Forget the Pool or Even the Living Room—‘Our Closet Time Is Precious’
Some homeowners are taking the coziness and intimacy of the primary suite’s walk-in wardrobe to the next level and transforming it from functional storage into the home’s centrepiece
4 min
A room you might not expect comes to mind when home seller Karen Haines reflects on fond memories at her Hollywood Regency-style house in Palm Springs, California: her bedroom closet.
“Forget the great room, swimming pool or hot tub. All the action in the house happens in the closet. It’s where everyone wants to be,” said Haines of the enormous space, which is decked out with white tones, mirrors, marble and gold finishes, and has double sinks with bird-shaped faucets.
Haines and her husband, Chris, are selling the house, designed by acclaimed architect Robert Marx and on the market with Douglas Elliman for $5.2 million. The couple, both entrepreneurs in the music industry, usually keep classic rock ‘n’ roll playing in the closet all day, she said.
“My daughter and I try on clothes in there, and Chris and I drink coffee in the morning and cocktails come evening,” she said.
For most homeowners, closets are merely functional—that is, a place to hold clothes, accessories and other items that they turn to for everyday wear. Some, however, are taking the coziness and intimacy of the primary suite’s walk-in closet to the next level and turning it into the home’s prized space. It’s become a place where couples can connect at the end of a hectic day or a lounge where owners socialise with friends, enjoy a morning coffee, and, yes, even imbibe with cocktails and wine.
Chris Lim, a real estate agent and former president of Christie’s International Real Estate, said that he is witnessing a redefining of the concept of walk-in closets.
“With the inclusion of features like bar sinks, lounge seating, spacious islands and glass displays and expanded vanity areas, walk-in closets now offer a retreat for morning rituals and post-day relaxation,” he said. “They’ve become hubs of activity and connection in multimillion-dollar homes.”
Part of the trend, he said, is the growing number of fashion and social media influencers, who often use their bedroom closets as their offices or filming space.
When it comes to showpiece closets, Brazilian design firm Ornare is a leading name and charges between $30,000 and close to $1 million for its services.
Claudio Faria, the CEO of Ornare Miami, said that when he opened his business in 2007, closets were an afterthought with homeowners investing their money in zhuzhing up public-facing spaces such as kitchens and family rooms. Now, he said, closets are dominating home design—his business has grown 50% annually for the last five years as a result.
“Closets have become more important because, in the way that wealthy people collect cars and art, they’re collecting clothes, and closets are the venues to show them off,” Faria said. They’re also a unique area to use in your home because of their intimacy and become talking points.”
Ana Paula Siebert Justus is a client and tapped Ornare to bring her vision of a glamorous closet to life. Justus, a fashion influencer, and her husband, Roberto Justus, an entrepreneur, own a five-bedroom condominium in Sunny Isles, Florida. The large wardrobe in their bedroom is awash in green hues, wood and leather. Backlighting features throughout, and there are sections for handbags and clothes plus a hat rack and a vanity with a chair.
“I spend a lot of time in my closet shooting content, so it needs to be in photograph-ready shape,” she said. “It has no door, and one of my favorite ways to connect with Roberto is to catch up as I’m getting dressed for the day or evening events. Our closet time is precious.”
Tina Trahan, a philanthropist and art collector, lives in Los Angeles’s Studio City neighbourhood in a 5,100-square-foot home that was the exterior for the home on “The Brady Bunch” TV series. She shared similar sentiments about her closet. She has repurposed one of the bedrooms into the space and has outfitted it with double-height rolling racks, a three-way mirror, a sofa, a Miele coffee machine and a fridge stocked with drinks including White Claws—her beverage of choice.
Trahan said that she frequently entertains girlfriends, and they love heading to her closet to drink tequila and wine and catch up.
“We end up ordering sushi and eating it there. My closet is 100% our favourite place to hang out,” she said.
Other examples of these double-duty flashy closets abound.
Real estate agent Katrina Barrett of Christie’s International Real Estate Walt Danley | Local Luxury is overseeing the marketing and sale of a $40 million home in Paradise Valley, Arizona. The centrepiece of its primary suite is an expansive closet with seating, a steaming area, hidden panels to store valuables and a secret door leading to a sports barn with a pickleball court and golf simulator.
In another example, Susan Archer is selling her home in Issaquah, Washington, near Seattle, for more than $6 million through Windermere Real Estate/Luxury Portfolio International. She described the property’s primary bedroom’s closet as “a haven for creating memorable moments with friends and family.”
The white-painted space has marble and cream walls and features backlighting, a display case that’s common in upscale boutiques, a washer and dryer, a wet bar, an island and seating.
“Many of my girlfriends and I have gathered around the island, their excitement palpable as they admire my collection. With champagne flutes in hand, the atmosphere is lively and carefree,” Archer said. “Beyond the soirées with friends, my closet holds a special place for precious moments with my daughter. As she grows, her interest in fashion blossoms, and my closet becomes a treasure trove of inspiration for her budding style.”
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A divide has opened in the tech job market between those with artificial-intelligence skills and everyone else.
