Wardrobe Closets

There comes a time in life when it is time to enjoy the fruit of one’s labors. The years of hard work and scrimping and saving have paid off, the children have left the nest and those home improvement dreams that have been deferred can now be realized.  For many homeowners, one of these is the installation of gorgeous built in closets.

There is an entire world of luxury custom closet ideas and retailers on the Internet. Now there is time for leisurely browsing the many sites with photographs and suggestions of how to plan and find the appropriate contractor to install an absolutely stunning and incredibly functional closet. A truly beautiful built in closet can actually serve as a private dressing area as well as a place to house and protect a wardrobe.

When it comes to high end built in options, there is literally no end to the possibilities. While in the past, even luxurious closets were still only for carefully storing clothing, accessories and shoes, today the discerning closet designer can include sitting areas, storage islands and even built in armoires with mirrored doors. When constructing new homes today, builders realize that as much as 20 percent of the home’s square footage should be reserved for storage areas and closets.

The addition of islands in built in closets is a growing trend and one that provides the ability to add custom storage areas based on the owner’s needs and desires. These islands serve several functions with drawers that can be specifically designed with dividers for items like hosiery, jewelry and lingerie. Locking drawers make certain that valuable jewelry is safe and easily accessible too.  Island countertops done in granite or tile not only are beautiful but serve as a staging area when preparing for a formal evening out.

Built in closets can be beautiful and functional at the same time. Aesthetic treatments such as raised panels on doors and crown molding add a finishing touch and can actually make the owner want to leave the closet doors open all of the time. Form and function can co-exist when laundry hampers and iron boards are also built in, but hidden from view.  With all of the options available, today’s master closet can be everything from strictly organized and efficient to wildly luxurious and elegant.

Part Two

This is part two of two in article looking at both fitted wardrobes and the stand alone wardrobe closet. Take a look at part one of our article titled Fitted Wardrobes or Wardrobe Closets? to catch up to this post. Part one we looked at defining these two terms, taking into account how both wardrobe closets and fitted wardrobes are designed. Below we move past definitions to get into the reasons you’d want to choose one type of closet storage system over the other.

To understand which type of closet storage system is better, you need to look at what your needs are in relation to these products.

For instance, a fitted wardrobe with sliding doors is an excellent option for a home that needs a lot of storage space yet cannot afford to waste any space in doing so. A sliding door fitted wardrobe makes for an excellent choice in this situation for a number of reasons:

1. You can store about twice as much in it than a wardrobe closet of the same width.
2. Because the doors slide open, you need not reserve space to the left and right of the unit for the doors to swing open.
3. You can access and utilize the storage space that runs between the top of the fitted wardrobe and the ceiling of your home too.

Additionally, many people find the fitted wardrobe a more attractive option if they are seeking a more modern look for the closet storage system.

On the other hand, a wardrobe closet may be a better fit for those in a different situation. Consider a home with a large amount of space that seeks to use an armoire not just for storage but also as a decorative item. A country home with an antique flair that enjoys relishing in the solid wood wardrobe design would benefit most from the look of an antique closet over the flair of a fitted wardrobe.

Contrast this with someone who is the go a lot and needs a suitable solution for closet storage who might benefit the most from a portable closet, and you have yet another different reason to use one of the other of these two classes of wardrobes.

As you can see, it all comes down to what you want and what you need, as well as the home and living situation, in order to decide which is a better for you: a wardrobe closet or a fitted wardrobe!

Part One

If you have a decent budget and are in mind to spend it on a closet storage system, you will end up finding out that there are quite a few options out there that move far beyond simply a Rubbermaid closet organizer. Companies like John Louis Home manufacture complete closet systems that have to be installed from floor to ceiling that can completely transform your walk in closet to a closet storage room of massive proportions.

These closets are certainly nice and do the job as far as holding clothes correctly, but what if you don’t have a walk in closet? What if you need to create a closet with the space you have?

This leaves you with the option of buying either a stand alone closet or installing a fitted closet. Deciding which one of these is better is the question I want to look at today.

Fitted Wardrobes
A fitted wardrobe is a wardrobe closet that’s installed from floor to ceiling utilizing the homes design as part of its construction. This means that the design of the home is taken into consideration in a big way and the wardrobe is literally fitted around it. For instance, a fitted wardrobe may be installed that runs the length of the entire wall that the bed rests against, going from the floor to the ceiling on both sides of the bed and then connecting with a cabinet that runs over the length of the bed. Another example is that some fitted wardrobes will utilizing the walls of the home to function as the back wall of the wardrobe closet and even the side or sides of the closet, depending on the layout of the home.

Fitted wardrobe is very popular in the United Kingdom. In the United States, there popularity is not as great – perhaps due to percentage of homes designed built in closets or walk in closets that provide ample storage space from the start for their wardrobe clothes.

Stand Alone Closets
A stand alone closet can be defined as any free standing closet storage space. This definition takes into account both portable closets as well as the classic wardrobe closet. Let’s look at these two types of stand alone closets.

A portable closet is a lightweight closet designed to be mobile and provide access to clothing. They are used often in guest homes, guest rooms, and in studio apartments and dorm rooms, as well as for anyone who is often on the go and needs a reliable closet. A portable closet nearly always consists of a light metal frame with cloth walls. They cost between $30 and $100 US.

A wardrobe closet, also known as a wardrobe armoire, is a heavy free standing closet, nearly always made of solid wood. Wardrobe closets often feature elegant designs, hand painted or hand carved engravings, and cost a bundle, with the price tag starting at the low end of about $200 US and going up into the $2,000 to $3,000 US range.

Stay tuned as tomorrow we complete part two of two in this article series comparing free standing wardrobe closets and fitted wardrobes!