3 Interior Designers Transform The Same Walk-In Closet

[Narrator] These three interior designers

have been given a photograph of an empty walk-in closet.

They have free reign to design it in any way they please.

My name's Jenny.

My design style is full

of interesting shapes, texture, and color.

My name's Darren Jett,

and my designs are based in historical references,

but told with a knowing wink towards the future.

My name is Chiara.

I strive to create joyous, yet serene environments.

[Narrator] No clients, no restrictions, just blank space.

I love any kind of walk-in closet.

However, this one could use a lot of love.

It's highly functional.

It's pretty basic.

The closet looks to be about 10 by 16,

which honestly that's about the size of a bedroom.

[upbeat music]

I would love to do something

that's a little bit more theatrical,

that has a bit of drama, a little bit of flare.

If we imagine that our closet

is built out on the two sides something like this.

That's your sort of straight line flanking the room.

We can fill that up with millwork.

We can, you know, make that all usable space.

What I would really like to do is to create a focal point

and a nice ending to this rectangle,

and a sort of faceted arch that's in the back of the room.

It can really like pull you towards the room,

and it just kind of softens that sort of rectangular box.

I think a beautiful wallpaper here will be sophisticated,

but also playful and add a little bit of whimsy

and escapism that I think a dressing room should have.

So I would choose this Maison C paper.

It's called Natura Morta.

The pattern of Natura Morta, this still life idea,

is creating a mood where you can hit pause.

It's a bit surreal.

What if we have all of this back here be mirrored.

I'm really inspired by old photography by Guy Bourdin.

For instance, he has this fantastic image

of this woman who's like up on a stage,

and behind her is this multifaceted mirror,

and it just reflects her in all these different situations.

Inside of this mirrored sort of arch

would actually be extra storage.

I went with a backdrop pink color.

It's called Studio Hours.

It's just like a really beautiful beige-y pink,

very feminine, but also like a nice neutral.

So I would love to perhaps pull in a shade of pink.

And then on top of that arch,

we could have a sort of raised trim

and almost like a lattice work effect,

and that could be in a sort of slightly lighter pink.

[upbeat music]

I'm inclined to do a really beautiful wood millwork

for both sides of the dressing room.

The doors and drawers should be

this pretty light walnut finish,

and then I would love glass fronts.

But instead of having the fronts

show everything that's inside,

I'd like that just to be a beautiful secret behind,

again, having Natura Morta backing the glass.

For the built-ins and the middle sections of the closet,

I chose one of my absolute favorite stones.

It's Norwegian Rose.

It's full of hues of pinks and army greens

and specs of gold and ivory,

and I just envisioned this walk-in

that was just super looks

and kind of like a fantasy world for me.

A lot of my clients,

they'll come to me when we're doing a closet,

and be like, I want all my clothes to be shown off.

I want to walk in and I want to turn on a light

and see all of my fantastic clothes.

But then the reality sets in,

and sometimes you have the clothes

that you go out, you know,

to the farmer's market or to walk the dog.

So I think in this situation,

whenever we're having in the back here

all of this be mirrored,

it would be great to contrast that with a solid door

where you would have, you know,

all of your clothing behind like this,

but the doors themselves could be covered in fabric.

So these bottom drawers are for shoes,

smaller accessories, easy to grab and pull out.

One of my favorite details

about this millwork is the hardware.

I love this beautiful Martin Pierce custom hardware.

It's their orchid pull.

The upper cabinets, I really wanted it to feel

like you were in a beautiful study or a library.

The closet doors, we're going with this reeded glass,

which is a ribbed glass that I think adds

a really nice form of texture to the space.

So when you're looking into the closet,

it's a bit opaque,

but you can also see the clothes somewhat.

I designed the glass to sit

in this powder coated metal frame,

designed also like custom semi-circle drawer poles

in this kind of like iridescent burgundy color

that just adds a sense of sophistication

and almost like moodiness.

In the front,

I would love to show off all of the gowns.

I would love to show off all the Bottega and Dior

that you have in your closet, all the furs,

everything that you really wanna like walk in

and like turn on the light and be like, Wow, I live here.

