Once upon a Walk in Wardrobe

When we moved into our home, almost 5 years ago, I fell in love with the sensor light in our walk in wardrobe. It was such a tiny, clever idea that made I had never seen before. Unfortunately, the rest of the walk in wardrobe is a completely different story! 

Over 5 metres of metal bars for hanging sounds like a lot, but when it dictates hanging of all clothing, it gets real old, real quick!  The only thing that made the arrangement somewhat bearable was the IKEA Expedit/Kallax 4X4 storage cube that just only just ducked under the fixed shelf. But no matter how many Lily plastic shoe boxes I purchased, or the plethora of Marie Kondo-esque folding techniques I attempted to employ, the space just didn't work. 

Well, brace yourself, because the only other person to have ever seen the state of our wardrobe is my husband. He has admitted it didn't really bother him, which I was all too aware of as I attempted to broach the subject of getting a wardrobe company in to rectify the situation countless times!  

To give you some perspective, the fixed shelf height with hanging underneath is about 160cm. The wardrobe is 209cm from doorway to back wall and 200cm wide. The ceiling height is 240cm.  

The suitcases on top hold things such as fancy dress costumes, gifts for future giving, winter coats, memorabilia, travel resources like locks and scales and inflatable neck pillows, technology, keepsakes, the clothes I am going to get back into one day, and so on. It was a miss-mash of stuff - and it was driving me crazy.

But then, the planets aligned. An IKEA sale with 15% off PAX and Komplement AND the COVID19 global pandemic struck, meant we were confined to our home for many months.

My Pinterest is full of closet inspo that I had been gathering for the past 12 months and I had fallen in love with the idea of glass/perspex fronted drawers. I dreamed of draws with compartments for all of my scarves and bracelets, and sweaters. I longed for somewhere to display my handbags and pastel colour pallet of apparel. I longed for a Pinterest worthy space so that I could feel a sense of control over the chaos that was my wardrobe (and in fact - my life...)

     

So, I booked in my virtual consultation with IKEA and spent almost an hour with Elizabeth at IKEA Rhodes discussing and designing our perfect wardrobes. Due to the size and shape of the space, it was decided that a U shaped design would result in some difficult to access spaces in the rear corners, so a simple, parallel design was settled on. This really was a wonderful process and I cannot recommend it enough to anyone who is considering creating their own wardrobe. The best bit is that you get a code for your wardrobe and you can go back in and amend the designs, which I did a few times after the consult. When you are done, it is meant to be as easy as clicking "Add to Bag" and all of the bits and pieces from your wardrobe are added to your order, but I could not get this working at all, so printed out the list of items I needed and manually added them to my bag for checkout. 

I had to accept the harsh reality that I am not a clear drawer kinda gal. I do not own a collection of soft mint and rose knitwear, nor do I own a single bangle - and I own about three scarves. So I had to have a look at myself and reconcile the disconnect between my fantasy wardrobe and the reality of my life and my possessions. As materialistically zen as I was attempting to be, I knew deep in my heart solid drawer fronts were in fact a must.

When my husband arrived home from work, I explained the benefits of the IKEA wardrobe solution and showed him a picture of what his side would look like. Pained but defeated he knew I had invested way too much time and effort in this process for him to fob it off so with his agreement, I proceeded to submit my order.

Unfortunately the earliest delivery date was almost two weeks away. But in hindsight this was a good thing as it gave me the time needed to demo the old hanging shelves, prep and paint so that I had a beautiful blank canvas to create my masterpiece. I am like the love-child of Marie Kondo and Michelangelo.

Take aways from this week's blog:
1) Pinterest inspo is great - but you need to be pretty honest about how you will be using your space. Select layouts and materials that will fit in with the clothes, shoes, and possessions you have - rather than exactly what you see online.
2) Be realistic with how you are going to assemble your IKEA PAX, as this is largely a two person job. You will be able to a lot of it by yourself, but you will need a relatively patient, physically capable team mate.
3) Use this opportunity to consider what you are keeping in your wardrobe and in your life. Do you need it? Do you use it? Do you love it?