Licorice: The black wood finish licorice is stately and posh. With smooth, vertical woodgrains, this dark hue will accent white walls inside your closet, creating a timeless yin-yang of color. Make sure you hang plenty of colored garments in your black wooden closet to make each piece of clothing stand out.
What Is the Best Material to Use for a Custom Closet?
Mike Merritt • May 26, 2020
It started as just a dream of owning a custom closet, but as time has gone on, that dream has become more of a reality. Now you’re at the stage where you’re planning the material for your ideal closet. You’ve looked into some options, but you’re just not sure. Which is the best material to use for a custom closet?
When choosing a material for a custom closet, you can’t go wrong with Melamine, which is durable and customizable. If you’re looking for an alternative, wood also contributes to the timeless look of a closet, especially when you can choose from a variety of wood tones and colors.
Keep reading further to explore your custom closet
material options. You’ll learn more about both materials and what you can expect so you can make the most informed decision for your closet remodel.
Which Materials Are Custom Closets Made of?
Melamine
Above all, Melamine is one of your best bets for beautifully decorating your custom closet. This organic compound includes some 1,3,5-triazine with a cyanamide trimer, a multi-molecule. To make Melamine into a resin-like material, it’s blended with agents such as formaldehyde.
Decorative laminates like Formica use Melamine, as do commercially-produced dry erase boards, laminate flooring, and of course Melamine dinnerware. Melamine can even be manufactured as foam, interestingly enough.
For your custom closet, you’d most like Melamine resin. Despite the name, this is more like a thermosetting plastic. To cure it, the Melamine gets heated via crosslinking and dehydration processes.
You can find Melamine in a variety of thicknesses as well as all sorts of sizes that will suit closets big and small. Even if you go for a thinner, smaller piece of Melamine, since it’s made of resin, the sheets do have some weight to them. That adds to their durability, so you can safely pile clothes in your closet.
You may be able to find patterned Melamine as well as many colors. If your old closet was white, you can go for an eggshell hue to match if you want to stick within the same color family. You may also wish to do something completely different, like a darker hue that draws the eye to your sizable wardrobe of clothes, shoes, and baubles.
You also get plenty of finish options to choose from, so here’s a rundown of those options.
Chocolate Pear: Not only does the name Chocolate Pear make your mouth water, but it’s a treat for the eyes as well. This is a very dark hue akin to licorice, but it’s not black. Instead, you get a deep, dark, chocolate-like shade of brown, with a woodgrain in crisscrossing patterns. Your closet will be one of your favorite places to spend time in because it will look so upscale with a wood finish like this.
Coco: If the darkest of the dark brown hues isn’t your thing, that’s okay. A Coco wood is a lighter brown than Chocolate Pear, but it’s anything but pale. This bright, mid-tone color interjects some warmth into your custom closet.
Mahogany: The word mahogany alone suggests a strong, sturdy wood found in the nicest office complexes. Bring a bit of that exemplary quality home by customizing your closet interior with a mahogany finish. This deep, dark, rich reddish-brown hue is instantly recognizable.
Warm Cognac: Shifting more into warmer shades, with Warm Cognac, it’s in the name! This is an orangey-brown with appealing woodgrain patterns sure to catch and hold your attention.
Candlelight: One of the brightest wood finishes around is Candlelight. This pale, beige/brown wood is lovely and cheerful. You’ll greet the sun each morning with a smile that will stick on your face as you open your closet to get dressed. Even if you’re not a morning person, a custom closet accented with a Candlelight finish will make your day a bit brighter.
Concrete: Another lighter wood finish you might want to consider is Concrete. This is like the Licorice finish but with the brightness turned down several notches. The appealing, modern slate gray hue with vertical woodgrains should match closets of all styles.
Arctic: The simplicity of the Arctic wood finish is also very much worth talking about. This white-grayish hybrid has delicate vertical woodgrains that stand out especially well on cabinets and drawers in your custom closet.
Wood
If you’re not quite sure if melamine is the right material for your custom closet, that’s not your only option. Wood is simple, attractive, and sure to lend your closet a sense of refinement.
How to Choose Your Custom Closet Material
You thought for sure you wanted to accent your custom closets
with a wood finish, but now you’re leaning more towards Melamine. They both sound so great, so how do you choose?
Here are some important factors to keep in mind as you make this all-important decision for your custom closet material.
Appeal
Both Melamine and wood can be customized to your liking, creating the kind of appeal you want. If you choose melamine, know that besides being attractive, it’s often made at least partly from particleboard. This particleboard may come from recycled trees and other wood. When you get a Melamine custom closet, you’re reducing your carbon footprint and doing something good for the environment. That’s a great feeling!
Durability and Longevity
You’ve already invested money into your custom closet, so you want to ensure it will look as good as it does on day one several years from now. Part of that will be through your continued cleaning and maintenance, but choosing a durable material also plays a big role in custom closet durability.
When the resin sheets used to produce Melamine custom closets
are heat-treated and hardened, the outer layer becomes incredibly resistant to damage. It’s very, very difficult to dent, scratch, or chip Melamine.
Even if you’re in your closets every day taking out clothes to wear and then putting in clean ones, your Melamine surfaces can handle it. When you do have to clean the closet, with a soft cloth and some soap and water, you can quickly and easily wipe up all Melamine surfaces.
Also lending itself well to longevity is Melamine’s ability to withstand cracking, fading, and even minor heat damage.
Cost
You’ve budgeted for a custom closet
and you have a good idea of what you’ll spend, but if you can save money in any way, you’re of course going to. On that note, Melamine tends to be less expensive than wood. You should be able to stick to your budget with a Melamine closet remodel, making this a choice that’s as cost-effective as it is appealing.
Conclusion
If you’re torn between materials for your custom closet, Melamine may be a better choice than wood. It’s completely customizable, durable, and affordable. Wood is a good alternative , but it may not have the same lifespan as Melamine.