Image credit: Hammonds Fitted Furniture
Even the smallest visitors come to your home with clothes, and clothes always need a home. But, even if you’re struggling with limited square footage, that doesn’t mean your guests have to keep their clothes all crumpled up in a bag or case.
There are many ways to help visitors to your home hang their clothes without sacrificing too much manoeuvrable space. There’s no denying that small space storage does require a bit more creativity. In the trickiest small bedrooms, it may even require a custom solution.
But no matter how bijou your bedroom, we've got the answer to your your small bedroom wardrobe worries.
Use every inch of space with precision
The dreamiest of all small bedroom wardrobe ideas is custom-fitted wardrobes. No matter how petite the proportions of your space, wardrobe designers conjure clever ways to utilise every inch of whatever hanging space you may have. The secret is complete customisation.
So, not only does your wardrobe utilise space from floor to ceiling, but unlike freestanding storage, the inside of the fitted joinery is geared towards your needs.
Mike Shapland, head designer at Hammonds Fitted Furniture, says: “It’s possible to personalise the interior of the fitted wardrobes in your small bedroom with hanging rails, shoe racks and even storage for cosmetics and perfume. The wardrobe is designed to fit your lifestyle.”
Shapland also suggests considering sliding doors, which are better for tight spaces. A handle-less wardrobe design makes for an even more uncluttered look in your small bedroom and is a great tip for making your small bedroom look bigger.
Reclaim your floor space when guests go
With a clever bit of carpentry, your small bedroom’s hanging storage and bed can seamlessly disappear within seconds of your guests saying “sayonara”.
A bespoke folding bed within integrated wardrobes is a great way to free up the floor space. Why have your small bedroom snoozing for most of the year when you can use it as you wish when the guests are gone?
Just like other fitted wardrobes, the storage around the bed is customised to your wants and needs. This Murphy bed with storage from Urban Wardrobes lets you choose handles (or skip them), and you can also opt to have luxury upgrades, like jewellery drawers.
Mykhailo Kharkovoi, managing director for Urban Wardrobes, says: "Murphy beds with integrated wardrobes have become a game-changer for those living in compact spaces.
"Combining functionality and space-saving design, these innovative pull-down beds offer a practical solution for small bedrooms by seamlessly merging sleeping and storage areas, maximising every inch of available space.
"With their cleverly concealed wardrobes, Murphy beds provide a stylish and efficient way to declutter, making them the perfect choice for anyone seeking a versatile and organised living environment."
Make sure to ask your manufacturer about the ease of using the pull-down bed mechanism. Some beds can be designed for intense use, when beds are used daily, for those periods when you have long-term guests.
Pair with light paint and great lighting
When it comes to making your small bedroom look bigger, a mirrored wardrobe is a top-drawer design hero. After all, hiding away clothes and clutter behind doors that visibly doubles your space kills two birds with one stone.
For all their functionality, blink and you’ll easily miss a mirrored wardrobe in your small bedroom. This storage is discreet, meaning your mirrored wardrobe will eliminate the visual clutter of other wardrobe styles.
“Mirrored wardrobes are a great way of creating an illusion of more space within a small room,” says Andy Briggs, Spaceslide’s head interior designer.
“Reflective surfaces, such as sliding mirror doors, are ideal for increasing the amount of light in a room, which makes a room feel larger and brighter than it actually might be.”
To heighten this airy effect, paint your petite bedroom in a light, neutral colour scheme. This will give your bedroom a more spacious feel, especially if you throw in some clever small bedroom lighting ideas.
These natural niches are the perfect spots for wardrobe storage
Letting your architecture be your guide is a sensible thing to do when you want to make the most of a small bedroom. This goes double when you are trying to incorporate wardrobe storage into your limited floor space.
In older properties, the alcoves on either side of a fireplace can be the ultimate small bedroom wardroom idea coup. All things being equal, you’ll end up with space for not one, but two wardrobes.
In this example by Hammonds Fitted Furniture, the alcoves are used to great practical effect in creating a symmetrical fitted wardrobe solution. If budget won’t allow you to go down the fitted route, measure up and find freestanding wardrobes that fit the gaps instead.
Remember, though, that in older properties walls might not be particularly straight. Make sure you pull out your measuring tape and measure at several points to make sure your alcove walls are straight if you want to choose freestanding pieces.
Always make sure any tall wardrobes you have that aren’t fitted are securely attached to walls with straps, such as these anti-tip furniture straps, £6.95, Amazon.
This is particularly important if you have little ones about, as furniture toppling is a particularly serious risk for them.
