We tell you what dressing rooms are and what you need to know in order to properly plan this room.
Modern clothes storage complexes are surprise with their variety and functionality. Each item has its own place in them. A good option for storing things, including clothes, is a wardrobe system or a spacious closet. We tell you how to make a dressing room, taking into account the size and layout of your home.
What is a dressing room?
A dressing room is a separate room or part of a studio apartment, that is, an open functional area. With the exception of the last option, the dressing room includes a building envelope and filling, consisting of load-bearing parts and various shelves. In the filling, individual pieces of furniture are also used. In the dressing room, as in a full-fledged room, autonomous lighting, and air conditioning systems are often installed.
The dressing room helps to concentrate things in one place so that, entering this well-organized space, you can take a look at all things and, without a long search, take what you need from your place (or places) and return it there.
How much space are needed for the arrangement
For a room, about 3 m wide and 1.5–1.7 m deep is enough, based on the fact that the standard depth of shelves and drawers is 40–60 cm (otherwise it will be inconvenient to use them), plus at least 90 cm for your maneuvers near them. In general, you can count on a good result, having at your disposal 6-8 square meters. Making a dressing room with an area of less than 3 m2 is not worth it – it is better to limit yourself to a built-in wardrobe.
Types of storage systems
There are three main structural types of wardrobes: traditional (a system of body elements), models on a wall panel, and modular (on metal frame racks or on rails).
Traditional model
The traditional type is a complex of cabinets grouped into a single module and fastened together with ties, as well as shelving, chests of drawers, wall panels with fixed metal rods, and different shelves.
Panel system
The dressing room, which is based on a panel system, is a load-bearing panel mounted on a wall or even in the middle of a studio space. Shelves and storage containers are fixed on the panel using brackets. Such panels are appropriate only in a spacious room, for example, when planning a U-shaped dressing room, where they will not be completely barricaded by things.
Modular system
Modular wardrobes are based on a frame system consisting of metal racks or rails on which all the necessary elements are attached. Modular assembly wardrobe is distinguished by flexibility, visual and constructive lightness of a metal (aluminum or steel) frame in combination with filling, and openness.
By choosing a modular dressing room, you get a multifunctional interior complex that you can customize (and complete) during operation in accordance with your desires, thereby changing the layout of the dressing room. Modules can be quickly built into a room of any layout, dismantled, and transported.
Advantages and disadvantages of different models
Shelving
This is an ergonomic design that does not take up much space, allowing rational use of the entire space from floor to ceiling. Shelving fits optimally even in small dressing rooms where there is no room for opening cabinet doors or pulling out bulky drawers. There are many types of shelving systems: wall-mounted, racks, modular, etc. Also, the advantage of shelving is that you can plan a dressing room using shelving with your own hands.
Wardrobes
A sliding wardrobe is a convenient, practical, and roomy piece of furniture. In terms of functionality, it surpasses all other structures designed for storage, and at the same time fits organically into any room.
Reasons for the popularity of the wardrobe
Wardrobes with sliding doors (built-in or freestanding) are relevant in bedrooms, living rooms, kitchens, hallways, offices, nurseries, bathrooms, and even loggias. Many factors contribute to this popularity.
- When opening the doors, no additional space is required.
- Design features allow you to fit the cabinet in any place, including those where standard cabinet furniture cannot be installed.
- You can use the space more rationally both horizontally and vertically by designing the cabinet up to the ceiling.
- A huge selection of components and materials helps to bring any ideas to life.
- The internal space of the compartment can be planned and filled with elements at your discretion.
How to plan your closet
Before ordering a cabinet or other storage system, decide on the dimensions, for which you should take into account the dimensions of the room where you plan to fit them. Think over the functionality, that is, the internal content, so that later during the operation there is no regret about the missing shelves or sections. You should decide whether you will select a finished design or order it according to an individual project. Well, last but not least, the external image and its correspondence to the interior.
Decide on the width and height
Small apartments allow you not to limit yourself in the height and width of storage. However, not in the case of wardrobes. The length of one track (guide) is 1,800–5,500 mm. Often, in order to build a composition from wall to wall, two tracks are joined, and a vertical partition is made at the junction.
The width of the door can be any, but for ease of use (easy access to the contents), it is optimal to leave 1,000 mm. As a rule, with a cabinet width of up to 1,800 mm, two or three door leaves are installed, with a width of 1,800–2,700 mm – three or four, 2,700–3,600 mm – four or five, and with a width of 3,600–4,500 mm – five or six paintings.
As for the height of the door leaf, some manufacturers of sliding wardrobes limit it to 2,300–2,500 mm, and they offer to complete the space up to the ceiling with a mezzanine, drown it out with a false panel or make a stretch ceiling, initially laying the slopes under the cabinet. Vertical profiles that allow you to make higher doors will have to be looked for more carefully in stores.
