I LOVE my Container Store Closet!

[Anonymous]

I just have to shout it out!

We have a narrow, but deep closet that is shared for DH and I. It had the builder-installed white wire racks down both sides (5' on one side and 8' on the other). Builder grade "white" paint that was marked up after 20+ yrs of use by the previous owner.

We saw a house in the neighborhood that had the Elfa Decor system installed in the same closet space. In the span of a week, I got the design from Container Store, made some adjustments, pulled out the existing wire racks, patched the holes, painted the trim/ceiling/walls, picked up the new system, DH and I installed the system, and we are LOVING IT!

Just thought I'd share. It wasn't something I even wanted to do, but DH was kind of pushing for it b/c he didn't like the dreary look. There closet systems are 25% off now until the end of Oct.

It was a boat-load of work-== for sure. But, it makes me happy every time I open the closet door. Worth every penny.

[Anonymous]

Its also nice that you can adjust them. I've switched around the drawers and shelves in mine a couple of times, and added some things like the pull out valet rod (to hang dry cleaning on) and the tie rack. SO MUCH BETTER than the builder stuff. Yes, expensive--although we just got the plain white Elfa--but it only took us a weekend to take out the old stuff, repaint, and put in the new. And we're still talking to each other, which is more than I can say after some other joint home projects we've tried.

[Anonymous]

We did our kids shared closet during the January sale and it is AWESOME. I can get to everything, know where everything is, etc. We did installation through them which was not a bad price, but agree that it does not seem too hard. Could not be happier with it and can't wait to do ours during the next sale.

[Anonymous]

We also just bought elfa for my tiny walk in. Haven’t installed it yet.

[Anonymous]

We're slowly working toward redoing all of our closets with Elfa. It makes such a big difference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We did our kids shared closet during the January sale and it is AWESOME. I can get to everything, know where everything is, etc. We did installation through them which was not a bad price, but agree that it does not seem too hard. Could not be happier with it and can't wait to do ours during the next sale.

OP here. I was planning to pay for installation. The thing that changed my mind was that in order to paint the walls, I would have to pull out the old racks, patch and paint BEFORE they came for the installation. And there was no discount for the demolition and repair. So, I figured I might as well do the screws into the walls and such for installation.

TBH, there is more to installation and just putting the screws into the wall. It IS a big job. But, we did the whole thing in a couple of days (including the pull out and repair and installation). And I can use that $$ (that would have been paid for installation) on something else!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We did our kids shared closet during the January sale and it is AWESOME. I can get to everything, know where everything is, etc. We did installation through them which was not a bad price, but agree that it does not seem too hard. Could not be happier with it and can't wait to do ours during the next sale.

OP here. I was planning to pay for installation. The thing that changed my mind was that in order to paint the walls, I would have to pull out the old racks, patch and paint BEFORE they came for the installation. And there was no discount for the demolition and repair. So, I figured I might as well do the screws into the walls and such for installation.

TBH, there is more to installation and just putting the screws into the wall. It IS a big job. But, we did the whole thing in a couple of days (including the pull out and repair and installation). And I can use that $$ (that would have been paid for installation) on something else!

How much did they want for installation and what exactly did it cover? Are you saying that they would remove the old stuff and patch, but not paint?

[Anonymous]

Yes, the installation cost is a flat fee based on the size of your project and they will remove existing racks/rods (2 per wall) and patch the holes. For my project -- which involved two walls (one five feet and one about eight feet), the installation cost was going to be around $700. I was initially willing to pay that. But, b/c they would be doing it all in one day, there was no way for me to paint the walls gray in between them doing demo/repairs and putting up the new.

If I wanted to paint the walls (which I did b/c they were all marred from 25 yrs of the previous owner and the crappy builder grade paint, and nails popping out in the ceiling), I was going to have to pull out the old, patch, and then paint before they arrived for installation. At that point, I figured I didn't need to pay $700 for installation. But, to be honest, the installation is a learning process and it surely took us more time b/c we didn't know what we were doing.

[Anonymous]

The woman at the store who helped me was a miracle worker. I had the oddest layout to work with and she did stuff that would never occur to me that truly doubled the amount of storage. If you can hold out for the semi-annual sale it makes the whole thing cheaper with installation.

[Anonymous]

One more clarification -- my project was 2 walls of removal and patch, but three walls of installation b/c we had a U-shaped design on our new closets. We had a 5 ft. section on one wall, a 4 ft section on one wall, and another 6 ft. section on the third wall. That was going to be $700 for installation.

[Anonymous]

No shade on PP but the installation is really not difficult. You don't even need a stud finder. The only think you have to "install" is the top rail, which just involves drilling some pilot holes and if you hit a stud, use a wood screw. If you don't hit a stud, you use the included anchors. The whole system is secure even if you never hit a stud because of the way the hanging rails distribute pressure down the face of the wall.

Now, it might get a little trickier if you are installing into concrete for some reason (probably that would be an apartment, condo or garage situation).

Everything else just hangs on the top rail. They have videos that show how the drawers snap together. It will come with templates for spacing and directions. It's really not difficult.

When you take down your previous system you will have some gnarly holes, so it's best to have a few days to do that (pack a suitcase). Remember to push the edges of the hole into the wall, then spackle, wait for it to dry, sand, and repeat as needed. Prime and paint. Voila.

