Built-in closet in the hallway: design, views and placement

The layout and arrangement of each hallway should be taken with complete seriousness. A well-equipped hallway is the face of not only the entire apartment, but also its owner - it sets the tone for the design of the house and gives an idea of ​​the tastes of the owner of the apartment. This article will talk about the design, varieties and methods of placing built-in wardrobes, which are one of the main design elements of modern hallways.

To understand the main features and benefits of fitted wardrobes, it is worth turning to the main advantages of such furniture.

• Compact design. A huge number of shapes and sizes, as well as the possibility of manufacturing such furniture to order allows you to use the space intended for the cabinet with maximum benefit.
• Variety of design. One of the main advantages of built-in cabinets is that they can be made in any design and size. Therefore, each owner can find in his apartment an ideal option according to the interior of the hallway or premises.
• Roominess. Modern built-in wardrobes are designed so that it is convenient to place clothes, accessories and household appliances. Some models have special compartments for household appliances, shoes, and even ironing boards.
• "Invisibility". Modern fitted wardrobes are designed so skillfully that they literally merge with the wall or hallway in the hallway.Most of them have no walls, no ceiling, no floor, so they fit perfectly into any interior.
• Durability. Regardless of the materials, built-in wardrobes usually last much longer than ordinary furniture. Placing such a cabinet in a special niche protects it from accidental mechanical damage.

Depending on the type of construction, location, as well as design, there are several types of built-in cabinets. Their features can be found below.

• Built-in or standard cabinet. This is the most common and spacious option in the hallway. As a rule, it has no walls, no floor, no ceiling. Such a cabinet is usually built into the prepared space, which can be an ordinary closet or niche - at present they are found in many new buildings. For mobility, open, sliding or retractable doors and shelves are responsible here. A key feature of such cabinets is that they are made as high as possible, often leaving no more than 15 cm of free space to the ceiling of the room.

• Corner option. By design, it can be either purely built-in, or with walls and ceiling. Unlike the options located above, this design allows you to take up less space, but at the same time it is not inferior to spaciousness as standard equipment. As a rule, the front or front of the cabinet is located at a wide angle for a soft transition to the walls of the room.

• Rounded option. Some sellers also like to call it radial or radial. This is one of the most expensive and least common options in Russian apartments. A distinctive feature of such a built-in cabinet is a rounded convex or wavy shape. Sliding doors also repeat the shape of the cabinet. As a rule, these built-in wardrobes are bought to complement some specific interior in the apartment.

• Louvred built-in wardrobes. This is not the most common option on the Russian market - the first analogues were designed in countries with a hot and humid climate. The special design of the cabinet made it possible to provide good ventilation inside the furniture and to prevent sunlight. Thanks to this approach, the chance of clothing becoming damp, deformed or having an unpleasant odor was eliminated.

• Hinged built-in wardrobe. As a rule, these are completely ready-made models of cabinets, manufactured strictly for a specific niche. A key feature of such cabinets is openable or swing doors, rather than sliding doors on castors, as in most built-in cabinets. Most often, these built-in cabinets are used exclusively as a dressing room and are not intended for the storage of household appliances.

For the long-term, beauty and functionality of any built-in cabinet is responsible not only the design, but also the material of manufacture. To date, the following materials are most often used in the manufacture of built-in cabinets: MDF, particleboard, fiberboard and wood. The pros and cons of each of these materials will be discussed below.

• MDF. One of the most common materials for the manufacture of fitted wardrobes in the hallway. This material is a wood-fiber board, which is made from heat-treated wood fibers glued using polymeric substances.The advantages of the material are increased strength, as well as flexibility, durability and resistance to low temperatures and moisture. Due to the flexibility and strength of such materials, they can be used for the manufacture of a wide variety of cabinets, in terms of design and construction. Models of built-in cabinets are considered environmentally friendly, therefore the cost of them is much higher than for models of other materials.

• Chipboard. This is the most popular and cheapest material in the manufacture of any furniture. It is a compressed wood chips treated in small quantities with formaldehyde resin. The unambiguous advantages of this material is its low cost, strength, as well as the ability to perform in a variety of color shades.

• Fiberboard. One of the cheapest materials in the manufacture of furniture due to the heterogeneous and cheap component. As a rule, fiberboard boards are compressed and treated with paraffin and resins forest floor waste. Despite the high prevalence around the world, such furniture is considered the most low-quality - over time, fiberboard panels are deformed due to moisture or high temperatures.

• Wood. Natural wood is also actively used in the manufacture of furniture, including built-in wardrobes. Such designs are environmentally friendly, durable and able to maintain appearance for more than a dozen years. For the manufacture of built-in cabinets, most often either wooden lining (or a thin covering board) or a planed board is used. Despite the advantages described, natural wood furniture has its drawbacks: increased weight, as well as low resistance to high humidity.

When choosing any furniture, whether it is a bed, a cupboard or an ordinary kitchen table, any owner, in the first place, pays attention not to the design of furniture, but to its size. The harmony of the entire interior in the room depends on the size of a particular element of furniture. Experienced owners, if you want to buy a certain model of a built-in wardrobe in an apartment, order or create a rough room room design project yourself. This approach allows them to correctly plan the space allotted for furniture and imagine how this or that element of furniture will look in a certain interior.

