Our Two Story Closet

Somethings in life you just don’t even know to dream. For me, it was a two-story closet. Two years ago, we were living in a 1,200 square feet New York City duplex with an NYC-apartment sized closet and a collection of see-through, plastic-lidded bins tucked away under our bed containing all the seasonal swap clothing that could never be all out and available at once. In fact, I’m pretty sure our very first NYC apartment would have fit in the first floor of this Texas-sized, two-story closet.

Friends had the same exact stairway, in our current closet, in their apartments. I never knew I’d ever have a two-story closet with the same stairway. Come check out this crazy feature in our home with me!

In looking at the floorplans, it seems this little situation came at the 11th hour per the genius of someone who realized that the attic space that was to exist above the first floor of our closet would be more than enough, so the actual existing attic space we have now, was walled off and given doors.

And a spiral staircase was installed.

Giving us a two-story closet. The fact remains, however, we don’t have enough clothing to hang clothes in the second story of our closet. So for now, this is where we’ve been storing random ski and winter clothes, my wrapping paper collection (I love a good wrapping paper) and my ever-expanding seasonal and event mylar balloon collection. The space also keeps our home at the top of the charts for “Hide and Seek” and I believe my little sister is even storing her light-up, red, white and blue 4th of July cowboy hat on a shelf in here. I wouldn’t know because the space is cavernous and there’s enough room for anyone who wants to keep something in here, adequate space.

Because we also have floor space in our closet, we laid down a faux sheepskin rug, placed a West Elm ottoman near the shoe cupboard, and I styled it with my very first Vogue magazine, and the most adorable bell, from my little sister. Because getting ready in this closet calls for bubbles.

In addition to the generously sized closet, there’s also a shoe cabinet behind this mirrored door. And a second shoe cabinet above this one. We don’t need a ladder to retrieve shoes from the upper one because: we have a stairway in our closet.

The incredible part about this tall closet is the installation of wardrobe lift units to maximize the vertical space of the tall ceilings. They’re super easy to use, and make seasonal wardrobe swapping a breeze. No more clear bins shoved under our bed.

You just reach up and pull down the center pole, lowering the clothing bar so you can easily reach your hangers. When you’re done, simply push up on the pole and let go! The system has shock absorbency to gently lift the unit back up to the top.

We’ve linked a few wardrobe lift systems below. They come in different lengths, with different weight capacities. Highly recommend for any size closet where you have the opportunity to go “up” to store more clothing!

You can find similar wardrobe lift systems here and here