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Dated built-in wardrobes

9 years ago

We have moved into a house with these built in wardrobes. It's not a priority to replace them, and they are useful. But how should we bring them up to date?
- paint the doors (there are lots of threads on paint types etc)
- what about the dressing table and overhead aspect - is this salvageable

I think they are melamine / MDF with plastic veneer; with brass style piping design.

All the wardrobe doors have dropped a bit so need re-aligning.

Thank you!

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Celery. Visualization, Rendering images

9 years ago

Here is another idea how to make it up-to-date

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Comments (13)

Jonathan
9 years ago
If you can easily remove the overhang and dressing table you should as this dates the furniture. If you can remove the dressing table I would paint the wardrobes and rest an oversized floor mirror between the two.
If the overhang has to stay then I would paint everything the same colour to unify the look but get rid of the stool and investigate filling the foot well with shelves.
Jules Mc
9 years ago
I agree with what has been recommended and think a dark matt grey/charcoal with gold tone/brass hardware could really bring these up to date. A lot of work but worth it .
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Peckadoodle, no, not that, but that could work! What I meant was something like this, which is a front view of wardrobe with doors open. The niche would be closed from the front, ie no access from inside the wardrobe, but open to the side by the bed. It could have a light inside it. Have not drawn it to any sort of scale, just to illustrate the idea. Saw something similar on Houzz somewhere a while ago. The wardrobe doors would just look like a normal wardrobe. (Just as a comment, I love the idea if lights inside wardrobes too, wish I had them.)
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What are the door made of? are they solid wood? Is that a veneer finish? I’d sand off the old finish, prime with Zinsser 1-2-3 and finish with 2 coats of Zinsser Perma-White. You can get the Perma-White mixed to different RAL colours online. Pop on some new handles and hey presto! Personally I’d get rid of drawers, keep the mirror and fit in a worktop off-cut in there with a nice chair and wall lamp or spots above the dressing table. You could further modernise the doors by mounting them so they fit flush. You’d have to change the hinges to those similar to kitchen cabinet hinges. What are your plans for the rest of the room?
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PRO
Celery. Visualization, Rendering images
9 years ago
I would paint all in white. Notice please

a bigger mirror.
allyv61
9 years ago
They would be relatively easy to modernise. Agree overhang is issue an issue. Table practical space for getting ready and could stay or go depending on your use. The colour of the doors will be very dependent on the rest of the room colour and palette. Great space for clothes
Jenny Reeves
Original Author
9 years ago
Great suggestions everyone - thank you Houzzers. I'd quite like to take out the whole middle section, but it is quite practical so I might do the overhang first and see how it looks. My husband has managed to realign all the doors, and it already feels a lot better.
wendy Anderson
9 years ago
I too would remove the overhang- I think it would help the room in many ways. A modern look would be to paint out the wardrobes in the same colour as the wall. We recently did this with a built in unit in our new cinema room and I'm thrilled with the results
wendy Anderson
9 years ago
Oh and lovely new door handles!!
PRO
MBH Carpentry and Joinery Ltd.
9 years ago
Instead of the bridging units maybe just have a floating shelf with some spot lights incorporated for shining down on to the dressing table. Include new frontals and handles. I like the idea of a mirror above the dressing table as suggested by others I would include full length mirrors on the doors of the wardrobes to.
PRO
Jackson Interior Design
9 years ago
Keep the overhang as you can never have too much storage, paint and new knobs, new funky chair, and have a mirror cut to size to fill the whole space between dressing table and overhang.
Rose Williams
9 years ago
If you are keeping the dressing table, I would personally bring it forward to meet the front of the wardrobes and put a new deeper surface on it. More surface space is always good, and would look neater.
HU-360823388
6 years ago
Hi Jenny,

I know this post is a little old but I will be grateful if you can advise what you ended up doing with these wardrobes? I am facing the same dilemma and I have been told by various people that I absolutely cannot paint the wardrobes. I’m struggling with whether I remove the wardrobes completely and rebuild, which will not be cheap or whether I keep them but also worried that they look quite dated.

Kindest,

Sarah
HU-360823388
6 years ago
I also have these mirrored ones facing the bed which I brought from my old house which is amazing storage but I’m worried everything together is making the room heavy and dated. Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Kindest,

Sarah

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