Walk in closet storage ideas?

[King Herald]

Wifey has insisted we have a walk-in wardobe/closet thing on our new build, but now it has all come together I realise it is really a little too small to be practical. The room is basically 3.2m wide, x 1.9 long, with a door central on each side.

How can we best utilise the two spaces each side, other than just slapping a standard sort of layout wardrobe in the ends?

It seems a waste that we sacrificed this much space off the bedroom and it will actually achieve very little.

I did a few designs on Sketchup, with little shelves/drawers on the wall, shelves in doors etc, but does anybody have any radical new ideas that might keep 'er indoors happy?

I'll probably make the stuff myself, from MDF or whatever is available.

Shelves on the walls:




Shelves in the doors:

[Mobile Chicane]

I'd say that shoe / handbag storage should be glass-fronted, as should storage for folded items like jumpers.

I don't have that many shoes / handbags / accessories, etc, however the problem I have is that I forget what I've got unless I can see it.

Lots of mirrors, please. And 'work' space for doing hair / make-up - unless you want that crap in the bathroom.

I note there's access from the bathroom. Please get a de-humidifier in there else your clothes will rot.

[Blakeatron]

Is it walk in or walk through - do you need doors?

Corners are nasty things and always end up as dead space or great big shelfs that you store rubbish at the back off.

Pull the wardrobe forward and have a hidden room/suitacse storage behind?

If you did away with doors you could the carcases down to 550mm deep (or maybe less upto you) and have a wardrobe along each door from the short wall to the door architrave. Leaving a 700-800 walk in gap - snug but more storage, nice full length mirror at each end.

Edited by Blakeatron on Tuesday 29th November 18:08

[King Herald]

Mobile Chicane said:

I'd say that shoe / handbag storage should be glass-fronted, as should storage for folded items like jumpers.

I don't have that many shoes / handbags / accessories, etc, however the problem I have is that I forget what I've got unless I can see it.

Lots of mirrors, please. And 'work' space for doing hair / make-up - unless you want that crap in the bathroom.

I note there's access from the bathroom. Please get a de-humidifier in there else your clothes will rot.

Good ideas, thanks. 75% of the space will probably be the wifes, as we guys travel light.

Bathroom will have an exhaust fan that comes on with the lights. Wardrobes will be vented too, as mildew is a problem in the rainy season, despite vent fans. So, a de-humidifier may appear too if the problem does start.

[King Herald]

Blakeatron said:

If you did away with doors you could the carcases down to 550mm deep (or maybe less upto you) and have a wardrobe along each door from the short wall to the door architrave. Leaving a 700-800 walk in gap - snug but more storage, nice full length mirror at each end.

Now that sounds like a good idea. There could even be on single door on the end, closing both wardrobes off from the central 'corridor'.
I'll set to on the Sketchup and see how that looks.

Edited by King Herald on Tuesday 29th November 20:56

[CY88]

King Herald said:

Now that sounds like a good idea. There could even be on single door on the end, closing both wardrobes off from the central 'corridor'.
I'll set to on the Sketchup and see how that looks.

Edited by King Herald on Tuesday 29th November 20:56

I did something very similar recently, but there's only a door at one end so I was able to leave all the wardrobes open fronted with no fear of moisture. What I would suggest is to be sure to incorportate clever lighting. I installed hidden LED strip lights and mirrors with good results - Mrs88 says the wardrobe is the envy of her friends. Will post a picture later.

If you have enough height try to make double stacked wardrobe alcoves so you can hang as much stuff as possible.

[King Herald]

CY88 said:

I did something very similar recently, but there's only a door at one end so I was able to leave all the wardrobes open fronted with no fear of moisture. What I would suggest is to be sure to incorportate clever lighting. I installed hidden LED strip lights and mirrors with good results - Mrs88 says the wardrobe is the envy of her friends. Will post a picture later.

If you have enough height try to make double stacked wardrobe alcoves so you can hang as much stuff as possible.

I was planning on two smaller wardrobe doors each side, so they can fold back flush to the cabinets and not block the walkway through. One single door would foul the main doorways. No doors would be my preference really, for ventilation and ease of use/construction.

Spot lights in the roof is part of the lighting plan, hidden LED's would be cool, and full length mirrors each end would make it look pretty interesting as well as make it seem longer.

My wife is only 5' tall so her clothes are proportionally quite short, so double level alcoves is a distinct possibility.

I should be able to squeeze the equivalent of over 4 linear metres of wardrobe in there if SWMBO agrees with the design....

Yes, piccies of yours will be appreciated.

[CY88]

Here's a couple of pictures. It's got a full corridor width and height mirror on the end of the wall (like in your plan above) which as you see appears to double the size of the space. It was all built out of mdf and painted to match the walls. We threaded LED rope lights behind the pelmets on top of the alcoves to provide the lighting that you see in the second picture. On the opposite side (which you can't see) is a similar set of alcoves, albeit with a 3/4 height centre bank for longer clothes. The room itself is 260cm long and the corridor is more than ample at 90cm wide. The wardrobes are a generous 60cm deep (as per your plan) and there's 6.5m of rail with the double stacks. Shelves are all 30cm wide to fit folded sweaters and the like.



With only LED lights on:





ETA: I just noticed that I still need to paint the coving inside to match the walls, and make the ceiling appear higher again.

Edited by CY88 on Wednesday 30th November 17:01

[Blakeatron]

^^ looks good - we have done one near enough identical to that recently!

So seeing as it was my idea do I get a free stay in the new house when finished....?

Also I would reduce wardrobes to 550mm and have an 800mm corridor

[King Herald]

That does look rather grand, and until the mirror was mentioned I thought it was actually as long as it looks.

I see what you mean about the lighting, as it does make it look rather special. I think my good lady wife will like this version.

I'm not sure what 'normal' depth is for wardrobes, but I don't think we need to go any deeper than the width of a jacket on a hanger, so 550mm sounds ample.

It will also make our closet look bigger in general if we can get the walkway opened up as much as possible.

And Blakey, you're welcome to stay, but the price of the air ticket might be the decider.

[King Herald]

I'm home now, and I goofed it up the space is only 1.5 metres long, not 1.9, so worse than I thought.

[Blakeatron]

Wardrobes down one side then - will still be a better use of space than at each end.

Or 550 deep carcasses on one side, 750 corridor and some 200 wide shelves for lotions and potions/ or maybe shoe rack?

[King Herald]

Blakeatron said:

Wardrobes down one side then - will still be a better use of space than at each end.

Or 550 deep carcasses on one side, 750 corridor and some 200 wide shelves for lotions and potions/ or maybe shoe rack?

The boss is looking a little disgruntled that her dream walk-in closet is so small now. I'll do some more drawings and try to mollify her a little.

I suggested she bin some of her clothes, which didn't go down too well.....

[texan]

How high is the room?

If your wife is 5' and you've got a tall room you could add upper level storage with pulldown racks. We've got these (10' ceilings I think) and the wife loves them, loads of extra storage space.

[King Herald]

Unfortunately we have 7' ceilings, so a bit restricted there. We could get two layers of hanging though, so that is one consolation.