CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- "We're number three on resales," reports a pleased Carlotta Yonkers.

Closet space is now right behind kitchens and bathrooms as what homebuyers want in a house.

Yonkers and her husband, Ken, have owned Closets by Design in Charleston for 21 years.

In new construction and additions, people have forsaken the whirlpool tub for walk-in showers and bigger closets.

Others are converting bedrooms into closets. Yonkers said several of her clients have reclaimed bedrooms abandoned by children going to off college or moving out to start careers or families.

According to Yonkers, people want the closets to be self-contained. "They want to dress right in the closet," she said.

The trend is to free up space in master bedrooms to create a sitting area to watch television. So dressers and vanities are moving into the closet as built-ins.

Her clients, she said, want to be able to sit to put on stockings and shoes. So there may be a window seat in the closet or an ottoman in the center.

"In really big rooms, there's empty space in the middle so islands provide more storage," she said.

Closet islands may contain jewelry drawers, hampers for dirty laundry and cubbies for shoes.

"There can be a lot of bells and whistles," said Yonkers, mentioning sliding tie racks and next-day valet rods -- small rods that pull out to hang the next day's outfit on.

When they started in the business, Yonkers said closet organization involved much more wire shelving. Now, a laminate product with the appearance of wood is more popular in master suites.

Enclosing an unused porch

When Cindy Boggs added a new closet off the master bedroom, her shoes got a room of their own.

"That's the best thing that came out of all this -- a place for my shoes," she laughed.

Boggs is among those homeowners who got tired of trying to find an outfit among clothes that were smashed together in dark closets.

She enclosed a second-story screened-in porch at her Hemingway Place townhouse to create a closet.

Boggs started planning her project when she noticed that a neighbor in her development off Greenbrier Street had enclosed the porch.

"I've lived here eight years and have been out on the upstairs porch probably eight times, mainly to check what the weather's like," she said.

So she decided to enclose the 8- by 12-foot space, which already had a roof and electrical wiring. "I captured space that I wasn't using."

She designed the interior with input from her carpenter, Terry Blevins. "I wanted half racks and also full racks for short dresses and for long dresses."

Blevins suggested a window on short wall because clothes throw off no light. He advised building up the floor of the built-ins. "He said you don't want your clothes dragging the floor, you don't want to run a sweeper under the clothes."

Now, her slacks hang neatly in a row beneath a row of shirts and blouses. There's a half rack for her jackets. She has drawers and shelves for jeans and sweaters, and shelf space for purses.

There are no shoes in the new closet. They were moved into the former main closet off the bath. The 5- by 6-foot space was billed as a walk-in closet, "but that's all you do, just walk in," she said.

Blevins built shelves to hold dozens of shoes, all arranged by color.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- "We're number three on resales," reports a pleased Carlotta Yonkers.

Closet space is now right behind kitchens and bathrooms as what homebuyers want in a house.

Yonkers and her husband, Ken, have owned Closets by Design in Charleston for 21 years.

In new construction and additions, people have forsaken the whirlpool tub for walk-in showers and bigger closets.

Others are converting bedrooms into closets. Yonkers said several of her clients have reclaimed bedrooms abandoned by children going to off college or moving out to start careers or families.

According to Yonkers, people want the closets to be self-contained. "They want to dress right in the closet," she said.

The trend is to free up space in master bedrooms to create a sitting area to watch television. So dressers and vanities are moving into the closet as built-ins.

Her clients, she said, want to be able to sit to put on stockings and shoes. So there may be a window seat in the closet or an ottoman in the center.

"In really big rooms, there's empty space in the middle so islands provide more storage," she said.

Closet islands may contain jewelry drawers, hampers for dirty laundry and cubbies for shoes.

"There can be a lot of bells and whistles," said Yonkers, mentioning sliding tie racks and next-day valet rods -- small rods that pull out to hang the next day's outfit on.

When they started in the business, Yonkers said closet organization involved much more wire shelving. Now, a laminate product with the appearance of wood is more popular in master suites.

