Interiors: Choose the perfect wardrobe

Make that functional wardrobe a beautiful bedroom feature

Wardrobes aren’t anywhere near the top of the sexiest interior design items in a home. Their primary function is just very, well, functional. And sometimes wardrobes feel like the consolation prize, when all you really want is an enormous walk-in closet with endless racks for clothes to hang and shelves for stacking sweaters and shirts.

Alas that’s not often the option in most Irish homes. Instead, we’ve got free-standing wardrobes and it can be tough to make them look like they’re an intentional design feature of the room rather than a required storage piece.

There are a few strategies you can employ to make those essential pieces of furniture look like intentional design features. First, the most basic strategy: choose a wardrobe that matches your bed frame. Beware of using all matching furniture throughout your bedroom, but a matching wardrobe and bed frame can help add continuity to the space.

Another strategy is to choose a wardrobe that matches the finish of another large piece of furniture in your bedroom. Light birch or white wood furniture with similar feaAlas, tures will help those larger pieces of furniture blend in nicely rather than stand out and take up visual space.

Finally, if you have the space, you could try flanking your wardrobe with bookcases in a similar style to create a built-in feel. This will work best if all three pieces are reasonably shallow, so they take up more space in width than in depth. Adding bookshelves to your wardrobe set-up will give you bonus storage for your clothing and accessories.

Try choosing a wardrobe that matches your bed frame (Oak Furnitureland)

Above left: Pairing birch furniture in similar styles gives a cohesive look (Next). Above: Lining up wardrobes and bookshelves in the same style creates a built-in feel (DelightFULL). Below: Intricate details liven up a traditional wardrobe (The French Bedroom). Below left: Wardrobes with unique features, like this sliding door, can give the standard furniture new life (Next).