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Modern interior design trends include a minimum amount of furniture. Just the things you can’t do without. Therefore, wardrobes, wardrobes and other cabinet furniture disappear, and all things are placed in special rooms – dressing rooms. Moreover, for its equipment it is not necessary to have a large space. You can even convert the closet. How to equip a dressing room in the pantry – in the article.
Pantry transformation: procedure
Turning a pantry into a dressing room is not very difficult – the walls, floor, ceiling are already there. Usually only the doors need to be replaced. They, most often, are changed to sliding ones, but ordinary swinging ones are also not bad. The rest of the building is just being renovated. Repairs can be done using inexpensive materials, and the main amount can be spent on filling for the dressing room. Such a distribution of funds will be more reasonable, since it is shelves-lockers-drawers that provide convenience, and not walls finished with expensive materials.
The order of work when turning a pantry into a dressing room is as follows:
- We remove everything that is in the pantry. All shelves, hooks, furniture, if any.
- We dismantle the doors and the door frame. At this stage, it is necessary to decide whether the doors will be of the same width or whether the doorway needs to be expanded, in addition, they will be hinged or sliding.
- Next, you need to decide how exactly you will repair the walls in the future dressing room.
- If the walls are very curved, there may be problems installing cabinets. In this case, it is better to knock down the old plaster, plaster everything along the beacons, and finally level it with putty.
- If the walls are relatively even, without large differences (up to 1 cm), you can only do with plaster, after removing the finishing materials (whitewash, paint is cleaned to clean plaster).
- Another option is to simply refresh the finish: stick wallpaper, paint, and correct all irregularities when installing equipment (an option for those who can find a way out of any situation, since there will be a lot of trouble).
- We fix the ceiling. It’s usually dyed or bleached, so it’s usually just a refresh.
- Installing new doors.
- Next, tidy up the floor. Refresh paint or lay linoleum, you can use vinyl tiles. There is no point in using more expensive materials.
The dressing room in the pantry is 50% done. Repair work is over, you can start filling the dressing room. This is where the nuances begin, since the “content” depends on the location of the dressing room and the things that you plan to store in it.
Wardrobe width and door arrangement
As already mentioned, the doors to the dressing room can be hinged or sliding. Sliding are good because they take up little space when open. With a sufficient width of the doorway, they can be double-leaf (or even three-leaf), when opened, one part can “slide into” the second, or all can be moved to a free section of the wall nearby.
The dressing room in the pantry can also have hinged doors. They are not as comfortable, but they cost less. If you decide to install swing doors, you need to consider the place of their installation, take into account ease of use and safety.
In general, it is more convenient if the doors to the dressing room are sliding (like a compartment) and wide. If the storage system is built from scratch, the doors are most often made to the full width of the room and it is the sliding system. In pantries, the doors are often narrow – 60-70 cm. It is hardly worth making swing doors much wider, since the usable space is “eaten up” in this case.
In a narrow dressing room
A little about where the swing doors should be located if the dressing room in the closet has a small width. If the room has a width of 135-145 cm, the best option for installing swing doors is 10 cm from the left wall, opening inwards. Given the installation of a platband 5 cm wide, a 5 cm wide gap will remain to the wall. This looks normal and a 55 cm wide space remains on the right, in which a storage area is arranged – shelves / hangers. But it is implemented in rooms with a width of at least 135 cm.
If the width of the pantry is even smaller – about 130-120 cm wide, you can move the doors close to the wall or even remove the trim from the side of the dressing room. It’s low-tech and not very pretty, but usability is much more important.
So that with such a layout, things do not interfere with closing / opening doors, a shelf area is installed at the entrance, the width of which is 30-40 cm. Here you can store shoes in boxes, place drawers for underwear and trifles, shelves for sweaters / jumpers, etc. Further, it is already possible to arrange a storage area on hangers 60 cm wide.
With an average width
With a dressing room width in the closet of 150 cm, you can arrange a two-way storage system – to the right and left of the entrance. In this case, the doors are positioned so that on one side there is a distance of 55 cm from the wall (taking into account the installation of the door frame and the casing, 60 cm will be obtained). Here you can place an area with hangers. On the other hand, make shelves 30 cm wide throughout the wall.