Ditch the doors to make your space feel more spacious
If you decide to ditch the doors and to decorate your small bedroom with hanging rails, you’ll be spoilt for choice. Interior designers are big fans of this light look and manufacturers have responded by creating a great variety of styles in a wide range of materials.
Their popularity for small spaces is due to open furniture feeling less bulky – an advantage over heavier, traditional hinged-door wardrobes. And with designers getting more and more creative, some hanging- rails styles designs have been elevated to works of art in themselves. This is a real perk when there is limited room to make a statement.
This look is best kept to spaces where guests will hang their clothing neatly. If your younger guests aren’t neatniks, you’re better off with more discreet storage.
We like the stylish mid-century styling of the French Cane Clothes Rail available through Dunelm. Its trendy cane and rattan construction would look great in any style of bedroom. The leggy look will also make your small bedroom seem that little bit bigger.
French Cane Clothes Rail, Dunelm, RRP £225
Hide the mess but with a soft touch
A halfway house between a hinged-door wardrobe and an open rack is a curtained wardrobe. It combines the benefits of these two ideas in that you get to hide the mess away, but behind a softer, lighter material than solid doors.
Curtains also won’t require the clearance that doors do. They also add a touch of cosy warmth to sleeping spaces.
Then there is an opportunity to play with colours, patterns and textures, letting you easily add a touch of character to your small space. You can even push the boat out and use materials like silks and velvets to ramp up the luxe touch. This will allow you to dress up your space at a less steep price point than fitted wardrobes with mirrored doors.
Try coordinating the curtains on your wardrobes with your window curtains for a polished look.
Into DIY? Buy a cheaper wardrobe, remove the doors and customise it with curtains. Try suppliers like Ikea and John Lewis for both simple and more sophisticated curtain tracks that will bring your curtained wardrobe to life.
A micro wardrobe is compact and practical
The fewer hulking items of furniture there are in a small bedroom, the more room there is to breathe. A waist - height guest wardrobe is therefore a multifunctional breath of fresh air. Not only do you have useful clothing hanging and shelving to lay your hat, but the top of the wardrobe is the perfect place to stash a handy bits-and-bobs tray. There is even room for a nice table lamp.
We like this Portland small wardrobe available at The Dormy House. At just a metre wide, it’s a compact little gem of a small bedroom wardrobe idea. The shelves are even removable for maximum flexibility. Choose from a range of paint colours to suit your taste.
Portland small wardrobe, The Dormy House, RRP £995
This small bedroom layout idea is sure to impress guests
This idea will make you think twice about simply reaching for a freestanding wardrobe to address your lack of small bedroom storage.
Skip the standard headboard and take a more unconventional approach. Try an open wardrobe closet set-up behind the bed. Not only does this look create a focal pop of colour in the bedroom but with no wardrobe doors, your small bedroom feels more open and spacious. This look lends itself to DIY lovers.
Make it your own way by adding closet rods to link some tall shelving units. We like how the designers of this space have also added some floating shelving to incorporate as much storage as possible.
Provide discreet storage even in the tightest of spaces
Some bedrooms are truly boxy. Luckily, micro wardrobes have been designed for the most miniscule of sleeping spaces.
One example of this type of ultra-compact wardrobe is the Osbourne one-door wardrobe, available through Wayfair. A great one for when young ones and teens come to visit – this style of wardrobe helps them stash their basics behind a door that also hides any messy hanging habits.
Being lightweight, single-doors wardrobes make for easy DIY projects should they need to be assembled – though you’ll want someone else on hand to make the task easier. Look for options that include a rail and a shelf for maximum flexibility of storage.
Your fifth wall is all you need to give your guests hanging storage
Here’s a bright small bedroom wardrobe idea: make your ceiling take some of that storage load. It makes sense.
In most cases, the fifth wall in spare rooms is a perfectly good design resource that is ignored. We think your spare ceiling should be put to good use. When floor space in your small bedroom is tight, mounting an industrial ceiling rail is a streamlined and innovative way to solve your clothes hanging problem.
No matter how long the dresses or trousers, they will have a convenient corner to comfortably hang.
When your guests are away and there is no hanging, the upside of using your ceiling is that your floor won’t be playing host to an unused wardrobe and clothes rail. You are then free to put that space to more productive use.
We like that Etsy shop, IndustrialMaestroShop which offers its rails in a number of finishes. You are bound to find one that suits your bedroom décor If you really want to go the extra mile to impress, also decorate your spare room ceiling and really dress that ‘wardrobe’ up.
Industrial Clothes Rack, Etsy / IndustrialMaestroShop, RRP £27.97+
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