Design Your Dream Closet

After: Smart and Pretty

Now one side is a utility zone for tools, cleaning products, and ironing supplies; the other is a hall closet with jackets, bags, and gym gear. (Off-season coats were moved to a garment bag in the back of Margaret’s bedroom closet.) The upper shelves hold labeled storage boxes for rarely needed items, like photos and Christmas ornaments, along with mesh baskets for things Margaret “needs to see to remember that they exist.” Painting the shelves white gives areas definition. Easy-to-apply self-adhesive wallpaper makes the closet feel polished.

To buy (from top): Cabo Storage Nest wire baskets, $25 each, organize.com. Stockholm boxes in red, $13 each, containerstore.com. Canvas low bins in slate, $29 each, westelm.com. Hangers, $30 for 50, bedbathandbeyond.com. Tacktile metal message board, $30, cb2.com. Tubelor trash can (holding umbrellas), $60, nova68.com. Tempaper Edie Gio Silver GI 016 self-adhesive wallpaper, $75 a roll, tempaperdesigns.com.