Choose the type of construction: built-in or cabinet
Immediately it should be said that both options have the right to exist. The case model, or free-standing, has all the walls, including the inner one, as well as the roof. This is a separate structure, which, unlike the built-in cabinet, can be disassembled and assembled elsewhere if necessary. The manufacture of a free-standing cabinet takes more materials and fittings.
For the built-in design, a free niche is required, and finally, a corner. The walls, ceiling, and floor of the part of the room in which the cabinet is built-in serve as an alternative to the case.
A clear division of wardrobes into free-standing (cabinet) and built-in does not exist today. Embedded systems can be designed “in the image and likeness” of case systems, that is, they can have rear and side walls, a roof, and a floor.
So, expensive cabinets are almost always made cabinets. And reputable firms categorically refuse to attach shelves to bare walls, for fear of hurting the electrical wiring hidden in them. Such an intermediate option as a semi-built-in compartment is also possible – in principle, this is the same built-in wardrobe, which, in addition to the doors, also has, say, a roof, only sidewalls, etc.
Pick up doors
As a rule, the dressing room is separated from the main room with the help of a building envelope. At the same time, the type of doors is chosen depending on the area and configuration of the room: a sliding partition, a stationary partition with a hinged door, and a folding accordion door. In studio premises, the dressing room is often made open, that is, without a building envelope. But keeping things in plain sight requires a lot.
Decide on the extension system
If you want to equip a custom-made economical wardrobe, for example, in a hallway or a nursery, you can give preference to a steel system. For complex projects, an anodized aluminum option is more appropriate.
We also advise you to pay attention to the type of fastening of the sliding system: suspended (upper) and lower. More traditional support rollers for the sashes move along the lower track. In order to prevent the door from falling out, auxiliary rollers are mounted on top of it, moving along a guide fixed above the door leaf. The disadvantage of this design is the possible ingress of dust into the groove of the lower track. The height of the doors with the bottom sliding system reaches a maximum of 2.8 m.
The suspended-type sliding mechanism is connected to the door in the upper part (there is no lower track) and is designed for a leaf weight of 60 to 80 kg. The height of the doors with the upper system is 3.5 m, and in some cases, it can reach 4 m. Usually, hanging systems are somewhat more expensive, but are considered more advanced. At the bottom of the door, there are various devices that prevent it from swinging sideways.
Aluminum sliding systems
- Rolls back softly and smoothly.
- The profile can simultaneously perform the functions of a handle.
- The hidden mechanism allows the use of various filling materials, including glass.
- Virtually no structural restrictions.
Steel sliding systems
- It is possible that there is noise when opening/closing doors (to avoid this, leading manufacturers use a special locking mechanism and special lubricant).
- Fewer finishing materials.
- The dimensions of the canvas, its thickness depend on the rigidity of the metal and the structure – each system has its own margin of safety.
Coplanar sliding systems
In recent years, the spread of coplanar systems for trendy frameless sliding doors has become a landmark. The design of the coplanar doors gives the cabinet a “clean”, visually unburdened minimalist image. After all, the doors in the closed position are located in one flat line (the distance between the facades is only 2 mm). The front looks like a single canvas, reliably protecting the contents of the cabinet from dust.
Particularly impressive is the ease with which the door slides along invisible guides. There are coplanar systems with sliding mechanisms for light doors up to 15 kg (maximum cabinet size 3,000 mm), medium doors up to 35 kg (maximum cabinet size 3,800 mm), and heavy doors up to 70 kg (maximum cabinet size 6,000 mm).
Choose the right filling
The question of how to plan a dressing room located in different zones is not as simple as it seems. It would be wise to cite several rooms as an example.
Take, for example, a hallway – most often a small one. Nevertheless, it must contain a considerable number of things. If there is a niche in the hallway, there is no better place to organize storage. The minimum width of the built-in wardrobe is 900–1000 mm, and the minimum width of the sliding door leaf is 450–500 mm. The need for a small compartment to store a vacuum cleaner, ironing board, mop, and bucket, as well as skis, is obvious.
Is it worth it to make the door panels of the wardrobe in the hallway with a mirror? On the one hand, the mirror visually increases the space of the hallway, on the other hand, it eliminates the need to look for additional space for the mirror.
The closet in the living room, designed for relaxation and receiving guests, has its own nuances. On the one hand, it should become an interior decoration. On the other hand, it be a universal receptacle for light clothing, bed and table linen, etc. Open sections (often backlit) for equipment, books, and souvenirs will visually facilitate the design.
The dressing room in the bedroom will organically fit into the atmosphere of calm and comfort. The design for this room usually does not provide for open shelves and sections. The ideal option is a model consisting of four sections: shelves and spacious sections with hangers. You can make the closet the main element of the interior, or, on the contrary, you can dissolve it in the space of the sleeping room.
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