This is a collaborative post: There’s almost nothing more exciting than bringing home a new clothing haul, as it can feel wonderful to have fun with your new purchases, to try new outfits, and to express yourself in a whole new light. This can help your confidence, and showcase who you are, while also enjoying the craftsmanship of well-made clothes.
If you’ve noticed that your wardrobe is becoming a little too packed in lately, you have many options available to you. You may have certain clothes altered, donate a few, pass a few to family members, or even store them anew.
One consideration nags at us though – what about turning that spare room into a walk-in wardrobe? If you’re renovating the bedroom, your children have flown the nest, or you’re looking to move into a new area, curating a space like this can be the height of indulgence, and, like a nice home office, it can be a wonderful investment in your daily life.
So far, so good. But what does that all look like in practice? Let’s discuss the ultimate guide to the walk-in wardrobe of your dreams:
Optimal Shelving & Custom Storage
Clothes need to be stored in various ways. We can hang trousers or fold them up and place them carefully in cube shelving units or storage drawers, for example. Having a mixture of both these storage opportunities is worth your time.
Containers, compartments, storage racks and slide-out drawers that work on motorised hinges can allow for convenience and comfort, while also helping you divide out your outfit styles, meaning you don’t have to dig through ten unassociated drawers to find what you really need. This can provide the outer layer of the room, freeing up the “middle space” for dressing and relaxing.
Effective Lighting For Visibility
To see how you really look before you leave for the day, it’s important to implement good lighting. That being said, you’re not creating a clinic here, you can still enjoy some mood lighting that helps you look your best and illuminates you softly. Overhead bulbs with soft diffusing filters can be a great idea, as can lighting strips that operate around the bottom of your shelving fixtures.
You may have one soft freestanding lamp that allows you to gently illuminate the entire room to various degrees. Of course, making sure the natural light glowing into the property is unimpeded will be a healthy step as well. Pair this with a beautiful floor-length mirror, as well as mirrors pointed behind that (for full 360-degree coverage of your ‘fit’”) and you’ll thank yourself for the confidence boost!
A Freestanding Hanging Rack
Certain clothes, like some dresses, jackets, coats and shirts will need to be hung correctly. But in a walk-in wardrobe room, you might not have space for a major wardrobe. That’s absolutely fine, and quite a common issue. Instead, you can opt for a free standing clothes rail fit to the dimensions you need, which not only adds some diversity to your internal decorating but gives you all the rail space you need to keep your clothes in their best condition. You can even use two racks, perhaps at either side of the room, so you don’t have to dig through your partner’s blazers and office jackets to get to your winter coat. If anything, a walk-in wardrobe should feel less like an assault course composed of your belongings, and more a quick dip-in-dip-out space you can get dressed comfortably in.
Create A Dedicated Shoe Storage Area
Don’t forget the shoes! You may already have a shoe rack near the front door for footwear that you pop on when headed out to the shops, or with slippers or inside soles for when you come back, but your shoe collection can take pride of place in your walk-in too. Naturally, this can be located near your shoe polishing box for when you need to spruce up your office loafers or more formal footwear.
Now, depending on how interested in nice shoes you are, it can be a healthy investment to implement a nice rack that showcases your entire collection, or a pull-out drawer with racks on the inside of the cupboard that pulls out with plenty of space for more and more shoes. Just don’t blame us if you choose to buy many more pairs to fill out your wonderful new display! It’s a lifestyle, after all.
Incorporate A Vanity Or Dressing Table
This step is optional, but if you have the space, it’s nice to have. Depending on your daily routine you may already have a place to do your makeup, practice skincare, or implement the last finishing touches before you head out to greet the world. A nice vanity with all of your makeup products, jewellery and accessories neatly organized can be a great place to start. Moreover, if you keep your walk-in wardrobe under lock and key, it also provides a secondary protection layer if you’re ever the victim of a break-in, keeping your most valuable and sentimental items safe.
Customize Drawers for Accessories
Depending on how you like to organize your accessories, a few inner moulds fit to your drawers can be a great idea. For example, having a draw for your watches can be a safe and secure place to hold them, while also laying them out in an organized fashion with the faces facing up whenever you open the drawer. This is an indulgence of course, but the entire walk-in wardrobe is an indulgence, and for comparatively little cost an insert like this can be fashioned to the correct dimensions. You may also line the interior with a velvet-like material that allows for soft handling and long-term preservation of your most expensive and sentimental items.
Create A Display Area For Bags
Bags are both fashion statement and utility depending on what we wear, and many of us keep them, from the million-layer-and-compartment rucksacks we use to head to our office job while carrying our laptop, to messenger bags, to statement handbags that contain all we need during an expensive meal out.
Creating a display area for these bags can celebrate them as part of your wardrobe while also providing some diversity and decoration in the space. A central stand for bag holders or even a separate table can keep them carefully presented while also allowing their character to contribute to the room. A separate table will also allow you to easily fill the bag with all the items you need before you head out for the day.
Decorate Gently
A walk-in wardrobe doesn’t have to be over the top or decorated within an inch of its life to be beautiful, in fact, simplicity often works well here. Whites, off-whites, beiges, yellows and colors that reflect natural light can be ideal. Not only can this help you turn a small room into a much larger-feeling space, but the neutrality won’t take away from you trying to inspect your outfits before you head out.
Strong feature walls and distracting decorations can often lead you to think about or focus on more than getting dressed, and that’s not always ideal for a wardrobe. Of course, you can certainly set ambience by placing a secure scented candle in the space (though make sure this is far away from any garments or clothes, and perhaps implementing a soundbar or wall-mounted speakers to play smooth jazz as you prepare for the day. What could be more ambient and comfortable than this?
With this advice, we hope you can plan and enjoy the walk-in wardrobe of your dreams!