Leigh Robinson

Interior Designers Know Their Space

Over the years we have dealt with many interior designers who are superb at understanding how best to use space effectively both for beauty and functionality. Here are their top seven tips for a walk in wardrobe.

1. Natural Light – Try and have a natural light source near or in your walk in wardrobe. Fake light such as LEDs don’t tend to give you a good indication of your clothing choices. If you cant get access to natural light make sure your light source is warm.
2. Sanctuary – a great walk in wardrobe needs to be a quiet sanctuary where every thing is neat and there is a sense of order.
3. Occasional. there needs to be an area where you can place items at the end of a long day. It could be items place on a drawer unit or on a special chair that you place clothing that you might wear again. It’s a temporary storage space that allows you to quickly change, reuse items or store things like wallets, purses or items to be use regularly.
4. Be inspiring. The wardrobe should appointed like any other room . It’s not just for storage. You need to be inspired by your clothes so you can enjoy the experience of choosing and dressing. All your clothes neatly storage but visible should make you feel good. You could even hang artwork or decorate with ornaments if you have the room.
5. The Floor! Having a walk in wardrobe is a luxury for most so make sure the floor is part of your experience. Lush, soft carpet is the way to go.0
6. Visual tricks. You can make your wardrobe feel visually bigger by using mirrors or warmer by adding a rug or upholstered item.
7. Utilise the space. Even if you only have a small area to deal with make sure you utilise the space as effectively as t=you can from floor to ceiling. Your’d be surprised at how much you can store and how elegant it can look.

We can help you with the shelves, storage areas, drawers and wardrobe accessories and we can even work closely with your interior designer. All it requires is your input. Call Leigh Robinson right now for a free measure and quote. Ph: 0412 525 137

How To Get The Most From A Narrow Walk In Wardrobe

So far we have mentioned getting drawers or a tall boy installed and making sure the layout works now we move on to more tips to utilising your small space more effectively.

Hanging Clothes

3. Most walk in wardrobes have one hanging rod which is great for coats but a waste of space for shirts pants, tops/blouses and jackets. A dual hanging system is the best solution so right there you’ve saved about 50% of space in your wardrobe. Men benefit from this hugely as they normally don’t have long flowing frocks to contend with – its ok if you do however.

The top shelf is normally too low and will have to be moved up to accommodate double hanging.

The Wardrobe Door

4. If your walk in wardrobe has a door then here’s another opportunity to gain space. Use a hook board on the back of the door or one of those ugly shoe holder hanging things. You’ll never see it so it shouldn’t offend you. Another solution could be install a sliding door that takes up very little room but will look fantastic.

One of our sister companies – roomdividersrus.com.au – can help you with this. You’re still dealing with Leigh Robinson so it can be a seamless operation to get your wardrobe installed and a sliding door.

Clothes Hangers

5. We have seen walk in wardrobes with 5 different types of hangers that not only take up too much space but look horrible as well. The best hangers to get are thin, sturdy hangers with some kind of velvety coating that stops the clothes slipping off. Oh and stick to one type of hanger, it looks far neater. We have pant hanging rails that also reduce the amount of space used by the traditional coat hangers. Again talk to Leigh he knows his hangers.

Visual Clutter

6. People don’t realise how much visual clutter and disorganisation can mess with your brain. Adding baskets, bespoke shelving (this means shelving designed especially for your situation), boxes, pull out belt racks, tie racks and mirrors can help order your walk in wardrobe and make it easy on your eye and emotions.

If things are orderly it frees you up to pay more attention on what you are going to wear for the day rather than fret over mess.

Add A Bit Of Sparkle

7. Your walk in wardrobe most likely gets used at least two to three times a day, everyday so why not add in a bit of fun to make it special. Maybe a feature colour, an ornament, a special dressing chair if you have the room or maybe a chandelier! It’s up to you but adding a dash of meaningful fun and a little piece of you will make your walk in wardrobe an experience rather than just a utility.

These are our tips for small or narrow wardrobes, saving you space and making your closet (that’s American for wardrobe) more appealing.

Call Leigh Robinson, he’ll come to you for a measure up, advice on installation and a decent discussion on the weather.

How To Squeeze More Space Out Of A Small Walk In Wardrobe

Most of us don’t have huge walk in wardrobe unless you have just built a new home and took advantage during the design process. In fact entering to most walk in wardrobes immediately makes us feel like dieting.

Our walk in wardrobe consists of a lonely top shelf and rail. The clothes almost spew our the shelf and the bottom of the wardrobe is a dark cavern where anything can be lurking. The rack of clothes resembles an op-shop jumble sale with a variety of tops and pants protruding at awkward angles. Its hard to make any fashion statement with this type of mess and you have to face it every morning.

Is your walk in wardrobe a narrow rectangle or small cube? Let’s now press on a find out 7 ways we can improve your walk in wardrobe and maybe your daily morning routines as well.

Draws or Tall-Boys Are Key

1. Most narrow or small walk in wardrobes have no drawers. Drawers are the queen of neatness in a wardrobe and can hold up 2.5 more things than hanging clothes up. There you go more saved spaced right there.

As I mentioned draws make everything look tidy and organised that will help your OCD and anxiety plus it will help look after your clothes.

Don’t forget instead of wooden drawers you can get wire baskets so you can see the drawers contents at a glance.

Often times these drawers are called tall boys and can include shelves for hand bags, shoes or extra blankets.

