Depends on how how many clothes they have, and if they like to get dressed in the closet or out in the room. I don't really think you can generalize. Do what works for you.

Since I don't have the set-up you asked about, I'm probably not qualified to answer, but since I have previously thought about this, here goes anyway:

If I had a large master walk-in closet/dressing area (which I do, in my dreams) I would forgo the dresser and armoire in favor of a lounge chair or bookcases or a small sitting area or an small entertainment center (if you watch TV in the bedroom) or a vanity. Maybe I'd have a small chest for storage for lounge wear or pajamas or workout clothes. Since I'm dreaming, I'd add a small coffee bar too!

Bottom-line: I don't like my dresser/armoire and would favor a walk-in closet/dressing area in a heartbeat. If I had to choose between (A) closet-only or (C) both, I'd chose (A) closet-only. Unfortunately I'm stuck with option (B) dresser and armoire only.

I have my Great Grandma Adams's chester drawers. So I would not give that up.

I might put it in a different room, perhaps, or maybe it would store something other than sock, underwear, and shirts. Maybe it would store accessories, or lingerie, or something.

But I would be quite willing to give up all the other dressers I already have (or stash them in my attic, bcs I sure hope I'd have a big one, in case I moved someday and didn't want to buy new ones) in order to be able to have everything in a big master closets.

Or, I'd move the dressers and armoires into the master closet.

If only I had a choice to put all dressers and armoires into the master closet. The bedroom would be so much easier to keep neat and tidy. And the closet would also be organized.

I have two friends with the huge walk-in closets. They still use dressers. The closets are dark with only overhead lighting. Trying to find small items in shadows has proven to be difficult. A good chunk of the closets have ended up being storage for luggage, etc.

One house we considered buying had everything built into the large closets. The bedroom looked very strange to me with just a king sized bed and two night stands. The owners tried to fill the space with chairs and sitting areas, but the room just didn't look like a bedroom to me. More like a living room with a bed stuck in it.

The house next door to us had a very large addition for a deluxe closet, with all of the dressers built into the closet. The bedroom was still the traditional size for a 1960's house, so it felt comfortable with just the bed and end tables. No huge areas of space to be filled.

Gloria

Our new master bedroom is fairly small, with comfotable room for a bed and nightstands and probably one chair and a blanket chest or TV. All of our clothes are in the closet/dressing room. It was planned with excellent lighting, both natural and electric. I love not having a bedroom cluttered with stuff.

We're lucky enough to have the setup you describe - I was able to design my own home 14 years ago, and in the bedroom, we put in one door that leads to two walk-in closets fitted with shelves and drawers as well as hanging space and shoe racks. The closets lead to two separate master baths! It's a super arrangement for a couple who leave the house for work at the same time in the morning, so no fighting over the shower, vanity or cabinet space. We have plenty of light and room to get dressed, and, if one or the other of us is sleeping in that morning, we do dress in the dressing areas and/or bathrooms. If we're both awake, we use the bedroom as well.

That all being said, I have my triple dresser and my husband has his chest of drawers, mostly because we really like the furniture and how it looks in the room. (the room is big - about 26.5x 14.5') The surfaces come in very handy. I don't make much use of my drawers except for rarely-used stuff, but my husband uses his regularly.

Thanks for the feedback. We're planning a master suite addition and I'm trying to figure out how much space to allocate to the bedroom/closets/baths. My wife would love 2 master baths - but I don't think we can pull off the space & expense.

It sounds that in an idea situation there would be enough room in the master closet to hold everything and then dressers would be optional.

If you both shower and dress and leave for work at the same time, or even close to it, see if you can accommodate that int he bathroom. At the very least, have the toilet closed off.

(my DH will not allow anyone in the bathroom when he's using that particular facility. I can go in and brush my teeth while he's in the shower, but not if he's going potty. )

And it also sounds as though, if you have a big closet w/ room for all the stuff that would be in the dressers, that you can (and maybe should) plan for a not-overly-large bedroom.

