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jiggreen

master bedroom without freestanding furniture?

jiggreen
13 years ago

Here's the situation...I would love some input. As most of you know, I am presently decorating my sitting room and master bedroom, which are two separate rooms, but attached to each other. In order to get to the sleeping part of our room, you must go through the sitting room, so for all intents and purposes it functions as one room, yet still separate. Both rooms are fairly small, and NEITHER room has a closet. We currently have a large walk in closet in our bathroom for our hanging clothes and shoes, but the bathroom is not a "master bathroom", it is out in the hallway. In the bedroom I have a tall bureau, and I am using the matching piece in the sitting room. If I were to eliminate the tall dresser from the master bedroom (and put it in sitting room w/ it's matching friend), that would free up an entire wall and allow me to do a built in custom storage/closet system, with drawers, shelves and hanging storage. It would not be a walk in, it would be more like a surface closet, but not the type of surface closet that has a standard type door. Instead it would be more like floor to ceiling cabinetry with a nice finish. Of course this means I would lose the only substantial piece of furniture in the "sleeping part" of the bedroom....other than the bed itself and the one night table I am able to fit. My husband keeps talking about turning my sunporch (which opens off of the sleeping part of our room) into a large walk in closet, but that idea makes me sick! I want my sunporch to be a sunporch!!

I watch a lot of those House Hunter International shows and a great many of the houses shown have built ins similar to this in their master bedrooms, as opposed to freestanding furniture. I don't plan on moving for many years, but I do want to make sure that before I spend thousands of dollars on a wall of custom built in storage that it is not something that I would regret down the road.

I am just so tired of having to go to 3 different locations in this house to get dressed everyday or even put our laundry away. And when someone is using that bathroom, I have no access to my clothes in the closet in there! It would be nice to have the majority of our clothing/shoes/purses/etc...all in the bedroom itself.

Opinions? And maybe pictures?

Comments (15)

  • User
    13 years ago

    I just googled Images...and found a lot of pics....see what you think and then try some other combos of words. Hope this helps...I love your home !! c

    Here is a link that might be useful: built in wall closets

  • jakabedy
    13 years ago

  • mjsee
    13 years ago

    I went and found your other posts...and your photobucket albums...and I think fitted cupboards make perfect sense for your home. Originally the owners of your home would have had large wardrobes for clothing. If memory serves, Sarah (?) did fitted wardrobes in her country Sarah's House in...the kids bedroom? I'm having internet issues...so I can't look it up right away.

    I think fitted wardrobes (because that is what you are creating!) would be a total win/win. You gain beutiful storage, add architectural detail, and don't lose the floorspace to a honking big walk-in closet. If, however, you are nervous about it...you might be able to find a couple of large wardrobes that match or are sympathetic in an antique store.

    melanie

  • jiggreen
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    Thanks! My brain isn't functioning today! I was searching for "freestanding closets" and came up with a bunch of junk!

    I found this photo and I really like the clean, clutter free look.

    I'm thinking I might have enough depth to do actual doors like this, and perhaps do an elfa system behind the doors. (I would purchase antique doors in keeping with the age of our house..actually I have some in the attic...perhaps I could use what I have!) What I'm actually considering now, if the dimensions would work out properly is to purchase the shelving, drawers and hanging rods...and install them onto the completely open wall, and then frame the front wall (I only need one wall, the closet space will run full length from the front wall of the room to the back wall) I don't have a tape measure handy right now, but it appears that I might have about 30", possibly 32" of depth to work with. (I don't know why I can never find a tape measure around this house!!!!!) And about 10 feet of wall space to work with. I just found Elfa's great design center, and I'm having fun playing with it! I have to do 2 separate systems as it won't let me go higher than 80", but I am certainly finding a lot of options. And, as a bonus, it seems that as long as I'm willing to go with actual doors, as opposed to built in cabinetry, I'll be saving myself THOUSANDS!

    I'm excited now!!!!! I LOVE bouncing ideas off of you all! I really wasn't sure about giving up actual furniture for closet space, but I do think it would be appropriate in this situation.

  • igloochic
    13 years ago

    I have two amoires in our house that are from England. They are actually wardrobes, comprised of a good amount if hanging space as well as shelving and a bureau. Neither was more than 1500. Hopefully this pic will work....just wanted to show another useful option...

    Here is a link that might be useful: I think it will be on this page

  • Stacey Collins
    13 years ago

    Ikea makes several systems for this sort of thing. They're as built-in as kitchen cabinets. They have loads of styles and innard options, pretty creative and well-designed stuff. You can, of course, always customize by adding your own moldings. Just a thought: it would certainly be less pricey that 100% custom :)

    You might even be able to use the Ikea innards and your own antique doors if you get lucky with dimensions.

