Building wardrobe/closet into vaulted ceilings…

My kids rooms in the new house both have vaulted ceilings… the floor space is great, but the issue is the sloped ceiling comes down to about 40cm off the floor.. that’s quite a dead space.

I want to either build from scratch (using laminated MDF) or slice up an IKEA Pax wardrobe.. however I wanted ‘your’ opinion.

With the side view of the room like this (not to scale!):

Then to utilise a proper hanging space (which, looking online suggests you want the rail to be about 106cm off the floor), then my options are to DIY from scratch a REALLY deep closet, or to alter a pre-made one, but it’ll leave ‘dead space’ like this:

Any better suggestions, or other clever ways of making best use of the space for a LOW vaulted ceiling??

Cheers

DrP

I’ve spent the last 18 years in bedroom furniture design and making so I should have the answer to this. But I don’t. There isn’t one. And we’re about to move to a house that’s got 4 rooms with sloping ceilings.

All I can say is that pulling a wardrobe forward to gain hanging space leaving a void behind is OK if you’ve a) got a use for storage space that you won’t want to access from one year to the next and b) you are prepared to put up with the intrusion into the room.

You’ve just got to decide if you can cope better with shorter wardrobes or a smaller floor area. You can have your hanging at the bottom (I usually say 1 metre is enough height for hanging) and have shelves above. I find that taking the wardrobe front right to the ceiling makes the room feel smaller and you’ve then got the massive problem of scribing it to meet the ceiling which suddenly seems to be less even than you thought. I like to finish a foot or so lower which gives you a place to stick things on. But make sure you fill in the gaps at the back and sides or valuables can fall down and get lost forever. Like passports, or an engagement ring thrown in a fit of temper :o)

open shelving and a hanging rail? Easiest DIY option IMO

Kids’ room? They’ll stuff all manner of shit in that ‘dead’ space.

Tell you what I’d do. I’d install a secret passage.

Couple of shelves with adjustable height inside. Cut a door to suit and hinge it from the long side using a hinge which allows the door to fold back flat against the rest of the cabinet so you can see what you’re doing when accessing the space.

https://www.morehandles.co.uk/hettich-sensys-soft-close-zero-protrusion-hinge-165-degree.html

This may be the ones, but they do exist.

Cheers all
I think TJ’s idea is the way I’m heading too….
But again, once you’ve got the rail at 1m from the ground, it’s going to be pretty far back to the back of the open shelf….

Ikea also do a PLATSA range, which is 122.9cm high, and 55cm deep carcasses. (the PAX is 210cm..that’s too high).
I like this idea as it will also have doors and shelving..
I’ll have a play about with the slope tonight to see if having a front at 125cm is too obtrusive into the room, and figure out how much of a deadspace is left behind….
I’m not planning on having the wardrobe span the WHOLE room, so it could work as another easy access storage space from the side, TBH.

DrP

Top-down view.

Thanks Fritzel….but you forgot the locks on the secret door 😉

DrP

😁

Seriously, fill it full of fairly lights, they’ll have their own Narnia. What kid wouldn’t want a SECRET ROOM in their bedroom? I’m a genius, admit it.

Plus, you have to build it now, it took me two actual minutes to draw that sketch.

I’d probabaly use the back as storage, with a hanging rail far enough forward to be a usable height. We don’t have a sloping roof, but I put up a rail with shelf above and curtain across where our predecessors had put a wardrobe into a recess (that left an annoying gap all round). Probably doubled the usable space. Oh, a chest for drawers under most of the rail (leaving a gap at the end for full-length coats etc).

Christmas decorations and suitcases storage Shirley?

i’ll figure out how much of a gap will be left. I fear it’ll be more for christmas wrapping and the odd draught excluder, TBH!

DrP

they’ll have their own Narnia

Won’t need a door, then. Just put the entrance behind the fur coats.

I’ve never thought about this before, but its possible to build a sectional wardrobe where each section is a draw and pulls out from the wall to be accessed from the side. Admittedly it would obviously need a corresponding space in the room.

Our house is constructed on a portal frame and the combe (joint between walls and sloping ceiling) height is just over a metre. We have 600mm deep cupboards in both the upstairs living room and bedroom so there is a just a wall of birch-faced ply along each size to hide all the cupboards, TV and wardrobes. The architect and builders were a bit sceptical at first, but like the result. The Grazings

@dovebiker You should have had more clutter to distract from the terrible view. 🙂

its possible to build a sectional wardrobe where each section is a draw

Not unless you’re a sketch artist it isn’t. 😁

It’s actually not a bad idea. I’ve seen this sort of thing in posh kitchens, making use of tall thin spaces. You’d probably have to be really careful not to overload it though, a wardrobe full of jeans and jackets is likely a lot heavier than a couple of jars of Hellman’s.

Maybe you could have a sort of hybrid solution, a drawer recessed back into that 40mm drop and a wardrobe on top?

You should have had more clutter to distract from the terrible view. 🙂

OK, it’s not bad, but you haven’t seen the inside of the cupboards! 🤣

^^ that IS a good idea….

DrP

No idea how much room you have under the flat ceiling, but we’ve created a kind of walk in wardrobe in our bedroom beneath the sloping roof in our attic room. We placed the wardrobe just outside of the sloping roof section and have the bed coming off the back and (this bit isnt finished yet) will have the back of the wardrobes as a kind of massive headboard. Could be covered in anything really though, just boarded and wall papered. Would you have room to do something similar?

