Oh my!

I REALLY like those closet doors! (To answer your question, no, I haven't done it but I've lived in two houses someone had done it, and I wish they'd had a little more input from someone with taste...)

The rest of the room in the photo is a bit much, but those doors you definitely should do. Google up some antique armoire images for door inspiration. Of course I love old armoires and if I had space to add a closet I'd just add another armoire. (They are so cheap, too!)

Not being helpful, sorry, but I encourage you to incorporate doors like that into your design.

So what you're proposing to do is basically remove a 2 foot strip off one end of your bedroom, right, to turn it into permanent furniture, aka a closet divided into various parts, with mirrors? I'm not clear if the "built-in armoir" (is this a closet??) is already there.

My parents did this when they built their house - a long closet with mirrored doors runs the length of one wall. Their home is modern and the mirrors are frameless, but the concept holds. The remaining bedroom is majorly small, almost room only for the bed. And even if there were room, the closet wall is useless for putting furniture against, in the event that, say, you wanted to change the orientation of the bed. In other words, the bedroom arrangement is now cast in stone. This would bother me.

But what would bother me even more, quite honestly and not to spoil anyone's lunch, would be always being able to see myself every time I had my eyes open in the bedroom. Enough said.

I like those doors too, but in the bedroom? Bedrooms need mirrors, but how many do you really want, and where? If you have space for a boudoir table, console, and side chair, by all means - that room in your picture must be big, I don't even SEE the bed. Mirrors have their place, and I'm not so sure a smaller bedroom is it.

KarinL

what would bother me even more...and not to spoil anyone's lunch, would be always being able to see myself every time I had my eyes open in the bedroom.

LOL

For the last ten years, when I go to the gym, its walls lined in mirrors, I remove my glasses. My face loses its lines, my jowls recede and most all the women look really hot. (Until I remind myself I'm old enough to be their grandfather.) Sigh...

Our house has 4 bedrooms upstairs and 2 have tiny shallow closets. 1 of the rooms with a closet also came with a homemade "closet" (with modern bifold doors)-- this room was probably supposed to be the "master" but we gave it to our daughter--it was in the front of the house and I wanted her to have room for toys and stuff. Our son (now in college) and guests use the small bedroom which also has a tiny closet. The large bedroom that has no closet has a nice built in bookshelf, we use that room for a TV room. Our bedroom is the 2nd smallest, and has no closet. We went to Ikea and got a wall-hanging shelf unit with clothes bars, and a curtain rail (it's a bit like a hospital curtain) which hangs from the ceiling. we have an entire wall of "closet" which closes with curtain panels (yardage I got very cheaply). There wasn't room for "doors" and it was much less expensive (and less annoying) than sliding doors.

We might do something permanent in the future...but this works for us now.

We just finished building a wall of closets in our unused back hall using vintage doors. 15' long, 8' tall, 2' deep

The new wood still needs to be stained to match the doors, but that job will have to wait until this heatwave ends and we are able to leave the doors and windows open. ;-)

http://s137.photobucket.com/albums/q203/paulaandgene/closet%20%20with%20vintage%20doors/

To say I'm impressed would be an understatement. That's a good job, and is very attractive. I think you've made it blend into the house in a way one would find compatible, and also make use of essentially wasted space. I've lived in several big old character homes and the one thing they have in common (other than in those great old butler pantries and built-in wooden kitchen cupboards), is the lack of adequate closet or storage space.

We have eight fireplace hearths in this house and aside from a one foot deep clothes press in one bedroom no closets at all. (1820s) What my husband did was to use the space to the side of them to build closets and inglenooks. Or in the kitchen to tuck in a stack of cabinets and built-in oven or a kitchen computer station and office. In the dining room, shelving for canned goods......and in the bedroom with the only semblance of an original closet, he built a closet on either side of a window and put a window seat between them. It's amazing that even in these huge old homes, one has to learn to use space well. The rooms are huge...........but back then they were just big, square chambers.

Enjoyed your pics.....thanks for taking the trouble to share them. Those doors are rare finds.

Had a little trouble at first finding the photos, but those closets look great! What a wonderful use of space!

calliope, Thank you! The very heavy, mahogany doors were salvaged from an old factory in Alabama that was about to be demolished, with the doors inside! I drew the plans and finally located a carpenter who understood my vision for a series of closets that would look as if they had been built many years ago. Our house was built in 1910, and I try to maintain the period look by using recycled materials when possible. I love your idea of closets on either side of a window with a seat under the window!

catperson, Sorry if there was a problem finding the pictures. Once you get on the linked site, click "slideshow" and you can watch the closet being built. I have to wait to fill the closets until the staining is finished, but I'm already in love with the huge amount of space to store just about everything!

lavenderlass, Your inspiration picture is fantastic!

Lavender, I've been meaning to ask - (I've been so "all about me" for too long, lol), do you have "knee-walls" in your bedroom? We do, in all 3 upstairs bedrooms, & that wasted space drives me crazy. (There I go, lol, ME again). If you do, could you use that space to build back into? I'm not even sure I have the correct term - I'm thinking of mine, (geez, chronic much?), where the wall intersects the roof angle above my head. (So.. 5 1/2 feet would easily cover that, lol). It's actually 6.5 or 7 feet, I've always wanted to do built-in storage/closets in all 3 rooms. It would be tricky for hanging items, with the roofline angling tight at the top.. We did do this in one room, & the silly-crooked-wonky angles drove DH insane! (Drywalling.. Ugh!). So much so, that he never actually finished it. (No doors, not trimmed, not-so-pretty as it could & will be someday). That's why I'm not taking a pic, sorry! (Also, so hot we don't even try to cool 2nd story - vents closed! I haven't even been up the stairs for a week or so) :-)