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Renovating Design Dilemma Living Rooms

How to Refurbish a Fitted Wardrobe in Living Room?

3 years ago

last modified: 3 years ago

My newly-purchased flat has a huge fitted wardrobe in the living room. As this is our only big storage and it is in great condition, we are inclined to keep it and use at least parts of it for storage. Does anyone have any ideas on how we can refurbish it to make it look less like a wardrobe and make it fit better in the room? The dead space on the right is also a worry!

Any advice would be amazing!

We will use the bottom bedroom in the floorplan as the living room.

Featured Answer

Carolina

3 years ago

Hi, I kind of agree with @mii2 But if you're keeping it, you could use the empty space to the left to build a desk there with shelves above. I think you could put different handles on the doors too to make them look less 'wardroby'.

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Comments (21)

Daisy England
3 years ago
I’d make the bottom half with doors and the top section with shelving then it doesn’t look so much like a wardrobe. Add shelving at the spare space side too or a desk for office work.
Juliet Docherty
3 years ago
Are they timber and if so can they be painted? I don't think they are a problem, it's the space to the right that makes it look a little odd perhaps. If the wardrobes were painted a dark colour and the wall behind the same, then it would look more like one unified space. Bespoke shelving to the right of them would make it all look seamless, if not, maybe a huge rubber plant in a planter to soften the look.
Yona Lesger thanked Juliet Docherty
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E D
3 years ago
last modified: 3 years ago
Congrats on your new flat.

Seems like a good practical shaker style wardrobe and certainly not bad looking.

Yes painting might improve it further if possible but I also feel that when your bedroom is furnished etc it will look less predominant and more part of the furniture, so to speak. 🙂
Yona Lesger
Original Author
3 years ago
@Juliet Docherty The wardrobe is indeed timber so very easy to paint. I really like your idea of painting the wardrobe and the wall in the same dark colour and think that would look really good. I have thought about doing bespoke shelves in the dead space but find it hard to imagine what type/style would like good. What style of shelving were you thinking of?
Yona Lesger
Original Author
3 years ago
@E D Thank you for your thoughts. We would actually be using this bedroom as our living room, so do you think it would still look better/fine once furnished?
mii2
3 years ago
Congrats on your new purchase. Are you planning to be there short or long term is an important Q for this situation. If you are short term planning, then you are reducing your flat from a two bed to a one bed and this will affect its top price later if your alterations in this room restrict it to being only living room, so leaving the wardrobe to be used as a wardrobe with easily removable side shelving added to also be a living room would be a good idea. Many house buyers cannot visualise a change of use to a bedroom, so estate agents on selling would suggest you stage the room to be a bedroom on selling to make it sought after by those house buyers who are imagination impaired. This would require you to also be able to set up your living room in your kitchen family room. However, if you are long term planning, it is a wardrobe and is going to remain looking like a wardrobe whatever it’s colour. In this situation, getting a carpenter in to quote for switching around the design to give you a unit that could have a tv mounted in the middle, with open shelving and closed cupboards around about would make it look less ‘wardrobe’. In this scenario you could remove the top moulding and extend the storage to near ceiling height with excellent long term cupboard storage up high for occasional use items. The extra storage would be a good use of this space in a one bedroom flat. There is no correct answer to this one, but thinking about resale is always a prudent move.
sunshineband34
3 years ago
Just curious, but why are you using the bottom room as your living room and not the middle room? Looking at the floor plan, the middle room seems like more of a logical choice for a living room. Is it due to the lighting/window which I appreciate looks quite a bit bigger.
Yona Lesger
Original Author
3 years ago
@mii2 That is a difficult question as it depends on our (future) jobs. My guess is that we would be in the flat for about 5 years, which probably means that it is preferable if we keep the wardrobe.

Thank you for your advice on buyers and estate agents. As we have never been in the situation of selling a property before, this was really helpful to read.
Yona Lesger
Original Author
3 years ago
@Carolina Thanks for the pictures, I really like the idea of installing a desk next to the wardrobe and these look really good. We will definitely also be looking for nice handles.
Yona Lesger
Original Author
3 years ago
@sunshineband34 Yes, exactly as you say. The window in what is going to be our living room is huge (about 7 m2), while the one in the middle room is much smaller. The other benefit is that with the bedroom being in the middle of our flat, we run less risk of being troubled by noisy neighbours if we have any.
E D
3 years ago
And to satisfy my curiosity 😊, why not use the open plan living room as such?
Yona Lesger
Original Author
3 years ago
@E D :D The layout of the kitchen is strange as the window is in a corner which means there is almost no natural light in the rest of the space. We are also only two people and don't need two bedrooms, so we figured this made more sense for us.
E D
3 years ago
Yep, makes sense. 🙂
Fiona MDB
3 years ago
If you’re planning on living there long term, would you consider keeping it as a bedroom, and just putting in a much bigger window or an additional window in another place in the kitchen/living area instead.
Yona Lesger
Original Author
3 years ago
@Fiona MDB Sadly that isn't possible as the building is listed.
Fiona MDB
3 years ago
Ah that’s a shame.Well then I think building the shelving in and painting the wardrobe and wall the same colour is the way to go then
Yona Lesger
Original Author
3 years ago
Does anyone have any other thoughts on how we could make the fitted wardrobe blend in better with the space/make it look more appropriate for a living room?
E D
3 years ago
Maybe this sort of thing could be an option...
Yona Lesger thanked E D
Carolina
3 years ago
Maybe your TV will fit in the middle section?

Inspiration photo:
Yona Lesger thanked Carolina
Jules Mc
3 years ago
Some ideas here of wardrobes that have been made to look less bedroomy (it's a word!!)
Yona Lesger thanked Jules Mc

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