

Here are a couple of quick images from the production, so you may see the finished product in more detail.

Ties

They say that men these days don’t wear ties nearly as much as in years past, but most men still own at least 10 to 20 ties. Space Solutions stocks a variety of tie rack options. Most have slides attached, so they may be installed against the side of a shelf and drawer tower, and may then be pulled forward for easier access. We stock them in nickel or brushed chrome, but can special order them in other finishes.

Belts

Everyone has belts. To complement our tie racks, each series also has a corresponding belt rack. Again, they come in sliding and non-sliding models, and in various finishes. Hanging your belts by the buckle helps keep them straight and last longer!

Valets

There are a couple of options when we talk about valets. Both are intended to hold clothes on hangers temporarily, and then retract when not needed. The Laundry Valet has a series of holes, and when extended allows to you fit the hooks of hangers inside to hold things away from the wall. They are often used in laundry rooms for temporary hanging when transferring clothes out of the dryer, hence the name. But they also are useful inside a shallow closet as well. A Closet Valet is used often against the side of a tower, or even the underside of a shelf, to provide a place to hang, say, the outfit you want to wear the next day, your dry cleaning, items you are getting ready to pack or store, etc.

Hooks

A great way to make use of a shallow wall in a closet that does not allow for conventional clothes hanging, or even shallow storage, is to mount hooks on that wall. For example, a narrow Walkin Closet often only allows for the use of 2 walls, in an L configuration. (This is common in many condos.) You need to leave that third wall for your access. But rather than leave that wall blank, consider adding hooks for quick, easy “grab and go” items: robes, hooded sweaters, shoulder bags, etc. We stock a variety of hooks in various shapes, and again, can special order others as need be.

Here’s handy sheet that covers many of our standard stock options - you can even come into the showroom and purchase them right then and there for your existing closets. Space Solutions Tie, Belt, Valet, Hook stock options (PDF)

In a future post, we’ll tell you about some other essentials, such as solutions for laundry, shoes, pants and more!

Something we get asked about a lot at Space Solutions  is about Professional Organizers, and how are they distinct from what we do. Think of it like this: a professional organizer guides you through the process of organizing your life - and to what degree will vary based on your needs and the services offered. Their goal is to bring order to chaos, and they help their clients reorganize and structure their homes, and in many cases sort and purge.  (Why go through the effort of organizing something you don’t need?) It’s about helping you become more efficient, and find what you need when you need it. It’s a great service. Many times, a professional organizer will bring us in at some point in the process so that we can provide storage and closet solutions. We work closely with many organizers, helping them bring their vision to life, and order to their clients.

Professional organizers have different specialties - some focus on downsizing, some on moves, others on specific areas in the home like a closet or home office, and others still with the entire home. There are many we work with on a regular basis, and will happily recommend them if one of our customers has the need. You can search for a Professional Organizer near you on the Professional Organizers of Canada website, and find someone who specializes in the area(s) you need most help with.

We’ll soon be featuring guest blog posts by some of the professional organizers we know, and they’ll be taking the time to tell you about their services, where their specialties lie, and how they can help you. Stay tuned!

Here we see the main walls of a built-in for a den. The cabinets run wall to wall, and stop short of the right hand wall as there is a full height window there. The backs of the cabinets are, in this case, painted MDF, which the client had painted to complement the remaining wall colour, as well as the antique rug.  The back panels help anchor the structure physically, but also visually, and the dark stain applied to the wood accents the room beautifully.

On the left hand side, the cabinetry extends over top of a doorway,  providing additional overhead storage and bridging the space to the left, which was a shorter wall, so it received a shorter version of the cabinet on the wall opposite. You can see it in the image below.

Here are a couple of looks at trim details on this project. You can see that the cabinets and crown went right to the ceiling, and on the left side some tricky corners were mitered and applied. Where sections of shelves and doors are divided, we used a combination of wide and narrow fluted columns.