Drawers will add a touch of elegance to your walk in wardrobe and give you a sense of peace. That’s got to be good when you are about to dress and start your incredibly busy and stressful day eh?

Design & Layout

2. Your wardrobe design, especially when its small or narrow should consist of a hanging area to one side and shelves and drawers on the other. Or you could put the draws in the centre facing you, hangers to one side on the left  and narrow shelves to the right. This will be the best use of the space available and won’t look so cluttered and disorganised.

In the next blog we go through more space saving tips to getting your small or narrow walk in wardrobe sorted. Talk to Leigh Robinson (Mr Space Maximiser) to go through your requirements if you’re tight for space.  Ph: 0412 525 137

The Walk In Wardrobe Experts

There is nothing better than an expert eh? Someone who delves into something regularly, all day , everyday. When it comes to walk in wardrobes and anything associated with a walk in wardrobe that’s what we do. Often our so called competition might be a builder but they aren’t really competition as they don’t focus on walk in wardrobe design or installation like we do. Even a cabinet maker isn’t really a wardrobe expert focussing more on kitchens than wardrobes.

Everything Wardrobe!!

Wardrobes, wardrobe doors, wardrobe interior design, wardrobe accessories, wardrobe advice. You name it we do it when it comes to walk in wardrobes. Now this isn’t a brag fest or an advertisement for what we do. Most likely you are reading this because you are already interested in a walk in wardrobe and you have issues with your existing wardrobe. Most of our installations are done in older houses that have the room but no real consideration was taken with the wardrobe.

It’s only a small slice of life but if you value your clothes and want to get to your handbags and shoes easily then that is your goal. Our goal is to satisfy your goal by creating a  walk in wardrobe layout and a design that suits your clothes storing needs.

Paying Attention To Wardrobe Trends

As a walk in wardrobe expert we are constantly studying our craft by:

– the variety of installs we do,

– by paying attention to global trends and

– the latest product enhancements.

A builder or cabinet maker has no time for this or no decent access to this information.

I’m off to get my car tuned by an expert because I have very little knowledge regarding engines (actually zero knowledge) but ask me anything about wardrobes and I’ll let you know. Call me today to discuss what you might need and remember you’ll be dealing with an expert right there!

Built In Closet or Walk in Wardrobe?

Recently my SEO expert asked should we be concerned about using the term “closet” as well as walk in wardrobe. We then decided to dive in a find out the differences between the two.

Closet is a very popular term in the USA for a room that we call a walk in in wardrobe. They most often use the term wardrobe as a free standing piece of furniture. This is why we rarely use the term wardrobe as it gets mixed up with the product we are helping customers with and that is a closet or walk in robe system that includes accessories.

Google Ngram

If you Google Ngram (or click here)  you can search common phrases from the past two hundred years and you can determine the difference between American and British use of the words wardrobe and walk in wardrobe. That should keep you occupied for hours:)

I found one compelling reason why the word closet isn’t that popular in British English from the website stack exchange:

“I’d guess that one reason that the word “closet” (in this context) isn’t as common in the UK is that homes here tend not to have closets, possibly because UK homes are, on average, smaller than in the US.”

The contributor goes on to say:

“In the UK when a home does have what in the US would be called a closet, it’s more usually referred to as a “walk-in wardrobe”, or possibly “fitted wardrobe” (although that would more often be more like a cupboard built into the room).”

Just to confuse I’ve also discovered, from the USA, that there is a wardrobe closet. Its a portable wardrobe that will fit inside your walk in wardrobe (riveting stuff eh?). I doubt it would really suit your needs as much as a customised, well planned out walk in wardrobe.

Australia: Closet Or Wardrobe?

The problem with meanings we have here in Australia is our culture is a hybrid of American & British influence and although closet is American to most it is still used in Google searches (about 70% less however). Now the next question is how we use both terms without appearing silly!

Call Leigh Robinson today to discuss your closet requirements. Ph: 0412 525 137

We all need experts, people who spend their time on one thing and perfect it.

Walk In Wardrobe Experts

Most cabinet makers, wardrobe advisers from Bunnings or maybe your brother in law the builder might know a thing or two about walk in wardrobes. This type of knowledge really only scratches the surface and yes they can supply you with a walk in wardrobe but will it really satisfy your needs.

Imagine getting a walk in wardrobe installed and running out of room for ALL your shoes. Your shoes need to be “display” with specially designed options whether its angle shelving or flat shelving. Maybe the draws don’t suit or there are dead spaces that haven’t been utilised properly. Are your shelves going to be adjustable or fixed?

Wardrobe Planning & Organisation

Your husband might be over 6 foot whilst your under 5 foot this is going to affect the hanging of your clothes. To really sort your issues out you need a module, adaptable system that caters directly for your needs. This type of system is not available to most builders or cabinet makers so you’ll end up getting a result that is far more difficult to install and most likely more expensive.

Did I mention the dead space? The most common dead space in a walk in wardrobe is the very top shelf and the corners. These can be utilised within a walk in wardrobe design but you need to know the best way of implementing the layout/plan and have the accessories to install.

A walk in wardrobe is a once only event so you need to look at everything and try to predict the future. The worst scenario is not having a walk in wardrobe installation that caters to your current needs let alone what might happen later. Although men don’t need as much space from our experience they need a certain amount of attention as well. The outcome must be an organised, orderly wardrobe free of clutter and clothes piles. This is a real walk in wardrobe’s objective.

Call Leigh Robinson today to start planning. Ph: 0412 525 137