So why don't we take that same idea

of having the velvet doors,

but instead of it being full panel of velvet,

we actually have glass inset

that kind of gives you that showroom effect,

which is really cool.

[upbeat music]

I love wall to wall carpet in dressing rooms.

I love this mixed fiber carpet by Verdi.

This is a Columbian company, and they weave in copper.

One of the things I thought

about when designing the room is I hope that it glows.

So the original room is all one level,

totally fine, but I really want to push this.

I want to give that element of fantasy.

I wanna give that element of drama.

So if we just raise that back portion one step up,

that really gives a stage

for you whenever you're getting ready,

whenever you're putting on your shoe

or your final accessory to look at yourself

and then walk out the door.

I'm going with a wall to wall custom version

of my Finish Line rug and garnet.

I love how the pinks and the greens

really tie into the Norwegian Rose Stone.

The burgundy stripe goes back nicely

to the powder coated burgundy metal.

The rug really ties in the colors

of the rest of the elements of the space.

So the flooring in here, I really wanna go super soft.

I want to think about a high-end retail experience.

And I think we could actually do something

like a scarlet silk carpet.

Underfoot, it would be incredibly soft,

very, very rich, very lush.

[upbeat music]

If this is to be a proper dressing room,

there should be a vanity.

I really love the idea of a skirted vanity.

The upper part actually does have small drawers

for makeup and small accessories,

but the lower part is this Natura Morta, again, fabric

that matches the wallpaper

and the fabric behind the glass door,

so that the whole room is in this Natura Morta pattern.

And I did that intentionally because I think

that sometimes the pattern can seem busier

than it is when it's just in one place.

On several surfaces, it becomes quite neutral.

I'm imagining my client coming to me and saying,

You know, look, I don't have a ton of space in my bathroom.

I need a space to look at myself

and make sure I look good before I go out the door.

I think if we took away maybe like two doors,

and instead of having storage there,

we gave a nice vanity situation.

If we're doing this kind of scarlet red,

maybe in the shoe cabinet,

maybe we pull that out to the vanity

and all of that becomes a high gloss lacquer.

I'm deciding to put the full length mirror

in the back of the room.

I wanted this mirror to really shine

and be a piece of art so to speak.

It's this geode shape that is attached to the wall.

I thought just this softness

of this kind of almost 1950s Gio Ponti style mirror

would add a nice dimension to the room.

I think having wings on the mirror is also really handy

if you're gonna sit there and do your makeup.

It adds a little bit of drama to have the 3-way mirror

in this old fashioned way.

I do want to have a chair.

What I'm thinking of is actually a Maria Pergay chair

that's a little bit more modern,

but still has a little bit of femininity to it.

It's stainless steel,

and on the back it actually has little ribbons

that are in pink, also in steel.

A vanity is a must

if you're going to have a walk-in closet.

A place where you can put on your makeup,

get dressed, put your jewelry on,

and I added our Teddy Pouf in a nice ivory color.

The chair is a stool by Orior,

and it's this recycled crystal,

really beautiful and really delicate to look at,

but also really sturdy and comfortable.

And I love the contrast,

that very bright and light material

up against the copper and these warm colors.

I always like to provide

extra drawer space for my clients.

We have plenty of space to actually build an island.

Think about if you have scarves that you want to roll up,

and you look down from above

and you see them through a sort of porthole glass.

So instead of having sort of like square corners,

if you do something that is more of an elliptical shape,

something like an oval,

I think that the flow is much better.

This is quite a big walk-in closet.

There is opportunity for seating moments in it,

and I just thought it would be really nice

to have this really cushy, dreamy cloud shape bench

in the center of the room.

Another thing about this room as it is big

is I think it's a wonderful place

to escape to as a dressing room,

or whether you're sneaking away and reading a book.

I thought it was important to have a beautiful,

but also comfortable piece of furniture in there.

And so I found this antique chaise lounge

in a gilt wood frame

with this really beautiful carved wood detail.

I chose this new Dedar fabric,

it's called Parisian Letters,

and I just thought it was

a really beautiful silk, somewhat ecote pattern.

[bouncy music]

A closet needs to be really well lit.

I would like to have two chandeliers

that come from the ceiling.