This next project was for a home office in a spare room with unusual angles. We built two separate units for this couple, essentially a His and a Hers. The His side was larger, and the two adjacent walls met at less than a 90 degree angle, which would have made the interior corner of the desktop unusable. So we actually installed a false wall across the corner, bringing the end point further forward to allow the cabinets to wrap the corner more effectively.

On the opposite side of the room we installed a smaller version of the desk arrangement, again wrapping the corner and going to the ceiling. On both structures we used a combination of details - fluted columns, crown molding, baseboard ogee moldings on shelves and 5-piece constructed drawer fronts and doors. (You’ll notice that the profiles on this home office differ from the doors used in the den project shown earlier.)  We also created finished end panels on the cabinets using applied moldings. An added challenge on this project were the finishing details top and bottom: the crown was brought right to the ceiling, which was finished with a”popcorned” stucco, but our craftsman, Joe, performed this perfectly.

At the base of the unit, which can be seen in this detail closeup, the cabinet baseboard is obviously not the same size or profile as the room’s own baseboard.  Again, the pieces meet beautifully, which is hard to do well.

Another nice accent on this project were the screen panels added to some of the doors. Screen panels are often used in radiator covers or entertainment centers to obscure a piece of equipment, but in this case the antique copper panels provide a nice accent to both cabinets, and break up the facing with some extra depth. The antique brass knobs and handles bring everything together.

Both of these projects used similar materials, but clearly they were able to achieve very different results. For wood, most often maple is used, but different species - such as walnut, or ash - are available, which can produce dramatically different results in terms of grain and color. Panels used as sides of cabinets and shelves are most often wood veneer applied to a particle board or MDF core; this keeps costs manageable yet still provides a real wood appearance. Moldings are solid wood, so that they may be milled to their patterns and profiles. Drawer fronts and doors are made in a 5-piece construction, meaning they literally have 5 pieces to them: horizontal pieces top and bottom, vertical pieces left and right, and an insert piece in the middle. When things are stained, the natural variances in the wood are often revealed, and it is this genuine aspect of working with wood that you simply can not achieve when using laminates with prints.

A stained wood project does mean a longer than typical turn around time - usually at least 6 weeks rather than the more typical 3 to 4 weeks that most of our work requires.  The installation of projects like these can take longer too; both of the projects featured here took a little over a week each to complete, as many things need to cut and fitted on site.  The results speak for themselves.

If you are interested in exploring a stained wood solution by all means give us a call, or visit the showroom at Bayview and Eglinton.

We make our sliding doors for all sorts of applications. Closets and room dividers are certainly the most common, and we find that the combination of aluminum hardware with white lami glass inserts is the most popular. Our door system is ideal for use as a room divider, as the hardware conceals all moving parts, and there is therefore no obvious “front” or “back” to the doors - you have an excellent view on either side. Along the same lines, white lami glass makes an excellent insert material, since unlike traditional frosted glass, it is the same on both sides; white lami glass is actually composed of two sheets of glass sandwiching a white laminate film, giving it that frosted appearance. While still translucent, the white lami glass has more opacity than traditional frosted glass, providing privacy yet still letting light through.

Lately, we are finding we have more and more customers looking to segment rooms where there is no obvious wall to separate them. Or maybe it is a scenario where you only wish to segment a corner of a room. Well, our sliding doors are ideal for this application also. These photos show an example of this, where we created an L-shaped set of doors to close off an office. On the short side, a single wide panel will slide along the interior of the space, and the three doors on the long side tuck into the right hand side. Thus creating the possibility of privacy when needed, and keeping the office attractive and clean.

To find out more about our sliding door options, head on over to the Doors page and see some other examples, or come visit our showroom where you can see full sized panels in person.

Space Solutions is proud to announce that we have won an award in Homestars’ Outstanding Toronto Contractors and Renovations list. Every year Homestars compiles a Best-of list, with winners determined based on quantity and quality of reviews. For the first time, Space Solutions has been given a Best-of award, in the category of Organizing Products & Services. We’re thrilled, of course, and hope to make this an annual appearance!

