If fashion is truly a passion for you, then redoing your closet alone is not likely to be enough. If you want to ensure that you have the space to really enjoy your collection and to be able to admire and try it on as you desire, then you may want to create your own dressing room or walk-in closet.
Having enough space for it is one thing, but getting the best use out of it demands a closer look a the details. Here, we’re going to look at some of the details you want to keep in mind.
Know what you’re going to use the room for
This might seem like a fairly silly question but what will you be using your dressing room for? After all, there are various ways to use it to get ready for your day or evening out. You can use it to get dressed only, or you can also use it as a makeup and hair room. It might be designed for use by you alone, or you might be sharing it with other family members. You may also want to consider if there are any particular collections, such as shoes or accessories, that you want to make room for and display. Really think about your needs, as they are going to dictate just how you use the space.
Keep it connected
The first thing that you want to make sure of is that your closet is accessible and convenient. As such, if it’s half a home away from your bedroom or the bathroom, or any other private space you can get ready in, it’s not going to be all that practical. As such, you might want to consider whether or not you can make a doorway in a wall between the bedroom and the dressing room. If not, then you need to ensure that the dressing room offers all of the privacy and practicality of changing in the bedroom, and maybe still keep a little clothes rack in the bedroom for temporary storage.
Give yourself some seating space
It’s essential that you have a place to park your rear. Not only do you want a place where you can sit, rest, and admire your clothing options, but you also might need to sit to put on certain bottoms or to get shoes on, and so on. Open seating without a back can be placed in a central area of the room where it doesn’t take up a lot of space and you can sit on it from any angle, making it nice and convenient.
Ensure you have a mirror and plenty of space
One of the best things that you can do in your dressing room is to emulate the look and feel of a catwalk. You don’t need a raised platform and a bunch of fashion industry heads on either side, but what you do want is to create a long enough walkway for a few strides with a mirror at the end. This way, you can get a good idea of how your outfit looks from every angle, not to mention the space to feel whether or not it fits comfortably. It’s all too easy to feel just fine when you’re standing still in a changing room, only to later find out that the outfit reduces your range of motion and makes you walk like a robot.
Ensure any storage furniture is bespoke to the space
With a dressing room, clothes storage is going to be one of the predominant uses of space. As such, you want to make sure that your storage isn’t intruding on space that can be used for other things, such as sitting, moving, and trying on your outfits or, indeed, different storage spaces. To that end, you might want to look at working with a bespoke storage installation team. You can have storage like fitted wardrobes built directly against your walls and, even better, if there are any awkward nooks or crannies, you can have specialised storage areas built into these as well, making better use of space that you might not otherwise be able to.
Make good use of open storage, too
You want to ensure that your storage solutions are built to the specifics of the items that you’re trying to store, as well. These are clothes, meaning that there’s plenty that you can store without having to close them away. Given that you might have larger storage spaces than the usual wardrobe, you might also want to use industrial clothes rail options so that you ensure that you have the strength to hang up all of your tops, dresses, and jackets without worrying about the railing breaking away. Open storage also makes it a lot easier to identify items at a glance and start constructing outfits in your mind.
Make lighting a priority
While you’re getting dressed, you want to make sure that you can actually see what you’re putting on, right? Visibility is crucial in a dressing room. Not only do you want to be able to see what you’re wearing, but you want to make sure that you can see it accurately, as low temp lighting and shadows can distort the colour and look of what you’re wearing. You might want to look at, for instance, recessed lighting that you can add to key areas like above your open shelving, and you might want task lighting over the area in front of the mirror where you’re going to get changed. If you can get some natural light in there, even better. A lot of people make the mistake of letting their dressing room get too dark to be really practical and have to end up taking their clothes out into their bedroom to be able to try them on accurately, after all.
Do you need a vanity table?
Again, consider the question asked above. What are you using the space for? If you are using it to put on makeup or jewellery at all, then you might want to give yourself room for a vanity table with a mirror and a little seating to help you better get ready. Check out a range of vanity table designs that can help you keep organised and make it much easier to finish up and perfect a look, considering what you need to organise, how much space you need for it, as well as which styles fit the rest of the room’s look. As mentioned in the tip above, you also want to ensure that you have some good lighting so that you can see what you’re doing with comfort and confidence.
Create a display space
Do you have any collections that you simply must find space for in your dressing room? Are you particularly proud of that collection? Whether its shoes, handbags, hats, jewellery or otherwise, creating a display space for them can not only help you enjoy showing them off, but it can make it a lot easier to keep track of what you actually have. The tale of the woman with so many shoes that she later finds a pair that she totally forgot about and has never worn is not a very rare tale. Consider leaving open a little display area where you can easily look through your collection. Try to move your most regularly used items in that collection to the most convenient and reachable point, as well.
Make sure everything is reachable
That idea of keeping things reachable and convenient should be a factor that applies across the entirety of the dressing room’s design, as well. This is especially true if you’re going with floor to ceiling storage, you want to be able to easily reach the stuff that’s closer to the ceiling. You can, for instance, have a little set of steps that you can move around the room and climb up without too much issue. If you want to get really fancy with it, however, you can also look at installing your own library-style ladder that you can slide along a rail for those hard-to-reach spots. Not the most practical choice for every space but fun to consider.
Add a little chic appeal
The dressing room is one that’s built for practicality, for the purposes of helping you try on, model, and choose your outfits. However, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t implement some style into it as well. There are a lot of ways to add a touch of sophistication to your dressing room. A little textured wallpaper can help it stand out visually from the rest of the home while painting your furniture the same or a matching colour to the walls can give it a sense of contemporary and stylish organisation, for instance.
Not everyone has the space for their own dressing room or walk-in closet, so if you’re establishing one in your home, you really want to ensure that you’re making the best use of it. Hopefully, the tips above help you do that.
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