I learned so much from having custom closets installed in my bedroom, kids’ nursery and my home office/spare bedroom. Both from experience and through talking to dozens of people, from friends who’ve had their own done, to closet designers and installers, there are a multitude of things worth knowing ahead of time that few people will tell you. (See my recent article “How to choose a custom closet install company” for more on choosing a company.)

Get everything in writing, in the contract

Speaking to a friend who learned this lesson the hard way, go through the drawings and quote with a fine toothed comb. Every change after the contract signing, no matter how small, is counted as a change order, and will cost you. Changes get more expensive after manufacture, and even more so after installation. So check, double check, and double measure.

During our kitchen install, our most expensive cabinet, a $7,000 mechanised behemoth, was delivered looking totally different from the drawings we signed off on. I identified this immediately on delivery, and though it was a fight to get these remade free of charge, we whad design drawings in the contract to fall back on.

It was worth having cabinets professionally installed

Despite being an expert at Ikea-fu, I am very glad installation was included. Our installation from Closet Factory took two experienced installers who were trained in this company’s system two full days to install. A generic contractor would also have the tools and could manage it, or a taskrabbit hire would at least be better than me, but having in-company people made things much quicker and guaranteed the unit has a lifetime warranty.

The supplied installers were direct hires – not contractors, like some other companies. They were two of the best tradespeople I have ever had, with an excellent can-do attitude. How often can you say tradespeople went over and above your expectations? Communication in particular was excellent, and the process was very low stress for me.

Be present during the installation to answer questions and make changes.

Our designer was wonderful, the 2D and 3D drawings were incredibly useful, and we strived to cover every small detail during the design and contract stage. However some things are best decided on when you can physically see and stand in the space.

My installers confirmed the placement of the under-shelf lighting switches, and I am glad I changed their locations on the day to look less conspicuous. Some shelves are semi-permanently fixed, and I could tweak their locations once I could see their heights relative to my body. As I’ll explain, I was also able to intervene when the holes for power outlets were made too large.

These companies are not used to power outlets being installed on backing

Their norm for dealing with power outlets is to cut a large hole in the backing. Unfortunately, this looks much worse than a flush-mounted outlet, and large power adaptors (such as MacBook Pro chargers) still may not fit. I ended up having them recut the backing, mounted an old work box in the hole, and then used slightly larger Legrand Radiant wall plates to cover it all. Jumbo wall plates are also available.

It makes sense that closet companies won’t touch electrical outlet installation. Luckily I had done a short home maintenance course and I felt confident moving my outlets from mounted to my wall to mounted to the closet backings. Most people would have to pay an electrician to remove outlets and cover the wires with wire nuts, then pay them a second time to come out and reinstall the outlets.

I am glad I chose a company with a local factory

We had a few minor hiccups that necessitated the refabrication of a few parts. We used slightly different facade colors in the master bedroom. The installers didn’t notice that they accidentally installed the wrong filler in the office. To be faier on the installers, having barely noticeable differences in different rooms is not normal. They were not told to look out for this issue in the factory-supplied blueprints or by me. Such things happen.

Once the gap fillers were installed, I noticed that they weren’t flush with the drawer facades. This is normal, but I noticed immediately after installation of one of the 6 sets of drawers in the three rooms done that this was not to my liking. They were able to quickly fabricate thicker fillers for me. These use very little material, cost them little to made, and I was happy to make the 60 minute return drive to pick them up. They were kind enough not to charge me for this last minute change. They just did it.

We also had some miscommunication over the size of the holes for the outlets. They did their “normal” process. See the above point on outlets. Sadly the hole was slightly too big for even jumbo outlet. They were kind enough to remake this small piece of backing for free that same day.

Finally, one of the shelves had a plain white facade instead of nice textured and colored veneer. Simple mistakes happen, and once again this was quickly remade.

The whole job was complete by the end of the second day of installation. Nothing was left outstanding, and we could fill and enjoy our new closets and drawers right away, stress free. Nothing made us happier.

Don’t skimp on filling the top gap. Or do.

I tried to save money by skimping on crown fillers, which are the boards between the top of the closets and ceiling. It looked bad enough for my spouse to complain, but 2 years later we find ourselves using this little space for extra storage. When it comes time to resell the house, this small touch will complete the look, and I’ll get those made then. The cost is only a few hundred dollars on a $20,000 job, and I wish I had them made (but perhaps not permanently installed) at the time of manufacture.

They do the drawers, you do the drawer organizers

All these mid- and top-tier closet companies offer clear (Lucite), wooden, or black felt drawer organizers in their catalog, or can hard-install cubbies of set uniform sizes, as shown in this Closet Factory cubby gallery. However, just like for my kitchen drawers, I wanted something custom-built for my needs. Sadly, none of the designers were much help or particularly interested in working with me to customize this low-cost, low-profit upsell. I get it – they’re not there to help with the minute details. Professional organizers are a whole other profession, and I am sure they charge by the hour instead of on commission.

For my kitchen renovation, I found it took a while to figure out what would be the settled locations for items. With that in mind, I did not purchase any drawer divider systems at the time of the initial closet install, and I intend to either buy clear “Lucite” dividers from my closet manufacturer, or as in the case of my office stationery drawer, copy my kitchen process and custom make my own dividers with those from Lifestyle Systems for the ultimate custom fit.

The Container Store sells the Lifestyle Systems custom dividers in 2” and 4” heights, and only in white, which worked well for my white kitchen drawers. The closets had nice wooden interiors, so I ebought clear dividers in 1″, 2″, 3″ and 4″ sizes direct from the Lifestyle Systems website. Note that the double-sided tape failed with my heavy use, so I switchted those to 3M Heavy Duty double sided tape, and though even more time consuming to add, the end result works great.