I have a smaller walk in closet in my home. Everything I own is in my closet. I have all seasons of clothing, all shoes, under garments, purses, and sleepwear. I like it that way so that everything is contained and easy to see in one spot. Another good thing with this is I cannot buy too much or I will have nowhere to put it! If I buy a new white shirt, the old one has to go! It keeps me organized in that way as well.

lkangela, it's a joke.

if you say "chest of drawers" sort of fast, w/ a twangy accent, it sounds sort of like "chester drawers" (I even sometimes call it a "him" as though its name were Chester)

I am working on moving my closet to a small office space off our master. My DH will keep the w/i we shared. I won't have enough room for an armoire or dresser becuz I opted to rework a desk as a vanity. THe space has a large window and great natural light. Although the space is not done I've been using the desk area to store makeup, jewelry and some minor stationary/supplies. I've never had a sit down makeup area before and I find that I love it. I also like that it got all that stuff out of the bathroom where there was no good way to store it.
I'm more of a shelf person. The closet will have 2-3 banks of shelves for shoes, purses, sweaters, tshirts. I'd love to find a place for undies, bras and socks in my dressing area.
My dresser will continue to hold pjs, garden/work clothes, and sweatshirts/sweatpants
At least that's the plan. LOL.

In my MBR closet I use a 5-drawer wicker basket set that is held in white wood and is larger on the bottom and each basket gets narrower as you get to the top. Anyways, I use this for my undies, socks, etc.

I've been contemplating this same question. Our new house will have a very large walk in closet and the bedroom is small because we opted to have the large closet and large master bath w/ whirlpool tub. I was going to just have nightstands and a chair for reading. However, now that I think about it, I think we'll miss having a dresser or chest and this is why. My husband empties his pockets every night in a tray on the chest. I like to keep my lotions, perfumes, etc on the dresser. I think not having them will force us to change a routine that we are both very comforatable with. So I think I'll include a small dresser in the room to accomodate our needs. Hope this helps you make the right decision for you.

Marie26- where did you find your basket contraption, do you remember? I hoping to do something similar in my space. TIA.
Brutuses my DH has the empty pocket routine too. As he walks into the closet there is a cabinet about 20 inches deep topped with a shelf unit that is 12 inches deep. HE dumps everything there and has areas for business cards, notes, envelopes, coins, his watch, wallet and keys,etc. I like having it hidden from the bedroom. Also perhaps your large new masterbath will have space on the vanity for a tray of beautiful bottles? I know I can never really make up my mind about these things until I lived in the space.

I purchased my baskets at Hobby Lobby in Oklahoma when I was visiting my daughter. It took up quite a bit of space in the car but I brought it back with me to Minnesota (where I was living at the time). I tried to find a link with a picture of it but couldn't. It's a pyramid shape with the top drawer being the smallest drawer.

I have a MB with two walk in closets and a bath. We only have the bed, two night tables, a table and two reading chairs. No dressers. I like the look of it a lot.

All the clothes in the closet. I just moved into a place that has a 14' x 8' well-lit closet with a rudimentary wire shelf and rod system that I augmented with cloth bins and seagrass baskets. My entire wardrobe occupies half the closet. The cat thinks the other half is his closet. LOL
On one end the door leads to the laundry; on the other end the door leads to the master bath. My bedroom is 25' x 15'; so it could accommodate dressers, etc. But I chose to put only a bed and night stand at the end closest to the bath and use the other end for a study. The master suite is like my sanctuary.

My sister used to have a bedroom that would have felt crowded with a dresser, so she kept everything but bulky sweaters in her closet. She had baskets on shelves for undies, etc., and a very pretty small dresser in the hall for sweaters.

