Closet Organizing Systems Blog

Closet Organizing Systems (COS) was selected for two Top Shelf Design Awards to be announced at the 2012 Closet and Home Organizing Expo at the Austin Convention Center on February 15^th in Austin, TX.  COS was selected for a melamine office system design and solid/wood veneer closet system. This is the 9th time that COS has been awarded a Top Shelf Design award by Closet Magazine over the last 7 years since its inception.

In the home office category Carey Ekstrom received a Top Shelf Award for her unique office solutions for a sitting/sun room adjacent to the client’s kitchen and living room. The client worked from home and required a functional, yet attractive workspace that blends with the family entertainment activities and compliments the visibility from both the kitchen and living room areas. Transforming a dated, non-functional area into an attractive, warm and inviting multi-purpose area in the home in which the family now looks forward to spending time together.  

In the Wood Veneer category Bill Curran received a Top Shelf Award a cherry stained master closet system simulated leather inserts in the door panels, thicker vertical side panels, full backing, and matching top and bottom moulding throughout the room. The closet was designed with a peninsula island cabinet with his/hers hampers, jewelry drawers, viewing mirror, and granite countertop which doubled for folding and packing clothes. The space also included a window seat bench with drawer storage and an upper lighting valance which is flanked by more hanging storage.

Awards were presented by TV personality Amanda LeBlanc of The Style Networks show “The Amada’s” at the 2012 Top Shelf Design Awards in Austin Texas.

Most garages in America are the home for lots of “stuff” rather than the “ultimate garage” of our dreams. Sometimes, when we’re lucky with our garage design and organization, they’re also the home for our cars (when we’re not driving them).

Some of our cars are large, swanky SUV’s, and some are hybrids. But most are popular, well-rated and dependable autos that we use in very utilitarian and functional ways to get us from point “A” to point “B”.

So when we were asked to do a large “ultimate garage” design for a local vintage car collector, we were thrilled. The client wanted to achieve a very clean, showroom look but also wanted to have ample storage with garage cabinets for his normal garage items, car service parts, as well as his collection of car memorabilia.

Excellent. A garage design opportunity at its’ finest – an “ultimate garage.”

And that’s what we gave it. Our finest (which, by the way, won us a Top Shelf Industry Design Award).

We worked very closely with the client to coordinate the “ultimate garage” project details. And details there were. We had to plan the garage design taking into consideration:

• The installation spacing of cars
• A car lift system
• Coordinating the plumbing for the urinal garage cabinet area (yes ladies and gentlemen, you read correctly, this garage has its’ own urinal), which included a waterproof interior liner
• Investigating and testing the special Linex™ coating over with an MDF core for the countertop
• Designing the garage cabinets and spacing around the need of an air compressor
• Existing toolbox sizing
• Air and water hoses
• An already located slop sink area

The garage cabinets were made out of a brushed aluminum melamine and a special Linex™ coated countertop. We developed an approach for a new, durable and liquid resistant countertop surface for the workbench area all while making sure all storage was behind doors so we could achieve that “ultimate garage” showroom look.