A 30-metre masterpiece unveiled in Monaco brings Lamborghini’s supercar drama to the high seas, powered by 7,600 horsepower and unmistakable Italian design.
A divide has opened in the tech job market between those with artificial-intelligence skills and everyone else.
4 minThere has rarely, if ever, been so much tech talent available in the job market. Yet many tech companies say good help is hard to find.
What gives?
U.S. colleges more than doubled the number of computer-science degrees awarded from 2013 to 2022, according to federal data. Then came round after round of layoffs at Google, Meta, Amazon, and others.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts businesses will employ 6% fewer computer programmers in 2034 than they did last year.
All of this should, in theory, mean there is an ample supply of eager, capable engineers ready for hire.
But in their feverish pursuit of artificial-intelligence supremacy, employers say there aren’t enough people with the most in-demand skills. The few perceived as AI savants can command multimillion-dollar pay packages. On a second tier of AI savvy, workers can rake in close to $1 million a year .
Landing a job is tough for most everyone else.
Frustrated job seekers contend businesses could expand the AI talent pipeline with a little imagination. The argument is companies should accept that relatively few people have AI-specific experience because the technology is so new. They ought to focus on identifying candidates with transferable skills and let those people learn on the job.
Often, though, companies seem to hold out for dream candidates with deep backgrounds in machine learning. Many AI-related roles go unfilled for weeks or months—or get taken off job boards only to be reposted soon after.
Playing a different game
It is difficult to define what makes an AI all-star, but I’m sorry to report that it’s probably not whatever you’re doing.
Maybe you’re learning how to work more efficiently with the aid of ChatGPT and its robotic brethren. Perhaps you’re taking one of those innumerable AI certificate courses.
You might as well be playing pickup basketball at your local YMCA in hopes of being signed by the Los Angeles Lakers. The AI minds that companies truly covet are almost as rare as professional athletes.
“We’re talking about hundreds of people in the world, at the most,” says Cristóbal Valenzuela, chief executive of Runway, which makes AI image and video tools.
He describes it like this: Picture an AI model as a machine with 1,000 dials. The goal is to train the machine to detect patterns and predict outcomes. To do this, you have to feed it reams of data and know which dials to adjust—and by how much.
The universe of people with the right touch is confined to those with uncanny intuition, genius-level smarts or the foresight (possibly luck) to go into AI many years ago, before it was all the rage.
As a venture-backed startup with about 120 employees, Runway doesn’t necessarily vie with Silicon Valley giants for the AI job market’s version of LeBron James. But when I spoke with Valenzuela recently, his company was advertising base salaries of up to $440,000 for an engineering manager and $490,000 for a director of machine learning.
A job listing like one of these might attract 2,000 applicants in a week, Valenzuela says, and there is a decent chance he won’t pick any of them. A lot of people who claim to be AI literate merely produce “workslop”—generic, low-quality material. He spends a lot of time reading academic journals and browsing GitHub portfolios, and recruiting people whose work impresses him.
In addition to an uncommon skill set, companies trying to win in the hypercompetitive AI arena are scouting for commitment bordering on fanaticism .
Daniel Park is seeking three new members for his nine-person startup. He says he will wait a year or longer if that’s what it takes to fill roles with advertised base salaries of up to $500,000.
He’s looking for “prodigies” willing to work seven days a week. Much of the team lives together in a six-bedroom house in San Francisco.
If this sounds like a lonely existence, Park’s team members may be able to solve their own problem. His company, Pickle, aims to develop personalised AI companions akin to Tony Stark’s Jarvis in “Iron Man.”
Overlooked
James Strawn wasn’t an AI early adopter, and the father of two teenagers doesn’t want to sacrifice his personal life for a job. He is beginning to wonder whether there is still a place for people like him in the tech sector.
He was laid off over the summer after 25 years at Adobe , where he was a senior software quality-assurance engineer. Strawn, 55, started as a contractor and recalls his hiring as a leap of faith by the company.
He had been an artist and graphic designer. The managers who interviewed him figured he could use that background to help make Illustrator and other Adobe software more user-friendly.
Looking for work now, he doesn’t see the same willingness by companies to take a chance on someone whose résumé isn’t a perfect match to the job description. He’s had one interview since his layoff.
“I always thought my years of experience at a high-profile company would at least be enough to get me interviews where I could explain how I could contribute,” says Strawn, who is taking foundational AI courses. “It’s just not like that.”
The trouble for people starting out in AI—whether recent grads or job switchers like Strawn—is that companies see them as a dime a dozen.
“There’s this AI arms race, and the fact of the matter is entry-level people aren’t going to help you win it,” says Matt Massucci, CEO of the tech recruiting firm Hirewell. “There’s this concept of the 10x engineer—the one engineer who can do the work of 10. That’s what companies are really leaning into and paying for.”
He adds that companies can automate some low-level engineering tasks, which frees up more money to throw at high-end talent.
It’s a dynamic that creates a few handsomely paid haves and a lot more have-nots.
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