Need help with drawers in small bedroom!

8 years ago

Hi everyone! So glad to have found this forum! So many of the home forums are all geared towards huge houses.

We live in a 1200 sq. ft. Gable front house. We had a fire in December that gutted most of the inside. Thankfully that allowed us to redesign a lot of the space to make it move livable. However, it didn't change the small bedrooms with 46" knee walls upstairs. In fact, in order to accommodate the HVAC chase from the basement we had to actually LOSE a 18" x 24" section of the corner of the room.

One of the nice additions was a second closet in the bedroom. However, this has presented us with a challenge. The second closet is where we once had a dresser. There is literally no where else in the room where a dresser could go without the room looking cramped. So we are in a situation where we have 2 decent reach in closets, but no drawers. The closets have double doors in the center and have a space to the side of each door. I would love to find a drawer system that would give us drawers in the closet without having to rebuild the whole thing (there is already a closet hanging rod across the entire thing and a shelf above.

Does anyone know of a good drawer system for closets that is not a whole system? Perhaps something that would fit in the spots to the side of each door?

Featured Answer

xarcady

8 years ago

Another idea--how much space do you have behind the kneewalls, under the eaves? In older houses, it was very common to build in a dresser, putting 3 or 4 drawers under the eaves, with just the drawer fronts showing in the room.

There might not be enough space for this option, but if there is, it would allow you to keep both closets and still have dresser drawers.

Here's a link to an example: under eave storage

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Comments (19)

desertsteph
8 years ago
got a pic? measurements? I don't know of a system right off...

but how about drawers from the floor up? to about where hanging clothes would stop?

is there room to put a shelf above the shelf that is already in there at the top? I did that in several closets. there was usable space up there.
bossyvossy
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago

maybe a handy man could build something to fit your closet. Another option is change the bed to one of those that has drawers underneath.
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jakabedy
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
Are you near an IKEA? I bought a piece of the Nordli storage line for inside my mother's closet. Her closet is a reach-in, as well, but probably slightly deeper than the average. The dresser (stack of four drawers) is up against the side wall on the right. She can stand in the closet and get into the drawers without the hanging clothes being in the way.

It's fairly heavy-duty stuff for IKEA.
oasisowner
8 years ago
Also check out the container store. The freestanding Elfa drawers fit nicely under hanging clothes or on their own and are on sale right now.

Elfa drawers and frames
desertsteph
8 years ago
mamag did that - build a dresser into the angle of the sloping wall.
stolenidentity
8 years ago
how about something like this....inexpensive and movable:
handmethathammer
8 years ago
Do you have a shelf in the closet that isn't being used? My son has no room for a dresser in his room, so I put his socks and undies in fabric cubes and keep them on his shelf. It is very convenient.
Shades_of_idaho
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
I built shelves down both ends of the closet in the recessed part. I did not remove the rod there just let it run by. Then I put my folded sweaters and pants that would have been in a dresser on the shelves.I also put underwear in containers on the top shelf. They worked great. I just built two ladder like pieces for each side and set the shelves on what look like the rungs. AND the beauty of this is if you decide you wanted to change this they just come right out of the closet with no damage. I made sure I cut the shelves to fit snug to hold the ladder sides against the walls. I also did this in an office at our last house and kept book work on the shelves as needed. Art supplies in my studio here. And in our hall closet here I store paint because it can not be stored in the shop that freezes in the winter.
OklaMoni
8 years ago
I have a small bedroom, and 4 windows, and three doors. Not much of a place to put a chest of drawers. Thus, I put a couple of TV cabinets back to back with a bit more extra storage between them under my mattress.

In my "guest room" I had a wall bed installed. Works great too.

Moni
Shades_of_idaho
8 years ago
Moni I would love a wall bed in our guest room. Great idea on the TV cabinets for the base of your bed. Our bed is an old iron one very high up. I have 9 suitcases all painted white stored under it for storage. The three up the center are rarely used items like Christmas stuff.
rmiriam
8 years ago
We have a small bedroom with a reach-in closet and needed drawers as well. We cut out space between the studs to either side of the closet doors and inset 15" wide IKEA tall cabinets inside. They fit perfectly, and use the space in the closet that we couldn't reach easily before. Each one has 6-7 drawers inside the cabinet, plus a couple of shelves above. I'm not home to send a picture, but will try to post one later if you're interested.
bpath
8 years ago
Another vote for elfa. Go ahead and take out the rod and shelf. You can reuse the shelf with the elfa. Then you can arrange shelving, hanging, and drawers however you like.

If you really do want to keep the rod and shelf, you can install elfa below it, and place the drawers where you want. Or, as mentioned above, the freestanding drawers can set on the floor below the clothes. They come in different widths.

tip: plan it out now, take it to the Container Store to have them flesh it out for you (or do it online) and WAIT until New Years to buy it when it goes on sale for 30% off.

and Shades-of-Idaho, lovin' the old suitcases all painted white. Looks great!
mchv
8 years ago
We purchased an ultimatebed.com bed frame for our small bedroom. It has really worked out well since there isn't room for any big dresser in the room.
Debra W
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
I'm re-doing my son's small bedroom while he is away. In order to free up space I am eliminating a couple of small cupboards in the room and instead installing a couple Ikea Billy bookcases in the closet. It will look similar to this when done:

I went to this website to create a closet that looks like what I want so I could visualize it: Easy Closet
Errant_gw
8 years ago
A million years ago, I bought these really great clear stacking/sliding boxes to fit into those spaces to the sides of the doors. This was for my itty bitty Cape Cod, half the square footage you have. That house doesn't have a single closet that isn't under a staircase or eave, and those things were a life saver! Let me see if I can still find them...
Errant_gw
8 years ago
This is the only picture I have. Not exactly drawers, but they were designed so that you could easily slide one out of the middle of the stack, retrieve your item, then slide it back in.

Well crud, now I can't post pictures again!
Errant_gw
8 years ago
sedona16
8 years ago
Errant_gw, I believe they go by the name "magic Drawers". They may be hard to find these days. http://www.qvc.com/Magic-Drawers-15-piece-Deluxe-Interlocking-Storage-System.product.V27775.html