Spare bedroom into walk in closet

Everything You Need to Know to Turn a Spare Room Into a Walk-In Closet

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Having a luxe walk-in closet used to be a thing we thought was only for celebs who live in echoey L.A. mansions. Then we did a little research and realized you don’t need to be an A-lister to have your very own dream dressing area—you don’t even have to live in a massive Calabasas manse. In fact, all you really require to build a chic, organized closet is a spare bedroom and a little bit of creativity.

Truly, transforming an extra room into a stylish clothing storage area can be as simple as adding a few smart structural pieces and, of course, your fabulous wardrobe. Here, we’ve outlined all you need to get started on the fashion room you’ve only dreamed of—until now.

The Valet Rod

This telescopic tool is great for narrow rooms that don’t have a ton of wall space for custom built-ins and shelves. Plus, it makes getting ready in the morning a total breeze: Take it from fashion designer Clare Vivier and display your next day’s outfit at the very front.

The Double Hangers

Standard closets typically feature a shelf with just one hanging pole below, which can make it tough to fit all your clothes on one rack. Designer Lexi Tallisman of Greyscale Interiors took full advantage of this room’s height by adding a second rod for pants up top and shirts below.

The Wall Mirror

Nothing makes a white box feel like a true dressing room quite like a trifold mirror. (Tallisman searched high and low for this unlacquered brass one, but you can find a similar version here.) When the sides are turned slightly in, it makes this nook feel separate from everything else.

The Shoe Bench

Over-the-door hangers are great when you’re working with a small space, but if you’ve got the room to spread out, you can get a little more creative with your display (like with this wood bench à la Aurora James). One unforeseen benefit: Taller boots won’t get smooshed if you sit them on top!

The Graphic Rug

Make your walk-in closet a room you actually want to spend time in (and not just jot in and out when you need to grab a blazer) by laying down a rug. Bonus points if you add a chair or an ottoman to lounge on.

The Customizable Built-In

Never underestimate the power of an IKEA Pax unit. While blogger Stephanie Sterkovski kept hers plain and doorless, these chests are totally hackable and can be tweaked to meet your storage (and palette!) needs.

The Jewelry Drawer

Elaine Welteroth’s bespoke walk-in is a testament to details: Her necklaces and sunglasses live in velvet trays within drawers to make go-to pieces more easily accessible—but just as easy to tuck away when she’s not using them. Under-shelf lighting adds extra visibility.

The Denim Wall

No matter where you stack them, bulky jeans always soak up more shelf space than you’d expect. So instead of neatly folding them, hang them by their belt loops on a peg rack.

The Rolling Rack

Adding a garment stand with wheels will make it feel like you’re shopping at your very own personal boutique every day. It’s also the perfect place to put your color-coding skills to the test.

The Shoeboxes

Christene Barberich’s tiny Brooklyn closet features a shoe wall that looks like a boutique we’d definitely want to shop in. And by keeping some of her pairs in metallic bins, she was able to double her storage space.

The Hat Hook

Actress Becca Tobin’s home didn’t have an extra bedroom to transform into a walk-in, so she got extra creative with an under-the-staircase alcove. Her wide-brimmed hats and tote bags now hang along the slanted part of the wall. And that’s how you dress up a nook to the nines.

Get more closet envy: Step Inside Clare V.’s Dream Closet This Perfect Master Closet Is Inspiring Us to Rethink Our Own 6 Tricks for the Most Organized Closet

Turning a Spare Room into a Dressing Room or Walk-in Closet on a Budget

Turning my spare room into a dressing room was a relatively easy conversion.

I’d always fantasized about having my dream closet where I could celebrate getting dressed and see all of my clothing, shoes, and accessories in an open walk-in closet format. It wasn’t until I was approaching my 40th birthday and relocated from my tiny studio in downtown Seattle into a 110-year-old Dutch brick cottage in an urban neighborhood in St. Louis, that my vision for a bright walk-in closet and dressing room in my home could be realized.

