Wardrobes these days come in a vast range of styles, from contemporary to classic, from modern lacquer & glass to wood. But regardless of style a good wardrobe will provide you with something practical as well as beautiful. Once you have decided on the external finish of your wardrobe it's time to start planning how you are going to set it up to ensure you have got the right sort of storage for your needs..
Firstly, carry out an inventory of everything in your existing bedroom wardrobe. Make a list of the numbers of different types of clothing you have, starting with long garments like full length dresses & coats, then list slightly shorter items like shorter dresses & coats as well as full length skirts and long tops, finally list your shirts, shirts, trousers & short tops. Look at how much rail space the various items take up at the moment & whether you would like more room. If everything is crammed in then you are going to need much more rail space in your new wardrobe.
Drawer Shelf
Once you have listed everything that is hanging up its time to look at your folded items, including items not currently in your wardrobe that you will be putting in your new wardrobe, including jeans, sweatshirts, T shirts, & jumpers. Take a look at how many drawers you are currently using for underwear, socks & tights & the size of the drawers.
Make a full list of all of your shoes, boots etc, putting an asterisk next to any long boots or shoes that wont fit on a shoe rack, or shoes/boots you want to store with shoe trees in them.
Last but not least take a look at the accessories you own, including belts, ties, scarves & anything else you would like to put inside your wardrobe, & add them to the list, listing the number of each different type. Are they hanging or folded?
Once you know how many items of clothing you have, & what type they are its time to think about any extra items you might want to store, for example bed linen, towels, blankets etc. Will you want to put your laundry basket inside? Think about how often you will need to access the items on this list. Daily? Once a week? Once a year?
Then its time to look at your other requirements. Wardrobes these days are flexible & it is possible to integrate a dressing table, or a writing/computer desk. Will you want lighting in your wardrobe & if so, what type? What about items like makeup, hair dryers, styling sprays etc? Will you want mobile phone chargers in it? If you want to have electrical items in your wardrobe you will need to make sure there is a power point on the wall the wardrobe is on.
Once you have done that its time to move to the next stage, working out how much room you actually have & where your wardrobe will go. Take an accurate (not an optimistic!) measurement of the space & allow for skirting boards. Check your ceiling height. You may have much more (or less) room than you thought, & if you are buying a new wardrobe you will want to make the most of the space available. You will need to leave 6 cm spare at the top for installation though. Make a note of any electrical outlets. Make sure the wardrobe isn't covering light switches & isn't in the way of the bedroom door. Look at where the doors & windows are.
Then draw up your wardrobe on graph paper, looking at it from the front. Use an easy scale like one square per 10cm to avoid future confusion. Every wardrobe is a mixture of double & single cabinets, with a double cabinet being approximately 90cm wide for a hinged door wardrobe & 1.2 metres for a sliding door wardrobe, so try & determine how many internal spaces you will have, using 90cm for a double & 45cm for a single as the minimum.
Each cupboard can fit either 1 rail for long garments or 2 rails for shorter garments, so using your inventory work out how many rails you will need & where they will go (roughly). Don't worry, there will be room for other items, most wardrobes are at least 2.2 metres high. If you have blankets etc that you only need occasionally put a shelf at the top of the wardrobe & hang the top rail from it. You will also need to think about your own height & how high you can reach easily. & make sure your top hanging rails are not too high.
You will usually be supplied with a shelf & 2 hanging rails per cupboard, & each hanging rail is fixed underneath a shelf, so you may want extra shelves for storage of folded items if you are using the first shelf near the top of the wardrobe. Shelves are always useful, but bear in mind that the wardrobe is 60cm deep, so if you put too many shelves in, & have them too close together you will not be able to see what's actually on the shelves!
It is also possible to put vertical dividers into the middle of the wardrobe cupboards, which fit either the whole length or half way up with a shelf on top. These can have shelves across both halves so provide several cubbyholes, useful for handbags & other items that don't go in a drawer & don't really hang.
Now its time to look at what special fittings will go inside the wardrobe. If you are buying a good quality wardrobe you will have a wide choice. These options usually only fit in 90cm plus size cabinets, the smaller cabinets will usually only take hanging rails & shelves. Choices are -
- Pull out trouser rails. If you have a lot of trousers these are great, if not then they use too much space. These need to be put half way up the wardrobe, not at the top.
- Internal chests of drawers. A must for most wardrobes but don't get too many as they are usually too low to use for anything other than underwear etc.
- Pull down hanging rails. If you need a lot of hanging space then one of these at the top of your wardrobe allows you to use all of the space. They have a handle you pull to bring the rail to you so you can get to the clothing hung on it, but these are not suitable for every day use.
- Pull out wire shoe racks. These take up a lot of height (a metre) & fit on the sides of the cupboard. They hold three rows of shoes & are 60cm deep, so are a great way to store a lot of shoes. You could have 2 (one on each side) of one of the cabinets & use the spare space between them for a laundry basket, boots or other bulky items.
- Pull out baskets. Another must, perfect for knitwear, jeans etc, as they are quite deep so can take bulky items. The wire design allows you to get an idea what is in them before you open them, & they are much lighter & easier to use than the integral chests of drawers.
- Pull out shelves. The problem with fixed shelves is that can be difficult to see what's on them at the back, which limits what can be stored on them. A pull out shelf enables you to see everything, so you could store double rows of items & still keep everything tidy.
- Tie rack/belt rack. Fit these on the inside of your doors & you will never lose a belt again. An inexpensive yet vital part of most wardrobes.
- A pull out or fixed full-length mirror. If you haven't already got a full-length mirror these are useful, & the pull out version enables you to pull it out to where you need it. Only available for hinged door wardrobes.
Designing the inside of your wardrobe can be done on your own, but really, it is best to consult with the people you are buying the wardrobe from, as they will have a clearer idea of what is & isn't possible in their particular wardrobe.
They should also be able to provide you with a computer generated diagram showing you how the finished wardrobe will look before you commit to that layout. But if you get it wrong don't panic, internal fittings can be moved around, they aren't fixed.
You can make sure you get the right thing though; by knowing exactly what you want to put in your wardrobe & how much room you need rather than being supplied with a standard layout that doesn't take your needs into account.