I am renovating a bedroom and am going to relocate a closet from an outside wall to to an interior wall between two rooms. The room I am not redoing will be getting an additional closet.
The width of the wall where the closets will be is ~8′ wide. I am planning a 6′ wide closet in the room I am redoing and a 2′ wide closet in the other room. I was thinking of making the total depth ~3′, 2′ for the closet and 1′ for the bookshelf in the other room. I am extending the hallway so the actual depth for this is not dependent on anything, there is flexibility. I do need to make a min. of 3′ because of a future project.
I was considering using a built-in cabinet style closet but was wondering if this is good or bad. IKEA sells something called the PAX system which is close to what I am looking for. Not sure about there style or quality, but something like that. I figured doing this would save me close to 12″ of space because of the lack of framing for 3 walls.
Is this something that is done or am I dreaming up something stupid that will diminish the homes resale value.
Thanks.
Brad
Replies
I don't know what the PAX system is so don't totally have the whole pic but will say that having side-by-side closets like that to service adjecent rooms is very common. Haven't seen it with the book cases though but I don't see whay not... A few thoughts... Your closet needs to be 24" deep inside dimension. This is to allow cloths on hangers to hang properly. And along that same line.... The book case needs an inside depth of at least 12".
You could get by with 10" for your bookshelf but need 24" for the closet. The biggest advantage of built-ins for you would be the 4 1/2" you save by not needing studs or sheetrock.
I would go 30" wide on the little closet too. 24" is quite narrow.
I hate closets. I can't think of a more annoying, laborious way to built a box that stores clothes and things. I hate bi-fold doors, especially. It's like they're designed to cause fits of frustration.
A nice built-in with drawers and cabinet doors is attractive, functional, and way superior in every single way.
I don't think it is a bad idea, but as someone else mentioned, 24 inches is too small to serve as a bedroom closet. If you are concerned about resale, I would make try and go 48 inches on each side. Also, instead of all shelves, what if some of the "bookcase" is drawers or some type of closed storage. There are some shoe storage systems that fold out and are not deeper than 12 inches.
We bought the PAX system for our first house, and I thought it was nice. One thing to keep in mind though, since these are serving as room dividers, are the backs are masonite, so sound transmission would be greater compared to a typical wall. Also, you may need to be creative in how you put the units together and tilt them up, especially if you have 8 foot ceilings--which, brings up another question. How are you going to transition these freestanding units to the ceiling?
If I go the route of Built-ins, I was thinking of making the boxes and going with Scherrs for the doors. This way I could get the exact dimensions I need and get doors that I want. The boxes from Scherrs, with shipping, are a bit out of my price range. Are there any other companies I could get pricing for the doors and boxes?
Is there anyone else out there that makes a closet system like this, aside from IKEA? I attached a picture of a closet cabinet of what I am looking for, or at least similar to. From what I can tell and from my visits overseas, these are more of a European thing, I guess thats why IKEA has it.
Do you want a finished interior for your cabinets? If not, I'd say there's no reason not to make your own boxes.