[images shown in the August 2021 Update are still a work in progress, pending back-ordered Ikea shelves and drawers]

What I spent to convert my spare bedroom into a dressing room.

All told, the budget for my spare room to dressing room conversion cost a little over $1,300 for the essentials. Here’s the breakdown:

$900 – 1 wide and 2 narrow Ikea Pax wardrobe units, plus pullout drawers, organizers, clothes rods, and shelves
$180 – 1 floor to ceiling shoe shelf (Ikea’s Elvarli)
$99 – 1 full length svansele mirror
$100 – beadboard wallpaper, hole filler, and wood trim to give the Pax wardrobes a built-in look.

Now that my basic design for my spare bedroom to dressing room conversion is complete, I do expect to spend another $500-$1200 to finish furnishing this room with textiles and furniture.

After all, you can’t have a dressing room without a place to sit and put on shoes or a soft rug to add a little something extra. Depending on how the room comes together, I may add a chair with a pullout feature that unfolds into a twin or full-size bed, in order to be able to still use my dressing room as a guest bedroom if needed.

My dressing room before installation of flooring, wardrobe, and shelves.The same bedroom nook, partway through set up.

How to design your dressing room

It can be hard to visualize a walk-in dressing room where, for now, you just have a bedroom. One of the best ways to visualize how you might use a space in a different way is to begin using the space.

Weeks before I ever started shopping for lights, shelving, or wardrobe units for my dressing room, I began storing my clothes in that room and getting dressed there. Getting a sense of how the room functioned- and could function – by dressing in the room helped me make more informed decisions when it came to time to actually choose and install furnishings.

To start giving your spare bedroom to walk-in closet dream a try- Grab a few laundry baskets, an inexpensive freestanding shelf, or a small table and begin using the room as the room where you get dressed- the practice will help inspire room ideas and get your creative juices flowing!

Why I converted my spare bedroom into a dressing room

When I moved into the Hawk Hill Cottage, I knew immediately that I would convert the two-bedroom upstairs into a master suite. With this simple conversion, I’d turn 2 cozy cottage bedrooms into one spacious master suite. All it took was converting a master bedroom adjacent bedroom into a walk-in closet-style dressing room.

Converting my spare room into a dressing room felt like a way to care for my body, actually. As a person who grew up in a plus size body, getting dressed was often really unpleasant. Clothing didn’t fit as well (fact: there’s actually 6-8″ between clothing sizes in plus size range, compared to 2-3″ differences between straight sizes), often wasn’t available in styles appropriate to my age, and often included a lot of shame as I let media inform what my body “should” look like in clothing.

A lot of therapy and living in a more body-positive climate in Seattle helped me to learn how to regard my body with a lot of care, speak to it with kindness and dignity, and even enjoy getting dressed.

With all of that work on body acceptance behind me, it made sense that when I moved into my urban cottage in St. Louis and outfitted a sophisticated and mature styled female master bedroom that I should also give myself the experience of having a dressing room where I can celebrate getting dressed, see my shoes and accessories on open shelving, and dress in front of a stately full-length mirror.

Luckily, the conversion made sense without needing to add a door, a small landing was all that divided the two cottage bedrooms.

Converting a bedroom into a dressing room: homeowners and real estate values

One of the cardinal rules for home remodels is that you should never decrease the number of bedrooms or bathrooms in your home.

Even if you’re adding premium high-end features to your home through the closet remodel, you may still end up losing value by decreasing the number of bedrooms or bathrooms. As someone who views my home as an investment that I will likely move along from within 5 to 10 years, I was mindful of this advice as I set out on the process of turning my spare bedroom into a walk-in dressing room with open-closet shelving.

