1/ The most comfortable, easily accessible, and functional way to organize clothes and shoes is to create a WALK-IN CLOSET, also called WARDROBE. You could dedicate to it an entire room or a niche and divide in moduls for clothes by purpose: work, leisure, sports, hobby, or merchandising type (dresses, skirts, shirts, etc.), accessorizing it with shelves, drawers, special jewelry holders, lighting, air cleaning systems, etc. 

2/ Another option is to have a classical WARDROBE or CLOSET, with doors. This type of structure also can be customized by size and openings with hinged doors, sliding doors, or coplanar doors, depending on the space available (each type of door requires extra space for the opening). This solution can be applied in any part of the house, it has no limits in sizing and accessorizing, and it can be the protagonist or, on the contrary, it can be camouflaged in the same finishing as the boiserie paneling or other wall decorations and mix with the ambient, becoming almost invisible to the eye. 

3/ There would be a third solution. In case you have opened spaces – you could insert a WARDROBE BOX or a DOUBLE-SIDED CLOSET, to create different zones, for example, dividing the bedroom from the living room, or use a big free corner to create a particular zone (like a wardrobe). 

So many choices… but which is the best option? Let us see together the advantages and disadvantages of each product type, so you can decide the best alternative for yourself.

First, take into account the type of house you have, see how much available space is there. Secondly, analyze your personal exigencies, lifestyle, and hobbies. Thirdly, take into consideration if the house is only at your disposal, or you share it with your siblings, partner, maybe you have kids (what age are they) etc. These three big criteria will give you the input on how to correctly divide the space into functional zones, which rooms you could do of common use, and which shall be private zones. 

If you have enough space in the house, and you can find a free room or at least a big niche, then I would recommend to build-in a comfortable WALK-IN CLOSET. You could divide it in two halves/parts, so I did, dedicating one side to my husband, and the other to all my belongings. This solution provides several advantages:

•   This system allows to keep all things together, winter and summer wardrobe, organized by category of product: from tops to buttoms, shoes, belts, etc.
•   Accessorize the wardrobe based on the type of clothes you wear the most: jeans, shirts, dresses, t-shirts, etc. For every merceology there is a better way to keep: jeans and pants I love to hang, this way I can see the length and the decoration it has, so I hang them (some preffer to stack on shelves); jackets and blazers I love to keep next to overcoats because for me it is an element finilizing an outfit (some keep them paired with pants and skits, for example, an advocate may preffer this organization). So, organize things the way you find easier to get that you need and compose an outfits effortless.
•   Keeping it in a wardrobe, you have all things at sight, in one opened space, easily accessible at any time, but under closed door, so away from stranger’s eyes. It is private. Unless you wish to transform your wardrobe into a welcoming opened-boutique, the type of luxury shop, where to expose all your beautiful things at sight and have friends to admire and spend together; In this case you could always organize a wardrobe room, just apply different decorations, amplify the luminosity and get soft padded sittings.
•   You could get here a sitting anyway, it wll allow you to change inside the wardrobe room with more comfort. And do not forget about a mirror, a full size mirror.
•   The biggest disadvantage of such system, if you could call it “disadvantage”, is that: first, it requires organization, so every item you take off, you must put it back to avoid declutering, and secondly, clean up the dust every week (even better twice a week). Since everything is at sight all the time, you must respect these two real facts.
•   Another disadvantage would be the high economic cost it implies building such a system by size and customize it with all types of accessories. Unless you accept the compromise to use only standard modules and a less expensive finish, like the system Pax in IKEA, that have modules large 50-75-100 cm and high h201 and h236 cm, in basic four melamine colors.

For those, who does not have a room appropriate for a walk-in closet, but has big opened spaces, I would suggest considering one of the two possibilities:

1/ Insert a BOX-WARDROBE, as you can see in the example here below, a realization made by some Italian furniture producers. This type of independent construction will function the same way as a build-in wardrobe.

2/ Insert a DOUBLE-SIDED WARDROBE, dividing the space in multiple zones, and using this closet to keep all your belongings in an organized way and confidential (no one would know what is inside unless they specially open the doors). This solution is more creative and allows playing with materiality, creating something functional and artistically unique. You can see some examples below, made by Italian furniture producers. Since it is also a customized product, this solution has a not indifferent economic cost that must be taken into consideration. 

While the most common solution, the classical system where to keep clothes, is the WARDROBE with doors. You can choose the type of doors depending on your preference: hinged doors, sliding doors or coplanar doors. Moreover, you can choose the opening of every module, and there is the possibility of using angle-modules and bridge modules (also called over door modules). Here are the advantages of such option:

•   You can decide to insert a closet just in any room you want, no matter its size, shape, or location. A closet can have the smallest size to the biggest composition you decide.
•   There are number of standard modules to choose from, in length-depth-high, and most often, when needed, you can cut these modules by size to make it fit perfectly inside a niche or under an angled ceiling.
•   There is a huge variety in customization at low cost, making possible to select from a variety of matt paint colors and lacqueres, woods, handles, or go on more particular (and costly) materials like leather, stones, unique metals (like brass), trompe d’oeil (a 3d hand-made painting) etc. You could insert a closet as part of the decoration, making doors to the cabinet in the same finishing as the boiserie paneling, for example. Or you could choose a closet that is very stenographic, unique and make it the central piece of the space decoration.

Seeing these solutions and analyzing every option from the functional, aesthetical, and economical point of view, which option would you choose and why? Share in the comments.

In the meantime, I wish you well and good luck with your house decoration. Remaining at your disposal for any help you might need.

Best wishes,

Nadiya 

MetropolitanMe Blogger