How to design interior of alcove sliding door wardrobe?

[DrDvorak]

Hello, I am stuck on how to go about a project so thought I would see if I could get some ideas here.

The master bedroom in my house includes an alcove with dimensions:

• Width: 1570 mm (i.e. requires 2 sliding doors to cover)
  
• Height: 2430 mm (i.e. the height of the bedroom)
  
• Depth: 874 mm

The intention is to fill that alcove with a bespoke sliding door wardrobe, such that the sliding doors are flush with the main wall (i.e.: ~874mm from the very back of the alcove.

I get help with DIY projects from a family member who has vastly more DIY experience than me, and thus he leads the work, with me helping with the labour etc. So: as the first step, we have successfully installed the two mirrored sliding doors on their tracks. These are easy to take down, which we've done to focus on the next step: fitting the interior.

This is where we have come unstuck on a very fundamental question: what will the design of the interior be?! i.e. how many clothes rails, hung where? How many shelves, of what size, placed where?

My wife and I do currently struggle with inadequate storage in the house and so a key goal of this project is to maximise the amount of storage within that alcove, whilst making it still possible to reach the items; whether this is by a person being able to step inside at one side of the wardrobe (but this would reduce the amount of storage space?), or alternatively open doors and reach inside.

I've found it hard to get my head around this. I think that there could be many different ways to do a design, and I don't want to end up with a 'bad design' that doesn't store a lot of stuff and/or makes it hard to get at items.

When looking online at off-the-shelf interior components to get ideas, I found that they seem to be for wardbrobes much less deep - with depths around the ranges of ~400-450 mm. If I was to use a design with such components against the back wall, I would seem to end up with a 'wasted space' of well over 1 foot between the components and the sliding doors.

Looking at walk-in wardrobe designs online, they seem to be for significantly bigger spaces.

So, this alcove seems to be an unusual size that falls somewhere inbetween a typical wardrobe depth whilst not really being big enough to be a walk-in wardrobe?

Does anyone know of any pictures from sliding door wardrobes projects of similar size?

Would you normally draw out a few different design options in detail and then pick one, if you were working with this alcove size?

Might I be overcomplicating this and should I just head down to Wickes and look at what size components are available, as my relative is suggesting?

 

[OwainDIYer]

If you weren't using sliding doors you could have shoe racks on the inside of both doors, which would use up the depth. You can still have a shoe rack on the inner sliding door.

Elfa is about 540 deep.
http://www.ironmongerydirect.co.uk/...obe_storage_solutions/page1?fh_sort_by=-price

 

[DrDvorak]

A shoe rack on the back of a door is something I hadn't thought of, so there's one good new idea for me right away.

 

[Gerrydelasel]

I'd be temped to put shelves or even drawers all up the back wall, and the clothes rail in front. Yeah you'd have to reach through the clothes to get to the shelves (like visiting Narnia), but how often would you be doing that, really?

 

[big-all]

do not place drawers in the central section without working out the area clear off the door overlap
you can have cubby holes full height at the back about 320mm deep behind the hanging rail
what width are the doors ??

 

[big-all]

plan the hanging rail in sections long dress section skirts section jackets and shirts with progressively higher storage underneath
then plan the wives section in a similar way

 

[DrDvorak]

do not place drawers in the central section without working out the area clear off the door overlap
you can have cubby holes full height at the back about 320mm deep behind the hanging rail
what width are the doors ??

The 2 identical sliding doors are 765mm wide. We built a wood frame off each wall, about 2 inches thick on each wall, as the doors would have been a little small for the opening otherwise.

Good point that anything smack bang behind the door overlap would be hard to reach and therefore likely a waste to build. I will need to open each door and measure/feel for what is 'easily reachable'.

 

[DrDvorak]

I'd be temped to put shelves or even drawers all up the back wall, and the clothes rail in front. Yeah you'd have to reach through the clothes to get to the shelves (like visiting Narnia), but how often would you be doing that, really?

This sounds a likely bet, the key advantage seems to be that it's maximising the storage space. Reaching through clothes won't be too hard as long as the clothes rail isn't so chocka you can't move them along - and if it is, just fold some of the clothes and put them on the shelves/cubby holes at the back.

Rail at front, storage behind it (while watching for overlap area between the doors) seems the way to go. I'll try to knock myself a diagram up shortly...

 

[DrDvorak]

plan the hanging rail in sections long dress section skirts section jackets and shirts with progressively higher storage underneath
then plan the wives section in a similar way

I hadn't even thought of the idea of different storage heights under a rail, it just goes to show there can be so many possibilities for a bespoke build in a decent size space.

 

[big-all]

in the area off the door centers you could have side on storage with a blank wall one side and cubby holes or shelves or even use this area for swapping /storing winter/summer clothes as its only around 6 inches it wont be too bad

 

[big-all]

also remember the hanging rail will need support every 450-550mm

 

[DrDvorak]

The attached sketch illustrates the concept of this design. I'll need to work out just how big the 2 shelves above the clothes rail can manage to be; and the detail of what the back shelving will look like - i.e. how many layers, what heights they are at, and whereabouts vertical separators should go.

At that point I'll have what design I would ideally like; it may then get tweaked once I start to look at what materials might most economically give something 'close enough' to it.

 

[big-all]

remember you will need 1or 2 intermediate vertical supports for the shelve if its supporting the hanging rail
if you had 3 doors you would have 2 vertical sections at 1/3 and 2/3ds about 525mm apart
but with only 2 doors it can get a bit crowded as 1 intermediate will struggle to hold the weight off 780mm off rail without a middle support and an intermediate partition each half would be very intrusive and undesireable
certainly dont rely on 15mm melimane or similar to support any load underneath on a 780mm unsupported run

 

[foxhole]

Frame should sit just in front of doors to maximise the door travel, avoiding dead spot at the overlap.
Fitted a combination of shelf draws and hanging space in one of my bedrooms.

Internal draws

• foxhole
• 8 Sep 2009
• 10

hanging rails

• foxhole
• 8 Sep 2009
• 10

,

 

[DrDvorak]

Looks nice. What is the depth of that wardrobe?
Compared to 874mm on my alcove space.
3 doors on that wardrobe?