Even though I chose to semi-build-in my dressing room’s wardrobe units, I was mindful of completing the project in a way that would be simple to reverse if the next owner chose to convert my dressing room back into an additional small bedroom, nursery, home office, or even a reading room. By using IKEA’s PAX wardrobe units and Elvarli shelving which uses just 4 screws in the ceiling to install, I was able to convert my spare room into a closet with minimal impact on the structure of the room.

A great choice for renters, the Elvarli shoe shelf installs with only 4 screws.

Turning a spare room into a dressing room: tips for renters

As a renter for years in Seattle, I understand the frustrations of being a DIY’er stuck in rental housing. But just because you rent your home doesn’t mean that you can’t turn a spare bedroom into a dressing room, it just takes some creativity. In fact, by using IKEA wardrobe units rather than shelving attached to the wall, you can create a walk-in closet or dressing room in a spare bedroom of a rental house without risking your security deposit.

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design features and photo design examples

You can store your belongings in a practical and convenient way in a bedroom of any size and layout. Don't believe? We show how different bedroom wardrobes are - choose the one that suits you.

Not every bedroom will fit a large freestanding wardrobe. However, there are many options for placing things that will help you make more practical use of space, as well as make the look of the bedroom more modern and original.

Showing the most interesting ways to organize a dressing room in the bedroom, which will provide a lot of functional space for storing clothes.

Corner wardrobes

In a large bedroom, rectangular corner wardrobes are the best option - they are very spacious and can accommodate the maximum amount of clothes. To create such a wardrobe, you just need to install sliding doors, as in the photos below, and organize a storage system from drawers, cabinets and shelves inside.

The remaining free space inside this design can be used for trying on clothes by installing a mirror on one of the walls - this will completely separate the bedroom and wardrobe areas. And if there is not enough space for a rectangular corner wardrobe in the bedroom, you can build a more compact storage system, with smooth rounded walls, which will take up a much smaller area. But there will also be less space inside the wardrobe.

Built-in wardrobe in niche

This wardrobe is ideal for a bedroom, one of the walls of which has a recessed niche. Here you can equip shelves, hang rods for hangers and put a number of cabinets. And to close the resulting space from prying eyes with the help of the same compartment doors that will not take up extra space in the room.

If the niche is not too deep, it is better to limit yourself to only the necessary furniture and storage accessories so that when you open the doors, the wardrobe does not look cluttered and too cramped. However, if there is enough free space, increase the comfort of the dressing room in the bedroom, as in the photo below: install an ottoman, a bench and a large mirror inside.

Wardrobe behind a screen

In order not to install compartment doors up to the ceiling and thus leave the space visually free, the wardrobe can also be hidden behind an ordinary screen - this will make the look of the bedroom more traditional and romantic, like in old houses of the 18th-19th centuries.

If you want to make your bedroom with dressing room more original, replace the classic screen with a modern and functional option. For example, equip a partition screen and hang a TV or decorative decoration on it. Or replace the screen with curtains that can be quickly moved apart at any time.

Open dressing room

A small bedroom dressing room is best made completely open - this is a stylish modern storage option, when originally hung clothes practically become bedroom decor. This solution will allow you to abandon bulky furniture, which will positively affect the spaciousness of the room.

In this case, you can use the usual wardrobe wardrobe, if the interior of the bedroom, decorated in a classic style, requires it: just deprive it of all doors. However, it will still take up a lot of space. The most practical option is shelves, rods and shoe organizers hung on the wall. Use the wall all the way to the ceiling to organize storage for all your clothes.

Dressing room behind the head of the bed

Is it possible to completely hide the dressing room in the design of the bedroom so that it becomes almost invisible? We answer: you can! A very original way of organizing will help in this: behind the head of the bed.

Install a solid wood or plastic wall behind the head of the bed (it can be equipped with shelves for books and other small items). Behind the wall, arrange a space for storing clothes, leaving a narrow passage on one side of the bed. It can be left open or hidden behind a sliding door. The space of the bedroom will decrease a little, but the room will only become visually freer due to the lack of a wardrobe.