I'd like to have one sort

of in this area by the arch and the stage,

and also one directly over the center of the island.

I think that we could lean into this look of Italian 1940s

glass that maybe has a little bit of tint to it.

So for the chandelier, it's the Aqua Dippa Pendant,

and it has a silk shade.

I chose this kind of oyster shade,

and it is hard to see, but it's ruched a bit,

and then it has a beautiful metal finish.

I loved the idea of this soft billowy shade up above.

Clearly this room needs some lighting,

and I wanted to do a statement pendant,

but I wanted the pendant also

to be something pretty soft and subdued

just because the rug is so busy

and the stone has a lot going on.

When you have glass doors,

I think it's a perfect opportunity to have lights within.

The lights inside of the glass vitrines

really lend themself to that sort of showroom experience.

I seem to have really taken to pine wood sconces,

but in this case set with the wallpaper.

I didn't want sconces that would take away

from the pattern or look ornamental.

So when you're sitting at a vanity,

it's really important to have lighting really at the face.

I would love to have sconces that flank on either side.

The lamps themselves could have a sured shade on them,

which would just diffuse the light

and make it super beautiful and flattering.

In terms of the closet lighting,

I would definitely add some up lighting.

I think it's like a nice touch,

and obviously when you're getting dressed,

you wanna be able to see everything.

I would love to have lights

underneath the sort of platform stage area.

From a functional perspective,

it prevents any sort of tripping hazard,

but also just from an atmospheric point of view

it just gives that little extra touch.

[upbeat music]

If this was my walk-in closet,

it would just be like my safe haven,

and I wanted to add some just like nice personal touches.

A vase with a little flower moment in any room

makes things feel really homey and comfortable.

I would probably display some

of my favorite coffee table books.

I think every room should have fresh flowers.

In here, there's an idea of a sort of narrative

of this woman who's getting dressed throughout the day.

Perhaps the flowers are starting to kind of wither away,

but they're still ultimately incredibly beautiful.

We also even have the shoes on the floor.

You know, if you imagine Dior Raf Simons 2006

spring collection lending itself well

to the idea of things not being quite so perfect.

[gentle music]

I'm very happy with this room.

I can think of several clients who would love this room,

and I have to say I would probably love this room as well.

I really designed it with myself in mind.

I was the client.

This would be a dream for me.

I love the mix of materials.

I love the colors.

It's very calming.

It's not really meant for me,

but I could completely see myself taking over and moving in.

I'm a sucker for excess.

I think that all the world is a stage,

and you should really live out loud.

[bouncy music]

Oh my god.

Oh my god, I love how different these are.

Wow. Wow.

These are so fun.

Wow, wow, wow.

Is this sort of a pink?

Yeah, there's like pink and like greens

and some beiges and whites in it.

Okay, I was also going in a sort of pink world too.

I was going like kind of hyper fem,

like just imagining everything that she wants,

she's gonna get.

Can you maybe tell us a bit about your millwork?

I was thinking that I would use kind of

like a really light walnut millwork.

So nice and warm.

Yeah, exactly.

I wanted it to feel feminine, but not too feminine.

So I thought that like this pale walnut

would be a little bit more handsome.

Oh my gosh, we all did a vanity.

We all did a vanity in there.

We all did a vanity in a different way.

I love that.

Wow, okay, and yours is sort of like the focal point,

which is really cool.

Yours is kind of like tucked away.

Ours is more like built in.

I'm looking at the chair at your vanity.

Can you speak to it a little bit?

I have one client in particular who's like,

she's gonna see this and love it to death.

Maybe this is a pitch for her.

It's a stainless steel chair,

so it still has that element of cool,

but on the back it has these stainless steel pink ribbons.

Oh, the ribbons are steel too?

Yeah, everything is the steel.

Yeah, so it's feminine, but it's also sort of sharp

and kind of cuts through a lot of the other fabrics

and things that are happening.

For me, I was like,

what would my ideal walk-in closet be

living in New York City?

And I just wanted to feel like very lux

and sophisticated and like a haven

Just go hang out by myself.

[Darren] I would come in there and like never leave.

It's like so bright and nice too.

[gentle music ends]