Miniature furniture makes economical use of space in the home. A small wardrobe is located in the living room, bedroom, hallway and even in the bathroom. Models differ in material, shape, filling. For each room, it is advisable to purchase a cabinet suitable for its purpose. We’ll talk about the unwritten rules of purchasing, the pros and cons of various models, and at the end we’ll show examples of common types in a summary table.
Advantages and disadvantages
If the bedroom is not large, a small closet will be suitable for it. If you approach the issue of selecting such furniture wisely, then even small-sized models will provide the user with high comfort, but at the same time they will be quite roomy and attractive in appearance.
Let us describe the main advantages of small lockers for clothes:
- the ability to fit the model even into a significantly limited space;
- affordable price due to compact size. Since the manufacture of a small product does not require as many materials as in the case of a spacious large cabinet, there is an opportunity to save some money;
- a wide selection of colors and decorative elements allows you to choose a cabinet of current style and design for a small apartment;
- compact wardrobes are distinguished by a high level of comfort and functionality, if you carefully consider their contents. The ability to equip the design with lighting will also increase the level of comfort of the product.
The main disadvantage of furniture of this size is obvious: low level of capacity. A small closet cannot accommodate a huge wardrobe, but it is quite possible to ensure secure storage of the most frequently worn items. If you order the production of such a piece of furniture according to an individual project, you can take personal preferences regarding clothing as the basis for its design. For example, choose the current installation height of the crossbar with hangers or select an area for trousers.
Features of installation in different rooms
Before going to a furniture showroom, make a plan with the most important requirements on the basis of which you will compare models. Depending on the room, the contents and design of the cabinet will differ. Follow the recommendations of our experts.
For bathroom
When installing furniture in the bathroom, you need to take into account that the material must be moisture resistant - plastic is best. Soaps, shampoos, cosmetics, powder, and linen are placed on the shelves. You can hide toxic household chemicals in the upper section, making the house safe for children.
A sliding wardrobe with a built-in large mirror is convenient because you can see yourself in full height, but keep in mind that the glass fogs up in high humidity.
Due to the small area of the bathroom, it is quite difficult to place a full-fledged wardrobe in it.
For the living room
The furniture in this room is suitable for storing things that need to be hidden from prying eyes. But usually a closet for a small living room stores bed linen and other items useful for suddenly visiting relatives:
- TV shelf;
- a small set of clothes in case guests get wet in the rain;
- photographs, souvenirs on open corner shelves;
- built-in ironing board, trouser maker, tie maker.
Expert opinion
Svetlana Kolesnikova
Designer
Externally, sliding wardrobes for the living room are distinguished by the rich decor of the doors and facade. They serve as additional interior decoration.
For the bedroom
A wardrobe installed in the bedroom is convenient for storing underwear and bed linen. There are models designed to hide a lift-up bed. Their distinctive features:
- several hanging rods at different heights - allow you to place any clothes;
- “breathable” drawers and mesh cells for linen;
- organizers for accessories, cosmetics, personal items;
- wide mezzanines for blankets, pillows, rugs, replacement bedding sets.
Sliding wardrobes for the bedroom are decorated in calm, light colors that induce tranquility.
For children's
Children grow quickly, there are a lot of clothes, so buying a small wardrobe for a child only makes sense if there is a lack of money or space.
Focus on safety first:
- Eco-friendly materials – MDF, plywood, wood.
- No sharp corners.
- Mirrors must be made of tempered, durable glass.
- Inaccessibility of wires with backlighting.
Also take into account the child's height so that he does not ask you to get his clothes from the top shelf. Give your child the opportunity to choose the design of the facades himself.
For the hallway
Outdoor items are usually stored near the front door. These are shoes, outerwear, umbrellas and hats. Therefore, the hallway closet includes three sections:
- the top one is for placing hats;
- medium - with shelves or hangers for clothes;
- bottom - fold shoes.
With modest dimensions of the hallway in panel high-rise buildings, narrow dressing rooms are usually installed. The depth of typical models is 40-50 cm. In this case, the clothes rail is located perpendicular to the back wall, which is not very convenient. The remaining parameters do not differ from the classic ones.
