Fitting out le dressing...

[mint]

Before you heap scorn on my head, I have seen a dressing room described as le dressing on estate agents' literature!

Anyway, my question is this:  what is the best way to fit out one of these?

Is it best just to have rails, shelves, etc or actually fit in wardrobes with doors and all the bits and bobs?

Where's the best place to get shelving, wardrobe kits and so on?  If anyone has a fab one of these, do you mind posting a picture?

I hasten to add that I have a very modest one measuring 2.550 x 2.650 but I would like to use it to maximum effect.

Any ideas will be gratefully received [:)]

 

[La Guerriere]

This sort of stuff ?

http://www.leroymerlin.fr/mpng2-front/pre?zone=zonecatalogue&idLSPub=1159195805&renderall=on

[cooperlola]

Doors help keep dust at bay and hide a mulitude of sins if you are a messy wotsit like me, but are pricey. 

Doorless is more dramatic and easier to see what you have but you need to be neat for this to look good (rules me out!).

[woolybanana]

Pop down to the local farmer and see if he has any old rabbit boxes; clean them out, touch of varnish and there is the cupboard space. A few branches slung between the boxes and there you have hanging space. What more can a girl ask for?

[Gardengirl]

When I read the title I wondered what you were going to fit out a dressing gown with - special pockets for shampoo, conditioner, hairbrush etc maybe! [:)]

We don't have a dressing, but I couldn't manage without doors, even though I try to be very organised and tidy! We have posh, expensive hinged wooden doors, which fold back and fittings in UK. In France there were very ordinary sliding doors only provided; we bought versatile hanging and shelf fittings very reasonably at Castorama, but also saw some very good ones at Ikea. Whatever you get, I'd recommend sliding doors, which I find much more useful.

 

[mint]

La Gueriere, I can't use your link![:(]

Coops, do you know, I am adopting your idea of putting the Joanna in my bedroom?  I know what you mean about tidy.  I can be obsessively tidy on occasion, usually when I am fed up with my own mess.  Perhaps, I can put up curtains to hide the mess?[I]

Wools, I promise I won't come over to the Vendée and give you a kick in the shin [:P]  Only joking, hope the doggies are keeping warm, not so concerned about you, mind![6]

[Clair]

Sweet, I have repaired the link.

We recently fitted some space in the converted attic using these from Lapeyre during one of their offers (click on the right-hand tab to see some pictures).

[mint]

Clair, thank you very much. 

Yes, I can see that doors might have their use.  Just hoping not to have to put in "wardrobes" as such.  We have one or two quite nice wardrobes but I had hoped that for le dressing, it wouldn't be necessary to go to the expense of doors and so on.

Clearly, it's best to spend the money up front so then no dust, mess hidden inside doors, and bob's your uncle.

Thank you, everybody for your response.  As always, when I put a question out on the Forum, someone or other always manages to change my mind![:D]

[just john]

Lots of pics here http://www.designbiz.com/BizRooms/default.asp?AlbumID=43

plus some advice here:
 boudoir-style-vintage-tips-from-the-ladies-dressing-room-1892/

''The husband should always find the wife fresh, beautiful, sweet as a flower; but he should believe her to be so adorned by Nature like the lilies of the field. It is just as well that he should not know that her beauty if acquired or preserved at the cost of thousand little attentions, the permanent removal of superfluous vein-marks, moles or warts through the administering of electricity by a lady electrician.''

Don't give yourself a shock it seems to be saying[Www]

[woolybanana]

Curtains will do instead of doors!

[mint]

Whoa, there!  Steady on, JJ!  Some of those pictures of fitted dressing rooms are seriously scary.  Do people really have colour-coordinated clothes in oh-so-tasteful neutrals and pastels?

Me, I just have clothes....a mixture and hotchpotch of "stuff" I'd had over years, old and discarded clothes given to me by other people, things I'd grown out of, things I might grow into and things that.....oh, nevermind!

