I didnt' want to answer right away, bcs my help is sort of wimpy, and I didn't want to knock your question off the top.

There's a magazine on the newsstands right now from Better Homes & Gardens Special Interest Publications that has a round-up of sort of these kinds of closet systems. Including notes about whether they're easy to DIY.

It's called "Simply Perfect Storage" and has a big coverline about "400 ways to get organized now".

Here's a link to the *past* issue to give you a feel for what it looks like--lot sof the cover lines are simliar. But the current one is mostly GREEN (w/a white wardrobe on the front, if I recall correctly).

Here is a link that might be useful: Simply Perfect Storage magazine, old issue

Now that this is run by ivillage, do we still have to pay for a subscription? I've got an answer for captainriddell but if it won't show up I'll need to decide if I want to subscribe.

I don't think that option exists anymore. I think you can post without paying (not sure since I paid and I log in to avoid the popups and rollover ads). It's free to try to post; if you have to pay for a subscription, you'll find out soon enough. :-)

since your question about whether you have to pay DID show up, I presume your answer for CaptainRiddell will ALSO show up.

I'm pretty sure that my subscription ran out in January and I'm still posting. I haven't paid any money this year to this forum.

The suspense is killing me . . .

captainriddell,
When we were putting together our closet system we ended up going to a "retail fixture" showroom. This is a store which sells things like slatboard, MDF shelving (cut to length), salesman's travelling racks, etc. Stuff for retail outlets to organize their racks & displays. Much, much heavier duty than we've ever found in any of the closet places we'd looked at in the past and much cheaper. The best "for example" part was that for the MDF shelving they had tons & tons of laminates to choose from. We weren't stuck with the choices of white melamine, laminate cherry, laminate oak and that was that.

We gave them the sizes we wanted the slatboard & shelving cut to. Charges were by the sheet, if I remember correctly. We assembled.

Here is a link that might be useful: It was a store much like this (an example only). I just googled & pulled them up