Wardrobe Closets

Most everyone is familiar with the wardrobe armoire, or what’s known now as a modern day wardrobe closet. While antique wardrobe closets tend to have a bit more differentiation in the styles -i.e. French, Indian, Chinese, European styles, etc, coming from the time frame period in which they were created – today, most follow a standardized 3 door design. These modern wooden wardrobe closets create the “classic appeal” in their physique. This is the type of armoire that people picture in their heads when they imagine a wardrobe closet.

The irony is that is there anything other than a wooden wardrobe closet? It all depends on what you consider part of the wardrobe closet family. Let’s take a look at some different items included in this category.

Photo by Padsbrother

Wooden Wardrobe Closets. As mentioned, this is the type of armoire that we all know and recognize. Wooden wardrobe closets and similar pine wardrobe units are often very large, bulky, and weigh so much one person cannot easily move them. Modern designs typically warrant the inclusion of a 3 door front set with a set of drawers to the top and bottom of this design. The legs rest on the floor and do not contain any wheels.

Antique Wardrobe Closets. The variation in style here for antique armoires is much bigger than modern designs. Antique wardrobe closets were primarily built by hand. Many even on down to a craftsman who did nothing but create armoire style furniture. In this regard, we use the term armoire in the classic sense to describe any wood based furniture with drawers or cabinets.

Portable Wardrobe Closet. A portable wardrobe closet is usually meant to describe an altogether different piece of furniture, although it is similar in function. A portable wardrobe closet is usually a small, non-wood based portable closet, designed for containing or holding clothes “on the go.” A portable wardrobe closet may have wheels for easy moving or be equipped with handles for the owner to easily grab and move about.

Between the modern day wood wardrobe closet, the antique armoire, and mobile / portable closets, consumer have many different choices for how to best organize and hold their wardrobes with various wardrobe closet furniture.

Some families were lucky to have an old fashioned, antique wardrobe closet – also known as an armoire, from the French term meaning “wooden cabinet”, passed down to them in the family tree.

And then other folks just collect them. Somewhere in between are people who simply appreciate them and would like to own one, without any intention of being thought of as an antiques collector. They are just someone with good taste, perhaps!

The good news is that while going out and finding an antique wooden wardrobe closet isn’t as easy as going to Target or Home Depot, locating an armoire isn’t all that hard. It can be even a bit of a fun adventure!

What are the best places to check? I’d first recommend doing it the fashioned way. This mean hitting up estate sales. These are coordinated sales events in which someones entire estate goes up for sale. The culture surrounding these estate sales increasing the chances of finding antique wardrobe closets. How so? Usually the individual whose estate is up for sale was an elderly individual, meaning they might have antique furniture by virtue of simply owning something their entire life. Secondly, many estate sales cater to upper class folks, further upping our chances of finding valuable furniture and antiques. Estate sales are also an excellent way to locate a wardrobe closet, get a hands on, close up look at it, and then place a private bid. This is certainly something you can’t do online!

After estates sales, I’d recommend looking in a close by corner. I’m talking about your average yard, garage, and family sales. Since this could theoretically be a tedious process of visiting dozens of yard sales, here’s a tip to speed it up: look the garage sales up online. Then, do a search for “wardobe closets”, “antique wardrobe closets”, “armoire”, “armoires”, and “antiques”. See what pops up with those search requests, as it goes through the items people casually list online in their yard sale post. Often, you will get many hits this way, and as such, can quickly narrow down which garage and yard sales you’ll actually want to attend. You might even find photos online and a price of said items.

Lastly, in the same vein as looking online at yard sales, the third and final method is to search your local Craigslist. Craigslist maintains pages for hundreds of cities, counties, and areas around the world. Even if you’ve never heard of it, most likely, you have a Craigslist page for your town. Here people sell thousands of items every day in free classified listings. Simply key in the same search terms we used in regards to yard sales (above) and see what you find. It’s also very easy to negotiate prices for items found on Craigslist, as most people aren’t so much trying to make a profit as they are simply getting rid of items.

Actually, there is one more method beyond the 3rd one above. You can always work with an antiques dealer. If getting an antique wardrobe closet fast and quick is your concern, and price isn’t so much of a problem, using a dealer is going to be a sure fire way to find high quality antique wardrobe closets. You won’t get a deal most likely, but you will probably get a quality piece of work, and come home in a single day with an attractive antique wardrobe closet!