Our built-in robe/closet remains doorless :(

After settling on a couple of Corinthian mirror doors in the middle, with two plain doors on the side I got a Corinthian representative to measure up for a quickslide system.

We were told that we will not be able to go with the Corinthian doors, because they can't be trimmed. When we built the bulkheads out of steel frame and then had gyprocked, we didn't take into consideration the 12mm thick plywood that we would be using on top of our Hebel floor (upstairs). And then with the glue and timber floor on top of plywood, it threw out the measurement between the floor and bulkhead, making it slightly shorter than the height of the 2.4m doors we had planned on using :(

I was, and still am - devastated.

Back to the drawing board now, even though I don't like any of the options left:

• Solid timber doors - will cost a small fortune
• Melamine doors - hate the look of them. Also, we've been recommended these would need 3 doors, but we have 4 compartments??!!!
• Custom joinery doors - painted in two pack these will cost a fortune! Also, can mirrors be nicely embedded on these???

Oh, and the skirting boards are in the way as they were installed all around the rooms, prior to the built in being installed. So we will need to have an infill on both ends of the robe.

Can this get any worse?

If anyone has any suggestions on a practical, not ugly and not overly expensive solution to our sliding door dramas, I would love to hear from you ❤

B

Our first built-in robe/closet is IN!

We had our first built in installed yesterday. Yay! So it's not entirely finished as I still need to decide on the doors, but at least we've got something :)

We've had more progress over the last few months in the bathrooms and powder rooms. Our remaining shower screens and shower rails have been installed, as have the shower screens. We also had the remaining three mirrors above vanities installed but the vanities are yet to be made. I will post photos of the newly installed showers screens and rails as well as the mirrors soon :)

Oh, and our spa pump has finally been installed so we can now use it at last!

But there is more!!! Since the plumbers were here for the spa pump and shower rails MrB got them to install the downstairs powder room toilet roll holder and towel ring. If anyone is interested, there 70cm from the floor and 70cm from the back wall is the recommended spot for the toilet roll holder. Who knew? It sounded and suited good to me so we went with this :)

Oh! And the pantry, and laundry handles were installed yesterday too!

B

Built-in-robe sliding doors. What do you think?

Just when I thought I had the built-in-robe doors sorted out .... I realised that going with the doors to match the rest of our internal doors will not be possible :( ... because both outer doors will be covered by 25cm of the two inner doors ... breaking the symmetry and the visible pattern on the doors :(

I am now considering plain flush doors to go on either side of the Mirrored doors in the middle. But, will having 3 different types of internal doors look too busy? The plain, flush doors are also paper weight compared to the mirror doors and the original ones I wanted (our internal doors).

What would you do?

We are going with the Quickslide system from Corinthian.

What do you think of the 4 door combination below:



A couple of mirror doors in the middle, with a plain flush door on each end.

 These are the internal doors we've got throughout the house:

PS. I just realised that when working out the price for the DIY Ikea minimalist TV unit I used Eastern States prices instead of the SA prices. In SA we are paying 45% more. Who would have thought? What a rip off! So for the 6 pieces listed in my previous post it will cost $360 in SA (not $250 like I originally worked out). Boo hoo! 45% more!!! Uggghhh

B

Laundry overheads and first built-in robe

We are about to order the next lot of cabinetry for the laundry and bedroom 2. But as always, before we lock in the deal, I thought I'd run my ideas past you :)

So for the laundry overheads, I was thinking of going handleless. This will mean more fingerprints, but it will look more streamlined. We will have a floor to ceiling cabinet on the opposite side, where I envisage most of the cleaning products etc will be stored. It will have handles. So the overheads will probably hardly ever be used. What do you think? Handleless or use the same handles as we did in the kitchen. (The handles we are putting on the doors under the sink and on the floor to ceiling cabinet will be the same as the kitchen handles). What do you think?

Due to a bulkhead and high splashback, the overheads will be 61cm tall.

Ikea like drawers with gaps in between

Now for our first built-in robe fit-out drawers. I am not a fan of the standard wooden, curved handles. But at the same time I don't want anything too expensive since they will be behind closed (sliding) doors. I was thinking something like the photo below, but the edges seem a bit too sharp. Am I over thinking this? Probably, hey *shy*. What drawer system would you recommend for a wardrobe fit-out behind closed doors? Something reasonable looking and not too expensive?

Or Ikea like, with gaps in between each drawer?

And here is our 4 sliding door built-in configuration once again:

B

About to order our very first built-in robe. Would love to hear your thoughts :)

We are about to order our very first built-in robe. It's not the master but one of the secondary bedrooms. The bedroom door is very close to the robe so we've decided to go with sliding doors for this built-in. The robe is 2.4m high and just under 3m long. I've split the length into 4 equal parts, each measuring 700cm. There will be 4 sliding doors which will overlap by 12cm. What do you think?

Any last minute tips and feedback would be greatly appreciated as always :)

Because I hate the standard drawers and drawer handles and haven't really seen any that I like, I will omit these for now and will get them sorted out at the same time as the rest of the built ins. But if anyone has seen nice looking drawers and handles to go behind closed doors of a built-in I'd love to see some photos :)

B

Built-in robe fit-out. 4 bigger or 5 smaller sections?

I've tweaked the built-in robe layout to add more drawers. To do this, I've split the length of the robe in 5 equal parts (instead of 4 parts in my previous drawing).

The highlighted yellow is the where the sliding doors will overlap. 

What do you think? 4 x 700cm compartments OR 5 x 560cm compartments?

The robe is just under 3m long, and we are having 4 sliding doors. The overlap between the doors will be around 12cm.

2 sets of drawers - 560cm compartnemts

1 set of drawers - 700cm compartments

B

Built-in robe fitout - PART 2

Thanks to my lovely bloggy friends, and their feedback, I've come up with a new fitout for one of our built-in robes and I look forward to hearing what you think.

The built-in is just under 3m long, and we are having 4 sliding doors. The doors overlap by about 5cm.

I've moved the drawers and shelves, which in our case are the most commonly used sections (thank you HMB), to the left of the built-in, and as far away from the door as possible. My lovely bloggy friend M pointed out that when using sliding doors, there is a slight overlap of doors and that I might not be able to open the drawers, and she was right! If I had left the drawers in the middle, I wouldn't have been able them due to the doors on either side! Thank you M!!!!

Because this bedroom is likely to be the nursery, April suggested in built laundry hampers. I've added an empty compartment on the left, under shelving, where I could add an ANTONIUS storage system from Ikea. Also, the top shelf is just under 30cm high. Do you think that is high enough for storage containers? Thank you April!!!

Ikea

B

Built-in robe fitout. What do you think?

I've decided to sort out the built-in robe in the bedroom right across from ours. This is so we can use it until I've finalised our walk in robe design :)

This bedroom, will be used as a nursery once we have kids.

Due to the door being so close to the robe, I've decided to go with sliding doors for this bedroom. And because long hanging is the compartment that will be used the least, I've put it closest to the door. The shelves and drawers will be used the most, so I've put them in the middle.

The drawers end just over 1m from the floor, and I've split the hanging spaces into two equal size hanging compartments. I've also added a shelf in between the two hanging spaces for extra storage.

I am very comfortable with the end sections but not too sure about the two middle ones (drawers and shelves). I am thinking I could do a bit more here? But what? Should I change one set of drawers into wire baskets? Or convert shelves into wire baskets? More shelves and less drawers? What's more useful for a nursery?

What do you think? I would love to hear your thoughts and feedback on how to change/improve it.

B