Ready-made hallway furniture sets are often made with an open section to accommodate casual clothing, caps, umbrellas or a vase of flowers.
For the attic room
The ceilings in the room under the roof are sloping, but the compartment can be installed there too. The catalogs of different manufacturers present a large selection of furniture. The upper part of the cabinets is sloped, this allows them to be placed in a suitable place. You can adjust the shape yourself if you have the right tool.
Varieties
Today, the choice of cabinets in terms of shape, size, design features and design is very diverse. But not every model is relevant for a small bedroom. We will describe the optimal options that will provide a narrow space with high functionality, beauty, and comfort:
- the design with hinged doors looks attractive, luxurious, and stylish. It is suitable for a spacious bedroom. Despite all the advantages of such furniture, it is not relevant for a small apartment, since the doors require quite a lot of space when swinging open;
- A radius wardrobe for a bedroom has an ornate design, a high level of spaciousness, but is expensive. Therefore, choosing it for a small bedroom may be irrational;
- small compartment wardrobes are more suitable for this case than other options. It doesn’t matter how close to such a piece of furniture other small-sized furniture is located. Opening its door will always be easy and convenient. To give the product the maximum level of spaciousness, it is worth choosing the tallest wardrobe for the bedroom. This will not be difficult to do, since modern factories often offer customers models of non-standard height. If you can’t find a compact but tall option, you can make it to order. It is convenient to store clothes in such furniture.
Coupe
Radial
Swing
Choosing a general style
Before you start designing, decide on the general concept. What is closer to you: natural wood in warm yellow shades is country, and bleached or painted white plus delicate shades of lavender and cold blue is Provence, an abundance of textiles, roses, angels, ash gray and muted pink - shabby chic, raw brick, concrete, external wiring, brutal black lamps - loft, plenty of white in the interior with the addition of dark wood and bright textiles - Scandinavian style.
The choice of style for a small bedroom depends on personal preferences. It would hardly be appropriate to try to arrange a classic interior with a luxurious massive chandelier, stucco on the ceiling, paintings in gilded frames and a bed with a carved headboard made of precious wood in a bedroom of 9 square meters. m and a ceiling height of 2.7 m. And modern minimalism, which easily incorporates elements of other styles, will look organic even in small rooms.
Material of manufacture
Today, wardrobes are high-quality, durable furniture that can delight the user with a high level of comfort. To provide products with such performance parameters, manufacturers use high-quality materials when working. Let us describe their operational parameters in detail.
Material of manufacture | Advantages | Flaws |
Plywood | Lowest cost, light weight | Short service life, low resistance to negative factors |
Chipboard | Affordable price, practicality, light weight | Average resistance to moisture, sunlight |
MDF | Average cost, wide variety of textures, colors, practicality, low maintenance | Swells under the influence of water, fades with prolonged contact with direct rays of the sun, high humidity levels |
Solid solid natural wood | Naturalness, long service life, natural beauty, natural aroma (if used in the manufacturing process of softwood) | The high price and decent dimensions do not allow installing such furniture in a tiny bedroom |
To make fittings for small bedroom cabinets, various types of metals, ceramics, wood, plastic, glass and other materials are used.
No less important is the technology with which the structure is decorated. Today you can decorate even small cabinets with original sandblasting, mirrored doors, or MDF doors with an ornate texture.
Wood chipboard MDF
Plywood
Shapes and sizes
The classic shape of a wardrobe for a bedroom is a rectangle. Such products are made in standard sizes: width - from 100 cm, height - from 150 cm, depth from 60 cm. But if necessary, you can make an option with specific parameters for height, width, length. The linear model is installed along a free wall. For small-sized housing, it is worth choosing the highest possible closet (230-240 cm in height), which allows you to use the entire height of the room to place clothes and shoes.
An equally popular shape is the triangle. Such structures are installed in a free corner of the room and are characterized by high capacity, so they allow you to rationally plan such an inconvenient space. If space allows, you can equip such a cabinet with radius doors rather than straight ones. This will allow you to slightly expand the usable area, and therefore increase the capacity of the model several times.