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Sketch doesn’t do it justice, my sloping roof might not come down as steep as the OP’s so there quite a bit of room in front of our wardrobes. Helps that neither of us are very tall though!!

So in my ‘old family home’ we did exactly as above… It was a HUGE room, and we put a false wall in, thenhad built in wardrobes behind that, and drawers against the lower wall.

My current issue is jsut for the kid’s rooms, who don’t need tonnes of storage, but I’ll want to utilise the space…

THanks for the ideas all..
Have been looking at 700mm drawer runners, as per cougar’s idea…

DrP

Mate, secret passages. I are disappoint.

Actually, you know what I’d do? I’d build a hidden room and not tell them. Have a camouflaged locking system in a book or a sconce and wait for them to discover it on their own.

so here’s the real measurements and angles..

So it DOES leave a whopping space behind…losing 700mm of floor space is annoying…
Hmmm……

DrP

I’d go with @midlifecrashes option. Hinge on the long side (770) and a hinge so it can fold back on itself. You then have a chunk of space to pop random shit in.

TBF if it’s anything like kids rooms I’ve seen you’ll get all this lovely built-in furniture and they’ll just throw all their stuff on the floor anyway.

I’m with @cougar, put something fun in there

Definitely secret crawl space. Call it a reading nook and it sounds posh. Put some bean bags and fairy lights in with a small book case at one end. Then they can hide all sorts of shit and dirty mugs in there that you’ll never ever see again unless you make it big enough to fit in too.

OK… again, cheers for the input, and i’ll give it some thought….
Another, much simpler option, is to simly make a bunch of ‘uprights’ that have a hanging pole between them (or even ONE upright, and the pole between that and the wall, and don’t overcomplicate it.
maybe a deep drawer underneath…

Anyway…
I’ve been busy this morning building an inbuild desk for the OH’s new office.. 25 quid FB market place bargain.
The room wasn’t square, but the track saw made light work of that..




(BTW..that’s a wooden duck on the desk!!)

DrP

Just build a small box on wheels with a sloping top to fit the gap. You can then roll it in and out of the gap and have a useful storage box for all the crap that doesn’t go in the wardrobe – shoes etc

Just build a small box on wheels with a sloping top to fit the gap. You can then roll it in and out of the gap and have a useful storage box for all the crap that doesn’t go in the wardrobe – shoes etc

That’s a really great idea.
Bloody annoying nice birch ply is now about £130 per sheet… but yeah, you’re basically suggesting a huge one of these…

DrP

I really need a laser level. Like, REALLY.

And also a pocket screw jig. Maybe I should 3D print one.

I really need a laser level. Like, REALLY.

Honestly…. sooo useful!
I’ve got this one and it’s been really useful for loads of jobs in the new house.. hanging pictures, this desk, aligning a clock centrally (as it’s got the vertical laser, you can measaure a mid-line on the floor, and then beam is up the whole wall) etc etc

DrP

Maybe a bit like this?

There’s simpler ways but with some big runners you could maximise the space.

@kayak23 . that’s the sort of thing i was thinking about with strong runners… How would yo do it?? Frame it out first, then make the drawers from sheeting/laminated MDF?

DrP

Yeah laser level is awesome. Possibly one of the handiest tools I’ve got. Just makes life soooo much easier.

that’s the sort of thing i was thinking about with strong runners… How would yo do it?? Frame it out first, then make the drawers from sheeting/laminated MDF?

It’s much easier to keep everything square and consistent if you build boxes.
Most fitted furniture these days is based on simple boxes that fit into the space with a little room around them.
Drawers etc are then mounted into these.

It’s way less faff than battening out a space etc. Arguably you might lose a tiny bit more room but it’s much easier and neater in general.

I guess it’s more of a ‘do it for a living’ way of doing things as it minimises time on site, as you just waltz in, level up the box you’ve made in the workshop into the space, fix it in position and fit trims all round to take up wobbly walls, then fit your internals in.
Much easier.

For your own home you could do it the other way. Personally I’d pretty much always go to the box within the space approach as everything is easier and looks neat.

So yeah, I’d make a box that’s a bit smaller than the space, then make your slide out system to fit it, then fit the whole shebang into the space making sure it’s level and square, then fitting trims around it to walls and floor.

It looks like quite a big unit is all so it has to be well built and on some serious runners to work well as a pull out unit.
I’d use 18mm sheet material throughout.
Smaller drawers etc I’d generally use 12mm but you’d need a pull out unit that size to be really rigid, so 18mm and heavyweight runners.

ta…
will give it some thought/pricing.

Gone are the days 18mm birch ply was £39 a sheet… £160 now!!!!

oof!

DrP

built in from scratch, for sure. I would have gone straight to cougars deep drawer too.
Except i wouldnt use drawer runners. i would make some nice deep drawers but put them on low profile castor wheels. that way you can pull them right out, to get at the back of the drawer, and load them up as heavy as you like.
this would of course only really work for “occasional access” storage, as the drawers wouldnt run as smoothly, and would eventually knacker the carpet.

I was suggesting something like this but with 4 sides tacked on.

You could go all fancy pants like Mr “I am a carpenter” Kayak if you wanted something to look a bit nicer I suppose 🙂