    I would have used it if I could have in my own recent walk-in-closet reno, but my spaces were too off-shaped and I could not make their sizes work for me.

  • mary_lu_gw
    13 years ago

    we are contemplating doing the same in our guest room. We already have similar type of his and her closets in our bedroom.

    Our bedroom


    Cupboards we have in our laundry room are also similar

    Inspiration picture for guest room. These are kitchen cupboards, but could modify/widen depth to use as closet. We have 12' ceilings in the guest room and would take the closet all the way to the ceiling. Lots of storage that way.

  • gmp3
    13 years ago

    Mary Lu did you build the closets in your pantry or are they cabinets? I love them!!!!!

  • mary_lu_gw
    13 years ago

    gmp3, they are both actually. The 2 large, lower doors nearest the outside door are a coat closet. Then the other large, lower doors furthest from the walk in door have shelves built into them. This area I use as an overflow for kitchen stuff as my cupboards in the kitchen are limited. They were custom built on site.

    There are also similar cupboards built above the washer and dryer on the opposite side of the room.

  • Susan
    13 years ago

    great minds think alike i guess!
    i've come to a similar conclusion about built in closets in my bdrm too.
    my ten ft wall has a window set only nine inches from it, so mine will be somewhat more shallow.
    still, we'll have his and hers sides with a set of wide drawers in the center with a mirrored top, back and side walls. the bottoms of the his and her's sides will be tilt-out hampers and the uppers simply hung with many pegs above a small drwer or two.
    pegs because i know i'm too lazy to properly hang things, but not too lazy to drape over a peg--most of my clothes seem to be draped over the chairs lately anyway!
    since i don't have a ton of depth either, i'm happy with
    the plan.
    the center counter over the center bank of drawer bases will be display for photos and special things, as a dressing table might be.

    hey igloochic? is that robin's island i see in your waterview picture? that scene looks so much like my childhood playground it's uncanny!

  • igloochic
    13 years ago

    Whidbey Island to the left, marrow stone island front and center and Indian island on the right. If there is a robins island out there I don't know which it might be :). But we are island heavy lol

    We have closets like Mary Lu in the house in many areas...they are better than nothing, but without the ladder in her fab inspiration photo this five foot tall giant finds those higher cabs to be basically useless. In ds room I'm actually removing one like in mls pics and replacing with another wardrobe like the one in our master So much more useful IMO.

  • arcy_gw
    13 years ago

    A thought occurred to me as I looked at the pictures and great suggestions people had. In MN if you don't have a closet built into the room you cannot call it a bedroom when you go to sell. This makes me vote for the original idea you had vs the wardrobes. I do not suppose there is a way to put a new access into the bathroom closet, so the master bedroom can use it from that room? Or even from the hall would be easier, like you said if someone were using it. Do you plan to keep that closet as is in the bathroom after you get your new one in your room? When I saw your thread title I thought you were going to ask if having only a bed in a room was odd, and I was going to say I have seen many minimalist bedrooms with this look. If you have the closet space you don't need the furniture. Your home has some interesting challenges, configuration wise.

  • igloochic
    13 years ago

    I think the home in question is historic. The closet rule does not necessarily apply in that case. (the exemption was specifically noted on our appraisal)

  • Susan
    13 years ago

    good point about the bdrm question. we also have the closet rule when it comes to bdrms. no closet=no bdrm.
    otoh, it doesn't matter how many bathrooms one has--which is good since we have five in our three bdrm place!
    i am building another bdrm into the addition but will not add a closet for this very reason, i'm legally allowed three bdrms only, but desire to have a private space for occasional guests.

    igloochic--robin's island is in peconic bay on long island in new york state.
    it's unbelievable that your view is so similar!
    from my mil's home i can see the exact layout of sand hill with the island off to the right--just as you do. makes me miss home for sure!

  • murfy721
    13 years ago

    I am also in the process of adding a built in closet to my master bedroom. I lost a walk in when I remodeled the bathroom years ago. We started out with a bookshelf/media unit that my husband was going to build and ended up at a cabinet maker and adding closets/drawers. Its not inexpensive, but I was surprised at how reasonable it actually was. We chose cherry with raised panel doors. I can only imagine how much more reasonable it would have been if we'd chosen paint grade with less drawers. We had the same unit priced by a well known closet company and they wanted 4x more money!! I was floored! In 14 feet I'm doing a 24 inch depth with a closet at each end, a total of 12 drawers, open shelving and a place for a flat screen. Cabinet companies in our area are hurting. Might be worth at least having someone price it, plus they will draw it out for you and then at least you've got a plan that you can do yourself to save money. We'll be installing our own which will save some money. I'm excited to add the storage and get rid of some old furniture!!