Enclosing an unused porch

When Cindy Boggs added a new closet off the master bedroom, her shoes got a room of their own.

"That's the best thing that came out of all this -- a place for my shoes," she laughed.

Boggs is among those homeowners who got tired of trying to find an outfit among clothes that were smashed together in dark closets.

She enclosed a second-story screened-in porch at her Hemingway Place townhouse to create a closet.

Boggs started planning her project when she noticed that a neighbor in her development off Greenbrier Street had enclosed the porch.

"I've lived here eight years and have been out on the upstairs porch probably eight times, mainly to check what the weather's like," she said.

So she decided to enclose the 8- by 12-foot space, which already had a roof and electrical wiring. "I captured space that I wasn't using."

She designed the interior with input from her carpenter, Terry Blevins. "I wanted half racks and also full racks for short dresses and for long dresses."

Blevins suggested a window on short wall because clothes throw off no light. He advised building up the floor of the built-ins. "He said you don't want your clothes dragging the floor, you don't want to run a sweeper under the clothes."

Now, her slacks hang neatly in a row beneath a row of shirts and blouses. There's a half rack for her jackets. She has drawers and shelves for jeans and sweaters, and shelf space for purses.

There are no shoes in the new closet. They were moved into the former main closet off the bath. The 5- by 6-foot space was billed as a walk-in closet, "but that's all you do, just walk in," she said.

Blevins built shelves to hold dozens of shoes, all arranged by color.

"It's easy to be organized when you have space," Boggs said.

A preference for versatility

When adding onto an existing house, you don't always get everything you want, as Randy and Brenda Valentine discovered.

"I lost a bedroom to get a bathroom and a walk-in closet," said Brenda Valentine.

She's not complaining, though.

She's delighted with the addition to their Kanawha City home with the master bedroom and its cathedral ceiling, the bathroom with its whirlpool tub and walk-in shower and the large closet with its versatile shelving and storage.

"She knew exactly want she wanted," said Carlotta Yonkers, whose business installed the shelving. "A place for all her shoes."

Valentine laughed when visitors observed that her shoes and clothes filled three-fourths of the space. She said it's still an improvement for her husband, whose clothes were previously relegated to the foyer closet.

She elected to forgo tilted shelves for her shoes and chose regular shelves rather than shoe cubbies. That way she has the choice of using the shelves for stacking sweaters.

And she wanted to have drawers with different depths for her golf clothes, lingerie and jewelry.

The hanging rods for clothing also can be adjusted. In fact, the rods and storage drawers can be disassembled and moved.

The 10- by 14-foot closet someday may be an ideal nursery for a future owner, Valentine said.

And everything in its place

Hair stylist Anthony Jarrell wanted one main function from his closet: organization.

"If you can't find it, you're going to forget it. If you see it, you're going to wear it," he said.

So when he bought his house on Central Avenue seven years ago, he converted the smallest of the three bedrooms into a walk-in closet.

He worked with closet designer Lisa Holly to install a component system using wire shelving to hang clothes and laminate shelving for shoes and drawer storage.

There's an area to hang his jeans and T-shirts, another for his work slacks and shirts and a section to hang custom-made suits.

Shelves for his shoes take up nearly one wall. The red-heeled boots that once belonged to country singer Porter Wagoner are lined up with other boots on a high shelf, as are his hats.

A dresser he has had since he was 12 years old stands in the center of the room. He may replace it someday.

"That's the nice thing about components. You can do it as you grow," he said.

Jarrell describes the 10- by 12-foot room as a three-season bachelor's closet. His seersucker and white outfits are in a smaller, traditional closet.

He doesn't hoard clothing. He'll go through his clothes and make donations to Goodwill and the Union Mission. Then he makes purchases, such as six pairs of slacks from Jos. A. Bank when the clothing store had a recent two-for-the-price-of-one promotion.

He believes taking over spare bedrooms is a good idea for empty-nesters. "You don't have to keep a bedroom as a shrine to a child," he said.

Reach Rosalie Earle at ea...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5115.