I guess it may have to be wardrobes with doors after all.....hide a multitude of sins, as they say![;-)]

[mint]

[quote user="woolybanana"]Curtains will do instead of doors![/quote]

Yes, Wools, and, of course, a mirror that takes half a stone off your weight![:D]

[Anton Redman II]

For what it is worth. Ours have doors and inside they have four clothes rails each but Isabel had more room and the cheapest Ikea chests of drawers. The chest of drawers hold socks, stockings French knickers suspenders hers European, suspenders his American and occaisionally draws. They were built because the bedroom was huge and having friends for a sleep over at our time of life did not seem like a good idea. They do the job and were a huge amount less expensive than Amoires

[mint]

Alas, Anton Redman, at my time of life, I fear that thermal vests and longjohns are more likely to grace my drawers than French knickers and suspenders [:(]

But I was principally choosing between rails and drawers all "out in the open" as it were (tons cheaper, I would imagine) or proper "fitted" wardrobes with doors.

We do have a couple of nice, traditional wardrobes but I am now very thrilled to have a room just for the sole purpose of keeping clothes and personal kit and I'd like to fit it out to make the maximum use out of it.

[woolybanana]

IKEA does excellent boxes and storage racks on wheels, with plastic covers!

[just john]

Whhaaatttt! how many photographers and guided tours were you expecting?. If you have a dressing room in the Chateau, apart from your lovers, you and your maid, probably not too many visitors, my advice would be to get yourself down to Ikea (I know . . .  but it's got to be done) they'll plan an open carcass (ie no doors) set to suit your room size and the way you want to see your individualistic ecletic collection[8-|] and after you have got it in, you can later select (Mirror?) doors to cover alternate carcasses at a later date, ohh and pick a quiet day maybe a tuesday.

[Anton Redman II]

I'm with JJ on this one.

[woolybanana]

"open carcass" - great Bobo man, don't let Sweets hear that or she will have your guts for garters (that is the polite version of what she will do, respecting forum sensibilites).

[just john]

When not at Padua, I'm sure Giacomo Wooly is more than capable of pacifying her sweetness,

[Chancer]

Is le dressing for the house you are trying to sell or for your new one?

If its to sell then you need to go for the wow factor and not have doors, you can have a curtain drawn back in case someone says "I couldnt possibly have my stuff on display like that" whereupon you pull the curtain shut with a flourish and a "voila".

Its all b u ll sh 1 t of course but you are trying to sell a percieved lifestyle to pigeons, shelves with clothes on display will look better than drawer fronts but people will not be seduced by your Damarts etc, it needs to look like a boutique, think of Richard Gere's dressing in "An Officer and a Gentleman" and you will get the idea, maybe buy a load of clothes from Primart just for the purpose, you could sell them on at a profit later [;-)]

Ikea is an axcellent place for all things regarding dressings, Leroy Merlin equally but very pricey in my book. 

[Gluestick]

Sweets:

If you are completing this project for yourself, then doors are a must as they do help to keep clothes shoes whatever dust free.

If it is intended to be a visual aid for selling, then again, most buyers would appreciate decent fitted doors.

I built ours in UK: including making all the doors (across  the bedroom: seven doors end to end and seven top boxes); drawers made from chip carcasses and pine fronts a la old draper's shop. Shoe racks made from dowelling rods; and tie and scarve rails,  behind three doors.

Best thing I could do, as everything is packed neatly away: and rarely used stuff goes into the top boxes.

The wardrobe runs floor to ceiling.

One tip: try and obtain some proper commercial chrome steel garment rail tubing. clothes are very heavy! And the sort of thing sold by DIY sheds bends badly over time.

All storage considerations apart, for a dressing room, a lady needs a full length pivoted mirror: Chevalier type. And most critically, a dressing table with a large mirror and peripheral high-intensity lighting, for making up.

Have fun!

[woolybanana]

I guess the intensity of the light varies with age, then?

[PeterG]

There is only one way to fit out "le dressing"

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1ZZreXEqSY&feature=related

 

 

[Gardengirl]

[:D]  [:D]

[cooperlola]

Blimey, Gluey!

Mirrors, make-up - what are they for?[8-)]