Homestars is a a fantastic resource for consumers, providing an independent forum for people to share compliments - or complaints, as the case may be - with the rest of the public about their experiences with a company. The testimonials are moderated by Homestars, not the businesses, so you know that what you’re reading is honest and fair. Whether you are looking for a closet company, a roofer, a plumber or what have you, Homestars takes some of the guesswork out of it for you, and helps you make an informed buying decision.

It takes a lot of hard work to make projects go smoothly from beginning to end, and we want to send a big thank you to all of our customers who have taken the time to post reviews of our work online, or told their friends. A sizable portion of our business comes from referrals and word-of-mouth, and your satisfaction is what makes us successful.

Click the Homestars picture above and have a look at what people are saying about us - and if we’ve done work for you, maybe write a review yourself!

Closets

Closets are the basis that Space Solutions was founded upon, and continue to be a huge part of our business - “We make small closets BIG”. With new colours coming out every year, you can really tailor your closet to your tastes. Popular colours this year have included Antique White Wash, Silken Maple, and the ever popular Chocolate Pear Tree. Of course, you can never go wrong with standard options like White and Antique White. As always, our custom closet solutions are made as unique solutions for you - we make everything to order, and with no standard sizes or predetermined configurations you will get unmatched quality and storage options.

Built Ins

With all this extra time spent indoors, you’re no doubt looking for ways to dress up your home, do away with any visual clutter. Our Built In solutions offer endless options for bedrooms, family rooms, home offices, basement storage and dens. The cabinet shown here is an excellent example of what you can achieve by keeping things simple. This wardrobe has been built using Hardrock Maple melamine, with flat doors and drawer fronts. A more economical solution than using profiled thermo frontage, complementing the structure with these interesting Asian-influenced handles in oil-rubbed bronze dresses this cabinet beautifully. Wardrobes, of course, are a great way to deal with lack of adequate closet space.

Doors

Our in house sliding door program continues to expand. Now offering two door profiles in two finish options, we have also expanded the offering for door inserts! Choose from white lami glass, mirror, woodgrain and solid colour laminates, and backpainted glass in every colour of the rainbow. Effects are possible, too: etched backpainted glass combines colour with the subtlety of frosted; combining glass inserts of different colours, or combining glass with board allows for infinite possibilities. And our smooth-rolling hardware will leave you wondering why you didn’t get these doors sooner.

Radiator Covers

Many older homes throughout Toronto still have operating radiators.  And as much as we love the heat they provide, we don’t always want to see them. Rad covers are a great solution, and allow for additional purpose. Let’s say you don’t mind seeing your radiators - let’s even say they are somewhat attractive - you don’t necessarily want to put things directly on top of them.  Building a rad cover around your radiator will provide additional storage, whether cupboard storage or simply a surface, and still let the rad do its job, and radiate. Our rad covers will allow you access to any valves, and with a large selection of MDF and metal insert screens, can be an unique as your home. Finally, select any colour from the paint deck and our painter will provide a gorgeous finish which will last for years.

And of course, it’s cold out - you don’t want to go outside! So Space Solutions will come to you, and provide a free in-home consultation to design and quote on any of these projects. Call the showroom at 416.322.5575 during business hours, or use this handy form to submit your request online, and one of out staff will phone you to set something up.

Space Solutions is pleased to announce that we will be exhibiting at the 2012 Interior Design show later in January. This year’s show takes place at the North Building of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, on the 300 Level. You’ll find us at booth #2147, along the south wall of the exhibit hall.

Space Solutions will be exhibiting Closet solutions, a Murphy Bed and exciting new colours and options for our sliding door and room divider program. The 2012 Interior Design Show runs from Thursday January 26 through Sunday January 29. Please come visit us and see what’s new for 2012 - we look forward to seeing you!

Update January 27: here’s a photo from last night’s opening night event. From left, owner Barb Larocque, Senior Designer Christopher Willems and showroom manager Andrew Wencer with a double Murphy Bed. More pictures of the show to come!

CLOSED: December 24 through December 26

CLOSED: December 31 and January 1, 2012.

All other days we will be open for regular business hours. Enjoy your holiday season.  Now booking installations for mid January 2012!