Custom Closets & Organizers in Berkeley, CA

Berkeley takes its name from the philosopher George Berkeley, chosen on May 24, 1866, by the trustees of the College of California for their new campus site. The college became part of the state's public university in 1868, and in 1878 the settlement around the campus joined the waterfront community of Ocean View to incorporate as the town of Berkeley. Nearly half of the city's homes were built before 1939, many designed one at a time. In houses that old, each closet is its own measuring job.

Berkeley homes and what they mean for storage

• Northside: north of the campus, where Victorian homes went up from the 1890s and brown-shingle houses followed from 1895. These houses were built for much smaller wardrobes, so a fitted wardrobe wall or a refit reach-in adds what the original plans left out.
• Elmwood: tracts laid out after 1906 with brown-shingle, Arts and Crafts and Colonial Revival homes, plus apartments mostly from the 1950s to the 1970s. Shallow closets in the older houses take shelving cut to their true depth, while in the apartments one reach-in often carries the whole bedroom.
• Northbrae: developed after 1906 on curving streets that follow the hills, mainly Craftsman and California bungalows. Bungalow bedrooms are compact, so a drawer stack inside the closet frees floor space.
• Thousand Oaks: subdivided in 1909 on hillside lots and annexed in 1920, with winding roads and a mix of styles. Hillside houses often step between levels, so storage is planned room by room rather than as one system.

With so many Berkeley homes designed individually, almost no two closets share a size. Each one is measured during the design visit and built to its own dimensions, down to low ceilings, narrow doorways and walls that are not quite square.

How your Berkeley visit works

Berkeley is part of our East Bay service area, served by Closet World Northern California in Hayward. A designer comes out for a free design visit, measures, plans the layout with you and leaves a complete in-home estimate, with installation in as little as 9 days. Systems are built in our own factory and installed by our own crews, never subcontractors, and most closets and garages are finished in one day. Every system includes a 7+ year warranty. Request a design visit.