For its first foray into a more modestly priced line of modular storage, California Closets has teamed up with Martha Stewart. Called The Everyday Collection, the line is adjustable and needs minimal installation compared with custom offerings from California Closets, both features that the brand hopes will attract an audience that has eluded them: renters.
“We really wanted a strategy to expand our brand in ways that would reach new customers, and specifically customers with the need to organize in a very stylish, beautiful way, but without the same permanence that our current custom-installed product has,” says Jill LaRue-Rieser, California Closets senior vice president and chief merchandising officer.
The Everyday Collection is composed of modular components that can be configured to create different storage solutions, from closets and home offices to pantries. The collaboration with Stewart came about after California Closets designed the lifestyle guru’s bedroom closet a few years ago. From there, the company commissioned Stewart to design the new line, hoping that her traditional design aesthetic, clout as an organizer extraordinaire and built-in (pun very much intended) following would draw the attention of a new clientele. “California Closets is the industry leader in closet storage and organization, and I’d like to view the Martha Stewart brand as a leader in all things solution-based, so this collaboration was a natural fit,” Stewart told BOH.
Aesthetically, Stewart drew inspiration from her own dwellings, which is why you’ll find wood finishes like the Perry Street white and Bedford gray. Some influences came from farther afield: LaRue-Rieser shares that they incorporated trends spotted at last year’s Salone del Mobile. “There’s such a trend toward metal at the moment, and we added a lot of metal finishes into this system,” she says. “There's a lot of variation in the combinations you can get when you mix it with the two colors of wood that we have.”
The key difference between the new collection and the custom offerings that California Closets is known for is flexibility. The Everyday System can be adjusted as needed and even uninstalled and moved into a different room or new house altogether, as is often the case with renters. “I think as the millennial is moving into the home space, we're seeing a lot of them put off buying a home and living in urban spaces, and this is ideal for that,” says LaRue-Rieser. “It's also ideal in the fact that they can invest in this once and then it can be reconfigured and moved. That level of flexibility is really opening the door to a whole different set of customers and their needs.”
