Walk in, Dress up, Get out

Ever since we first moved in together, our master bedroom has never really been our own. It’s often contained a tumble dryer of one kind or another, and ends up being a storage space for all the odds and sods that don’t have a home anywhere else.

That’s why in our dream house our master bedroom will be simply that; our bedroom. There won’t be piles of washing waiting to be ironed (that’ll all be in the utility room downstairs), boxes of books and toys (those will all be in the basement) or spare mattresses and old cots; it’ll simply be a mostly empty space for us to sleep in and wake up in a serene space.

One of the things which will keep it empty will be the walk in wardrobe facilities. This is a true luxury; an entire room dedicated to nothing but wardrobe space. In the past we’ve crammed our clothes into and on the outside of cheap wardrobe units and chests of drawers, often getting rid of or packing away clothes not because we didn’t want them any more but because we didn’t have the space for them. It’s been an untidy, messy, inadequate solution.

Walk in wardrobes solves this. It will keep the majority of our clothes out of sight, and give us enough room to more easily go through them to decide on what to wear rather than grabbing the first thing we can get out which looks suitable.

My original thoughts called for one room which we would both use. To be honest, I’d not given it that much thought, other than perhaps making sure that some funky gadgets were included such as a rotating shoe rack. It was to me a functional space, though I know it means much more to my wife.

However, watching a tv show recently brought up the idea of separate his and hers walk in wardrobes. The point was made that arguments would inevitably arise as one or the other encroached on space which wasn’t “theirs”, and any mess would soon become a flash point and opportunity for argument.

I’ve no idea just how large a walk in wardrobe needs to be, nor really how it would be structured. It seems a waste just to have it as a room with wardrobes in it; that sort of defeats the point of having it. Nor does there need to be space to get changed, which will get done in the bedroom and/or en-suite bathroom. These rooms need to be big enough to have sizable storage space built into them, covering hanging clothes (of varying lengths in the case of dresses) as well as shelving and drawers.

On reflection, splitting the room in two and perhaps extending it slightly to make a little extra room in it would be worth exploring. The only addition in cost is another stud wall and a second door – that makes the assumption that doors would be needed to close any mess away. Otherwise, it’s just the addition of a partition wall between the two spaces, which is no great cost to bear.

I also quite like the idea of my own wardrobe space now that I come to think about it. A row on one side of my suits, with a shoe rack and a rotating tie rail at the end and my shirts properly hung would be great. I’d finish mine in a dark wood finish to give it the feel of a west end tailor, while Claire could finish hers in whatever colour scheme she chose (I’m assuming white).

I already feel relieved at avoiding the arguments we’ve not yet had but certainly would!