Despite the name of the variety, there is no standard in size for the manufacture of built-in cabinets. However, there is a list of certain recommendations that should be heeded when buying such furniture.

• Basement level. The optimal height is about 10 cm.
• The total height of the model. Depending on the ceiling height in the room (usually up to 2.5-2.7 m) it can vary from 2.2 to 2.5 m.
• Width. Depending on the size of the room, it can be from 1.5 to 3 m.
• Depth. This indicator is in the range from 45 to 60 cm. Most often there are built-in wardrobes in the hallway with a depth of 50 cm.
• The width of the shelves. Shelf options up to 100 cm wide are allowed, however, an indicator of 55-60 cm is considered the best option.

This version of the built-in wardrobe is designed exclusively for small apartments with low ceilings and a small amount of free space. The model got such a name thanks to the non-standard, in terms of height and depth, dimensions relative to other types of built-in cabinets in the hallway.

Built-in wardrobes of the “mini” type in the hallway have the characteristics described below.

• Width. On average, it should be about 1 m. The width of the doors (sliding or swinging) is from 45 to 50 cm. It is believed that if the sliding doors are narrow, the integrity of the entire cabinet will suffer. In this case, it is recommended to refer specifically to swing cabinet options.
• Depth. The depth of the cabinet itself is up to 35 cm, while it should be borne in mind that the actual size of the shelf itself will be even smaller - on average up to 25-30 cm. This is due to the width of the doors themselves - in the case of swing doors it is slightly smaller.
• Height. Unlike standard models, there are no restrictions on height in this version. Here, as miniature built-in wardrobes, there can be both quite low options (up to 1.5 meters), and models up to the ceiling.

The presented version of the built-in wardrobe perfectly shows itself in large apartments with spacious hallways. Most often, it is bought by owners with large families or a large number of seasonal clothes - such built-in wardrobes are often used as dressing rooms.

• Depth. If in miniature models of built-in cabinets the optimum depth is considered to be 35-40 cm, then in models of the “maxi” type this value is more than doubled (up to 90 cm). Despite this, most of the hosts stop at models that offer shelves with a depth of 60-70 cm - this is the average length of an adult human hand. Usually built-in wardrobes with a depth of over 80 cm are equipped with pull-out shelves that simplify the process of using furniture.
• Height. Despite the name, the height of such models does not differ much from the height of standard cabinets and rarely exceeds 270-280 cm. This is explained by the inconvenience of using built-in cabinets at high heights.
• Width. Typically, for the manufacture of built-in cabinets of this type, it is the chipboard sheets that are used as the material. Since the standard chipboard sheet is limited to 280 cm, the width of the built-in cabinet itself cannot be larger. In rare cases, manufacturers resort to special partitions to increase the size of furniture. In the case of using natural wood in the manufacture of cabinets of the "maxi" type, the width of the model is limited only by the desire of the customer.

As soon as the buyer has chosen the dimensions and design of the future built-in wardrobe in the hallway, the components that fill it should be carefully considered.

All built-in wardrobes can be divided into several internal compartments or zones. Each of them is designed to store certain items of clothing or appliances. You should understand in more detail the features of each such section.

• The main zone. As a rule, such a zone is used exclusively for storing elements of outerwear. It is usually divided into two more: the upper zone, which is equipped with a bar or bar, hangers with outerwear are attached to it, and the lower zone. The latter is equipped with several shelves or drawers in which accessories and clothing accessories are stored: gloves, shawls, scarves, hats. In large built-in wardrobes, the main zone can be conditionally divided into several separate bars or departments for business, casual, street or sportswear.

• Upper zone. As a rule, it represents one continuous long, but not especially large shelf. Most often, it is used to store items of clothing that are rarely used or left for next season. Also here you can successfully store situational elements - umbrellas, scarves or hats.Such a regiment can also serve as a kind of mezzanine.

• Lower zone. It is located at the level of the ankles and is presented in the form of long and low shelves with several levels of sections of different sizes. Inside these sections, shoes are stored for different seasons or for different family members. In cheaper versions of built-in wardrobes for the hallway, shoes are not stored in special sections or shelves, but simply placed on the floor.

• Additional zone. This section can be either continuous or multi-section and serve as a place for storing medium-sized or large-sized household appliances, small and household household items, detergents, jewelry and accessories, as well as casual and sportswear.

The standard model of the built-in wardrobe in the hallway should have a number of elements for convenient use of furniture.

• Shelves. It is desirable that they be of different sizes and lengths.
• Rods for hangers with clothes. They fit in models with a depth of at least 50 cm.
• Hangers. Both usual for the bar, and end-type hangers, if we are talking about narrow models of built-in cabinets.
• Rectangular nets for shoes or netting.
• Hooks on the walls (2-3 pieces at least). They are used both for clothes and accessories (umbrellas, gloves or hats).
• Pantograph. This is an indispensable device in large cabinets with a multifunctional organization, where clothes are located above head level. Allows you to easily lower the rods and control the shelves.