I realize this is an old post but wonder what people think of replacing traditional walk-in closets with built-in wardrobes? We have matching 68" x 64" walk-ins but they open to the lavatories, which is where we dress. My idea is to replace the closets with built-ins, eliminating the closet door side of the wall on each closet, and I can fit four 36" wide wardrobes on each side by using some additional space currently occupied by a dressing table and large linen closet. So which is better, wardrobes or walk-ins?

I don't think you can have too much closet space so I would go with whatever option gives you the most usable space.

That really has me thinking of when we remodel our master bath. Currently, it is made up of 3 rooms...the main area with a single sink, large vanity/makeup area and jacuzzi. There is a separate shower/toilet area. The last area is a 6x8 walk-in closet. I am strongly considering taking off the door to the closet and opening up that wall to reveal a California Closet style closet where everything is nice enough to be seen. There is a door between my master bath and bedroom, so I'm not sure I see any reason for another door to a closet, especially when the two doors conflict a bit.

Has anyone done this or seen this type of setup?

Replacing a walk-in closet with wardrobes around the perimter will give me more room to dress and if I fit the right amount of drawers / shelves / rods I will be using the wall space more efficiently. Aesthetically I prefer the wardrobe concept because you only see what you open, whereas the California Clost idea exposes all of your belongings at once. The exposed contents never look as nice in real life.

So, janecat, the wardrobe concept means that even your hanging clothing is behind doors? I'm not sure I need to have that much hidden but you do bring up good points.

We are in the process of doing built ins in our master closet right now and will eliminate my double dresser and his chest of drawers from the bedroom.
We had two different closet system companies come out and while knew it was expensive, it was way more than what I wanted to pay. I contacted a cabinet maker to make ours. While all the top shelves do not match up, (we have a 10 ft ceiling) and a few things were lost in translation (I did not intend to have a frame on the cabinets, which is ok for the most part except my 12" shoe shelves I cant get most shoe boxes in (next to ironing board). Oh well. It is out of Ash wood. All shelves are adjustable (except one over bench) and are made of MDF with ash veneer on outside edge.
The cost was right at half of what the closet companies wanted to charge for the white laminate. Granted, I am staining it myself, and have spent just at $100 for the cans of stain and clear water based semi-gloss top coat.
I went with a two color combo, which I was nervous about. The closet is not huge, and I was afraid it would get too dark in there if it were all stained. It measures 13' x 6.2'
I left the drawers and faces natural with a clear semi-gloss top coat (water based) and the insides stained with the same clear top coat.
Shelf edges are also natural. Not finished yet, but getting there.
Built ins are on the long walls and the short walls are double hang. The double hang on both ends is wall to wall. Clothes go behind the built ins, as do the belt and tie racks.

This is supposed to be long hang, but I love having a "bench" with the drawer underneath. Leaving as is for now, and may put a big mirror in the blank space.

My end of the closet with upper storage cabinets, two hutches, 9 drawers, shoe shelves and a top mount ironing board that swivels.

Husbands end of the closet. Hutch with 5 drawers and 7 ft cabinet with all adjustable shelves.

My hutch to the right I put in peg board 18" high (shelves will go on top) for jewelry. The top drawer has those stackable acrylic things for earrings and misc. I used that rubber-ish drawer liner so things dont slip around.

I used two long holder thingy's (not shown)and super glued the rubber drawer liner stuff to them so they hold multiple necklaces in place without slipping off, around, etc and getting tangled.

This should all work in theory but I have not put it to practical use yet. I could not wait to get everything out of the tupperware! LOL

We recently moved into our dream home. I made sure the master closet was extra big to accomodate everything.
Nevertheless, until we actually get all the built-in closets done, I will still rely on my dresser. I like them for pjs, undergarments, socks..items that I don't want to hang. I usually like to hang my suits, blouses, dresses etc up. Otherwise, the causal clothing like yoga pants, tank tops, jeans, I like them tuck away.

So, if I could get built-ins that include a island...I will no longer need my dresser/armoirs.