Dressing room in the bedroom - 40 photos in a beautiful arrangement

Clothes and shoes are constantly accumulated in the home, even when it seems that we have “nothing to wear at all”. For this reason, clothing storage requires careful organization. Usually for this we have several hangers, wardrobes, chests of drawers and bedside tables in the house, arranged in different rooms. But who doesn't dream of an exciting dressing room where everything is collected in one place! And is this dream really impossible? Even if all the rooms in your house or apartment are already occupied, a dressing room in the bedroom can be a great way out.

Below you will find 40 photos of bedrooms that inspire with their style and storage solutions. And since each of our readers has their own vision of a wardrobe dream, we tried to collect here a variety of ideas: corner, built-in models and even small dressing rooms inside the bedroom.

So, how to make a dressing room in the bedroom?

Design of a bedroom with a dressing room: varieties and 25 photos

You can organize a dressing room with almost any bedroom. The shape of the future dressing room, as well as how much it will be separated from the rest of the room, depends on the size of your bedchamber. However, even the owners of large and spacious bedrooms are not always in a hurry to somehow separate the dressing room, preferring to keep the interior intact and give it a boudoir romance.

As a rule, dressing rooms in the bedroom are L, I or U-shaped. Form I is the most compact and versatile. To organize it, it is enough to have a space of 120 cm wide and 50 cm deep (the height depends on the size of the ceilings and personal preferences). In addition, you need to take care of the free passage between the bed and the dressing room, which should be at least 70 cm.

Fortunately, most bedrooms in modern homes and apartment buildings boast much more space. Let's take a look at 25 beautiful photos that show how versatile a dressing room bedroom design can be!

Option 1. Wardrobe in the bedroom - 10 photos

Ideal for small bedrooms! Today, there are many models of cabinets and wardrobe systems, thanks to which the dressing room in the bedroom does not take up much space.

Before moving on to the photo, let's list the main options:

Built-in wardrobe in the bedroom, which will be an inseparable part of the room;
Wardrobe system separated from the bedroom by sliding doors;
Spacious wardrobe with transparent, translucent or mirrored doors;
Wall niche made of drywall or other material with built-in wardrobe system. Can be closed with curtains, sliding or other doors.

When saving space plays the most important role, then a partition in the form of compartment doors (for a wardrobe system) or the wardrobe itself can become option No. 1. In addition, if you choose a transparent or reflective material for the doors, then visually your bedroom will remain as spacious and bright as it was before installing the dressing room.

The following photos will clearly illustrate the possibilities offered by the wardrobe in the bedroom.

Also read: The best wardrobes in the bedroom - 30 photos

Option 2. Wardrobe room in the bedroom

Don't want to settle for a small closet? Do you need a separate dressing room in the bedroom? Then choose which solution suits you best:

Conditionally divide the bedroom into two parts, one of which will have a sleeping area with a bed and bedside tables, and the other - a wardrobe, dressing table, pouffe and other wardrobe details;
Move the bed from the center of the room and separate the area for the U-shaped dressing room in the bedroom with partitions;
Organize a small dressing room behind the head of the bed. To do this, you must leave at least 50 cm for the depth of the cabinet or wardrobe system + 70 cm for the passage.

More photos of what a small dressing room looks like in the bedroom:

Also read: Small dressing room ideas in the house

Option 3. Corner dressing room in the bedroom

Corner dressing room in the bedroom can be L-shaped or made in the form of a built-in corner wardrobe. It is worth noting that L-shaped wardrobes allow you to save space in the bedroom not only by using corners, but also by arranging the area under the windows, which often remains empty.

Modern bedrooms with wardrobes

Modern bedrooms often have wardrobes. A bedroom with a dressing room, as you can see in the photo, is very stylish, comfortable and practical. You go into the dressing room, change clothes and go out to your husband in all its glory. Dekorin picked up modern bedrooms with a dressing room for the photo.