I agree with everyone else that it is life changing. I have stayed so organized for years after decades of a messy closet. Take the time to count your shoes and measure how much hanging space you want and think about drawers before you go in to have it designed, but of course you can adjust later on.

When you measure, measure everything including molding and door frames, etc. Take pictures, too. Bring all that to the store. Better to have to much information than too little.

[Anonymous]

Elfa is the bomb! We've installed it in many closets (current home and past)

[Anonymous]

I don't get it. I don't care for wire shelving, and I don't see why it's so expensive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No shade on PP but the installation is really not difficult. You don't even need a stud finder. The only think you have to "install" is the top rail, which just involves drilling some pilot holes and if you hit a stud, use a wood screw. If you don't hit a stud, you use the included anchors. The whole system is secure even if you never hit a stud because of the way the hanging rails distribute pressure down the face of the wall.

Now, it might get a little trickier if you are installing into concrete for some reason (probably that would be an apartment, condo or garage situation).

Everything else just hangs on the top rail. They have videos that show how the drawers snap together. It will come with templates for spacing and directions. It's really not difficult.

When you take down your previous system you will have some gnarly holes, so it's best to have a few days to do that (pack a suitcase). Remember to push the edges of the hole into the wall, then spackle, wait for it to dry, sand, and repeat as needed. Prime and paint. Voila.

I agree with everyone else that it is life changing. I have stayed so organized for years after decades of a messy closet. Take the time to count your shoes and measure how much hanging space you want and think about drawers before you go in to have it designed, but of course you can adjust later on.

When you measure, measure everything including molding and door frames, etc. Take pictures, too. Bring all that to the store. Better to have to much information than too little.

I think you are glossing the fact that you have to learn HOW to attach the drawer frames into the brackets. And how to pull them out (it's not ituitive) when you want to take them out. And how to jam those racks into the brackets, and ooop... should have put those shelf liners on the rack/shelves BEFORE you installed all the facia pieces... now gotta remove all the facia pieces and then put on the liners and then put the facia back on!, and how to put on the track covering (which was the easiest part) and "how high is this rod supposed to be" -- gotta remove it b/c I should have raised this up first, etc. etc.

Oh, they didn't cut the standards so now they are hitting into my baseboard trim! And turns out the track that was supposed to fit a 63" wall was actually cut to 63.5"! Etc. And exactly how hard and how long do you have to screw those screws into the anchors to make them tight? It IS a learning process. It's do-able. But, there is more than just screwing 10 screws into the wall and calling it a snap.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No shade on PP but the installation is really not difficult. You don't even need a stud finder. The only think you have to "install" is the top rail, which just involves drilling some pilot holes and if you hit a stud, use a wood screw. If you don't hit a stud, you use the included anchors. The whole system is secure even if you never hit a stud because of the way the hanging rails distribute pressure down the face of the wall.

Now, it might get a little trickier if you are installing into concrete for some reason (probably that would be an apartment, condo or garage situation).

Everything else just hangs on the top rail. They have videos that show how the drawers snap together. It will come with templates for spacing and directions. It's really not difficult.

When you take down your previous system you will have some gnarly holes, so it's best to have a few days to do that (pack a suitcase). Remember to push the edges of the hole into the wall, then spackle, wait for it to dry, sand, and repeat as needed. Prime and paint. Voila.

I agree with everyone else that it is life changing. I have stayed so organized for years after decades of a messy closet. Take the time to count your shoes and measure how much hanging space you want and think about drawers before you go in to have it designed, but of course you can adjust later on.

When you measure, measure everything including molding and door frames, etc. Take pictures, too. Bring all that to the store. Better to have to much information than too little.

I think you are glossing the fact that you have to learn HOW to attach the drawer frames into the brackets. And how to pull them out (it's not ituitive) when you want to take them out. And how to jam those racks into the brackets, and ooop... should have put those shelf liners on the rack/shelves BEFORE you installed all the facia pieces... now gotta remove all the facia pieces and then put on the liners and then put the facia back on!, and how to put on the track covering (which was the easiest part) and "how high is this rod supposed to be" -- gotta remove it b/c I should have raised this up first, etc. etc.

Oh, they didn't cut the standards so now they are hitting into my baseboard trim! And turns out the track that was supposed to fit a 63" wall was actually cut to 63.5"! Etc. And exactly how hard and how long do you have to screw those screws into the anchors to make them tight? It IS a learning process. It's do-able. But, there is more than just screwing 10 screws into the wall and calling it a snap.

Everything you mention is quite easy and takes a few minutes. When I installed the vertical rails I made sure they were in the right place by hanging them first (without screwing them in), and then installing the drawers. I screwed one screw in partly with the drawer installed before installing all the other screws. Whenever you are putting things like this together, you need to "dry fit" the pieces. There's nothing worse than finding out that things won't fit, when you're partly through an installation.

I put in a combination Elfa/Rubbermaid closet after reading this post: http://realmod.blogspot.com/2014/05/closet-storage-systems-elfa-vs.html

I did it all in one weekend. It took longer than I wanted because I ended up doing most of the work (and got my then-boyfriend's help for only a few minutes).

I think that the Elfa install price is quite reasonable. I'm surprised, however, that a lot of people go this route, since they won't paint. My OCD would be annoyed about having a wall that has patch marks. (Do they even primer?)