The appearance of furniture often depends not on the design, but on the material that was chosen for its manufacture. As already mentioned above, chipboard, MDF, fiberboard or natural wood are used for the manufacture of built-in cabinets. Most often, built-in cabinets are made of chipboard or MDF. The first option is much cheaper than the second.

Each type of built-in wardrobe for the hallway is divided into two parts: cladding and frame. If the frame itself can be made only from the above materials (particleboard, MDF, fiberboard or natural wood), then a variety of materials can act as cladding.

• Particleboard and MDF. This is the cheapest cladding option in fitted wardrobes. To give the materials a pleasant appearance, paint, varnish or folia is often used.

• Mirror cladding. This version has been recognized as a classic on the Russian market for several years. Each owner wants a large full-length mirror in his hallway, and this function is perfectly performed by mirror sliding doors. The minus of such doors is that the mirror quickly gets dirty under the constant influence of hands. It is also worth noting the fact that the doors of a solid mirror are heavy and fragile. It is for this reason that experienced owners are advised to choose options with partial glazing of the cabinet, where the mirror is at some specific (often average) level, and the frame itself is made of chipboard or aluminum.

• Glass cladding. This is not a particularly common option due to the high fragility of the individual components. Most often, cloudy or processed glass is used here, which partially or fully covers the entire facade.

• Photofacade. This is a popular option among owners of built-in cabinets with glass cladding. In this case, a film with some pattern is placed on the glass (most often these are flowers or abstract patterns). On top of the film, the facade is varnished to fix the result and prevent damage to the film.

When choosing built-in wardrobes in the hallway, you should pay attention to a number of recommendations. They will help you choose the right option for the built-in wardrobe, which will not only be beautiful, but will also last for many years.

• Accurate calculations. Experienced owners are strongly advised to draw up projects with accurately measured dimensions of available space in advance. If a person is not able to accurately determine the correct dimensions and cannot draw up an approximate design project for the hallway, then he can always consult a specialist.
• Facade. The facade or cladding is the main element of the future cabinet. If its appearance is practically independent of the frame, then the facade is responsible for the general appearance of the whole hallway. For example, if the cabinet lining is made of a mirror, this will visually increase the corridor, making it more spacious in the eyes of the family and guests.
• Interior. It is worth paying attention to the overall design and interior of the apartment. For example, a wooden version of a built-in wardrobe with convex elements and pastel tones will fit in the classic interior more. Mirror versions of cabinets or swing cabinets with neutral tones (white, black) will perfectly fit into the minimalist style interior.
• Furniture color. Particular attention should be paid to the colors of the future cabinet. Experts recommend turning to darker colors in the hallway - they visually reduce furniture in size, making it concise and compact. Looks good options for cabinets with the texture of dark wood - it gives the appearance of the hallway more comfort and warmth.
• Prices and reviews. Do not forget about the cost of buying and installing certain models - this is also an important point. In addition, you need to pay attention to customer reviews of certain cabinets - this will give a person an idea of ​​what to expect in the future from a particular model.

• Wardrobe in a niche (hidden option). This is the most common and successful accommodation option. In this case, the entire cabinet is placed in free space without forming sharp and protruding corners and surfaces. Most often, it uses the built-in rather than the finished version, there are no walls, floor and ceiling, and the shelves and sections are attached directly to the rear wall of the niche. This option applies to niches with a depth of up to 60 cm. If we are talking about niches with a depth of more than 1 m, you can equip the built-in closet so that behind its doors there is free space for a standing person.

• Built along a wall with emphasis in a corner. In almost all modern Russian apartments, right after entering the apartment there is a free area, which many use for a built-in closet. In this case, a hybrid option is used - here the walls are only on the side of the front door. The advantage of this kind is that it does not take up extra space and does not prevent passage into the apartment or into rooms.

• Built sideways in the corner. This is a fairly popular option for placing a wardrobe in large apartments and spacious hallways. It visually takes up much more space than other varieties. In this case, a hybrid option is also used, where the walls are present at the cabinet, however, there may be no ceiling and floor. This option is not particularly popular because of the difficulty with controlling the doors at the corner junction.

• Built around the front door. Not a very popular, but very functional and compact type of cabinet for those who want to make the most of all the space in their apartment. This variety forms a kind of arched or U-shaped design around the front door. Clothes are stored in the side compartments, shoes in the lower compartments, and the upper ones serve as mezzanines.

• Built under the stairs. This option is used exclusively in private homes and is designed to maximize the use of free space. In this case, the dimensions and shapes of the cabinet completely repeat the angle and height of the stairs. Most often, it is the sliding options of shelves or cabinet with open shelves and rear wall (like a shelving) that are used.

See below for good ideas. placement of varieties of fitted wardrobes in the design of various hallways.

• Mirrored built-in closet in the hall fits perfectly into the interior of the corridor.

• The corner built-in wardrobe is in harmony with the design of the hallway.

• The interesting design of the radial built-in wardrobe will be remembered by guests for a long time.

• The built-in wardrobe under the stairs looks quite interesting and takes up a minimum of space in the hallway.

An overview of the built-in wardrobe for the hallway, see the video below.