This layout is maintained up to a room width of 175 cm. In this case, another arrangement simply does not work. So if your dressing room in the closet is 150-175 cm wide, just change the width of the shelves, leaving a passage of 60 cm wide. By the way, if the tenants are large, you can leave the width of the shelves the same, and increase the passage. In this case, a large person will be more comfortable.
For wider closets
With a width of 175 cm or more, hangers can be placed on both sides, leaving 60 cm under them on the right and left. In this case, a pipe for storing things on hangers is placed at a height of 200-210 cm, a wide shelf is made above it to accommodate large and rarely used items (spare pillows / blankets, suitcases, off-season clothes).
At a height of 50-60 cm, shelves or boxes are installed under the hangers for storing things, shoes. With this option, the doors usually open outward. Otherwise, in the open state, they block access to a piece of clothing. But, if the dressing room goes into a narrow or dark room (corridor, for example), the doors should open outward. Because there is a high probability that forgetting to close the doors, you can crash your forehead against the end of the ajar door. This is much worse than an inconvenience.
With a dressing room width of 2 meters or more, you can already do three-sided placement of things. To do this, make three cabinets with an overlap – one cabinet overlaps the other. In this case, the zone on the left is made shorter, a second cabinet is placed, the length of which is 60 cm shorter than the width of the pantry. And only the area to the right of the entrance takes up space from one wall to another (see the picture above).
Why should it be done this way? Because if you are right-handed, then in order to get to things located in the overlapping area of uXNUMXbuXNUMXbthe cabinets (in the corners), you will need to move things away and it is more convenient to do this with your right hand. Left at this time you will remove the desired hanger. On the contrary, it is inconvenient for a right-handed person to do this.
The location of the pantry / dressing room and its filling
Filling for dressing rooms – shelves, pipes for hangers, drawers and a number of special devices such as hangers for trousers, skirts, ties. These devices help to rationally use the space, but are expensive. Therefore, with a limited budget, a dressing room in the pantry will do just fine with standard filling.
Near the front door
If your closet in the pantry is located near the front door, it will most likely be stored in it for seasonal clothes and shoes, hats, gloves, etc. Filling is selected in this case, respectively. You will need a pipe in order to hang outerwear. The height of this branch is 3/4 of the height of the hosts. If space permits, you can allocate space for storing jackets, jackets and other similar clothing. The height of this branch is 1/2 of the height of the “users”. At the bottom there is a place for shoes. Here it is stored without boxes, so you need to come up with some devices (do not forget about the department for boots with long tops).
At the top of a small dressing room at the entrance, shelves are made for storing hats. You can also send small bags there. You will also need a couple of boxes for small things and haberdashery. If there is space left, you can allocate a long narrow compartment for storing umbrellas.
In the bedroom
If one of the walls of the former pantry goes into the bedroom, in the dressing room from the pantry, the filling is selected differently. For the most part, the entire seasonal wardrobe will be located here – everything that is worn at the moment. Therefore, more branches are needed. For dresses, suits, skirts and trousers, you need compartments with hangers. With a sufficient ceiling height (2,5 – 2,7 m), you can place two compartments for storing things on hangers: one above the other. In the lower part, you can install a regular pipe, in the upper part, a pantograph will be more convenient. A pantograph is a pipe equipped with a mechanism that allows it to be lowered and raised.
A drop-down compartment is more convenient to do on the side wall, but only if the width of the former pantry allows the pantograph to drop. If not, transfer this department to the wall opposite the entrance.
For a small dressing room in the closet, the wall of which opens into the bedroom, it is worth installing several open shelves for folded things – jumpers, sweaters, t-shirts, etc. Less bulky and more convenient wire boxes or shelves. They save space, besides it is better to see what is in these drawers / shelves.
Be sure to still need boxes for linen, socks and other similar small things. They can also be wire, but this does not affect convenience. It may even be uncomfortable for some people that the laundry is visible even when the drawer is closed.
With a large number of shoes, all of them do not fit near the front door. Then you need more shelves for shoes. But usually shoes are stored here, which are worn infrequently, therefore they are placed in boxes. For their placement, ordinary shelves with a width of 35-45 cm are suitable. In this case, all the boxes will be in sight and it will be convenient to get them. To reduce the cost of the project, instead of shelves, you can strengthen two pipes on which the boxes will be placed. It is convenient, inexpensive, and everything is clearly visible.