Wendy Scott, owner of Timeless Closets and Cabinetry, won the 2025 Top Shelf Design Award in the “Laminate Under 18 Linear Feet” category. The project involved a small walk-in closet designed for a client who prioritized high-end materials and custom displays over maximum storage, an aesthetic Scott defines as “Moody Modern.”

The client, who planned the project two years in advance, requested a masculine space balancing essential clothing storage with dedicated displays for his collectibles.

A custom display case serves as the closet’s centerpiece, designed to house a Louis Vuitton Stormtrooper helmet by artist Gabriel Dishaw. “The primary focus was always the Stormtrooper,” Scott said.

Scott designed the display with a single, 30-inch-wide black aluminum frame door, noting that “in order to have a single oversized door, the only option was aluminum frame.” The case uses a mirrored back, low-iron tempered glass to prevent a green tint, and Richelieu’s Flexyled AT6, a 6mm flexible LED strip that avoids visible diodes.

Scott achieved the “Moody Modern” aesthetic by mixing three primary materials. The closet structure uses a “Fashionista TFL” woodgrain to match the floor. “Black Matte TFL” was used for drawer faces and back panels to avoid competing grains. Finally, buffalo-print recycled leather from EcoDomo was applied to the countertop and bench.

“I think adding in stone would have felt cold and using TFL would have felt expected,” Scott said. The same leather was used to custom-wrap the black cabinet handles, a service coordinated with EcoDomo.

Other custom features include biometric, plug-and-play watch winders from Casa Bossanova, which are built into the cabinetry. Scott designed openings for the units and finished them with layered, or “staggered,” trim. By having “the layers, it eliminates the lines... and just looks more layered and higher end,” Scott explained. The units are powered by dedicated “always live” outlets, with access panels hidden in the cabinet below.

The small footprint presented significant construction challenges, primarily baseboard heat on two walls. One unit under the mirror was replaced with a smaller black model. On the right wall, the cabinetry was “notched and boxed... forcing the heat to flow out into the baseboard vents.”

The modern design was a departure for Scott, who describes her style as “more transitional.” The project also evolved significantly over its two-year timeline. An initial plan for a single, largely shared closet was split into separate his-and-her spaces. This “ended up to our advantage as his and her aesthetics and needs were opposite,” Scott noted.

The project ultimately fulfilled the “quality over quantity” question. “His closet is more expensive than hers,” Scott revealed, “and his closet was a third the size.”

Learn more at timelessclosetsandcabinetry.com.

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