Top 7 popular small wardrobes
Our analysts conducted research and selected the most popular models based on sales statistics for the first half of 2022. The leading depth is 40 cm.
№ | Name | Firm | Height/Width/Depth, cm | price, rub. |
1. | “Express Photo Duo” Milky oak | E-1 | 220/120/60 | 28980 |
2. | “Phoenix” (Bleached oak, laminated chipboard/Mirror with Euro-edge, Wenge) | Interior Center | 210/170/54 | 28980 |
3. | "Best-1" | Legomarket | 190/130/40 | 11613 |
4. | "Rial 9" | Legomarket | 200/80/40 | 11400 |
5. | "Elite-45" | Legomarket | 190/80/40 | 14600 |
6. | "Millennium 2 BMS" (Buk Bavaria) | "Best Furniture" (Russia) | 80/190/40 | 7960 |
7. | "Phoenix Light" Wenge/bleached oak | Interior Center | 210/110/54 | 7656 |
A small wardrobe with sliding doors is appropriate in a small-sized Khrushchev house. It is roomy, does not take up much space, will help organize things in the room rationally and add aesthetics to the interior of a small room.
Filling
Clothes stored in a closet rationally retain their beauty and neatness for a longer time. Therefore, even in a very small bedroom it is important to organize the closet. To make it as functional as possible, it is worth highlighting four zones for:
- clothes;
- shoes;
- accessories (bags, belts);
- underwear, socks.
By zoning the interior space of the structure into four zones, a person will be able to quickly find the thing that is relevant to him at a particular time.
If the bedroom is too small and a tiny closet is selected for it, you will have to sacrifice one of these areas. Shoes can be stored in the hallway in a specially purchased shoe rack or in one of the hallway departments. The same applies to accessories that can be moved inside cabinets located in the same hallway or living room.
It is irrational to abandon the area with clothes, as well as the area with underwear and socks. The first is represented by shelves and a niche with a crossbar and hangers on it, the second - by drawers (separately for linen, separately for socks). It’s quite possible to store T-shirts, T-shirts, sweaters, tracksuits on shelves. Trousers, dresses, blouses - on hangers in a niche with a horizontal crossbar. This will keep these types of clothes ironed and neat.
Posting rules
Once you have decided on the contents and dimensions, it is important to understand where it is best to install the structure. Experts in the field of interior design recommend adhering to the following rules. Remember that a cabinet model with hinged doors requires sufficient space. In the case of a tiny sleeping room, it is better to give preference to the coupe option.
Carefully examine the room where the cabinet will be installed. Take measurements of the space and estimate the height of the walls. If there is a free corner in the bedroom, you can purchase a corner structure or install a linear model close to the wall on one side. You can also use the wall surface as one of the sides of the product. These models are called built-ins and are custom-made for small spaces. This is a great way to create exactly the kind of cabinet that will fully meet the requirements of its owner.
If you have a small niche, you can use it to install storage systems with compartment doors. This is an excellent option to save on materials, because the function of the side walls and top cover of such a product will be performed by the niche walls and ceiling. This option will also provide the user with the opportunity to rationally use the niche space; clothes in such a closet will be securely stored.
Selection rules
Since built-in cabinet furniture is most often made to order, for a successful choice you should independently determine the technical characteristics. By going to a sales consultant with clear characteristics, it is easier to choose the optimal furniture. What to consider when choosing:
- Dimensions - for use in small rooms, it is best to opt for tall, narrow models that visually look miniature and do not “take up” excess space. When taking measurements, it is recommended to add about 5 cm on each side to the resulting dimensions so that installation work does not damage the external surfaces;
- storage system - a dense modular system of drawers, baskets, and brackets - the optimal solution for elegant furniture of modest size. For example, a diagonal corner cabinet with wire containers will be a good replacement for a finished cabinet hallway;
- external finishing - the choice of finishing materials and decorative structures should fit into the overall interior of the room, and also not require special care. Therefore, it is recommended to use MDF, chipboard or plastic panels;
- size and number of mirrors - having a mirror surface built into the furniture will visually expand the space, but will require additional care. To reduce contamination, it is recommended to place mirror panels above waist level.