So you have two issues: the shut-off valves need to be accessible in case you have to shut of water to the bathroom to do repairs, have a leak, etc. That's what's in the access panel in the corner of the room that we're trying to find another place for... The shower valves are behind the handles ("trim"), behind the tile, inside the shower wall. Since you're considering doing away with the access you currently have and creating a finished, tiled wall on that wall, you want to be sure that all the plumbing in there is in top notch shape and won't need replacing soon. In a situation where there's just drywall on the other side of the tiled wall, it's not a big deal to cut out the drywall, replace the valves, replace the drywall, finish and repaint. Doing the same thing on a tiled wall is a lot harder and more expensive. You just need to think about how you'd handle that scenario in the future (for your new shower plumbing) and if I were you, and you have the budget, I'd go ahead and replace the valves in the old shower, from the back of the wall while you're reno-ing the new bathroom. (Although I have only done this from the front/tiled side, I am pretty sure it can be done from the back side without damaging the tile) Then you won't need to remove the old bath's tile at all. Your old bathroom probably has the sort of showerhead/handle/faucet/valve that comes all together as a kit... but in your new shower you're likely to be buying seperate valves & trim. It's kinda confusing, depending on what you're adding (just a showerhead and one control? Or, also a handshower or body jets?) Keep in mind when you start shopping for these parts that if you do it a la carte from Kohler, Grohe, etc, you need to get a valve and trim (that's the guts and the shiny handle) for each component. I was dismayed at first because I found the picture of the handle I wanted on an online plumbing store and thought to myself, well, that's not too expensive!... it was like $100... and then realized that was the TRIM ONLY and I still needed the valve which was another $200!

Realize this discussion is a bit old but we are in the process of putting together an Ikea Pax wardrobe. We selected this mainly because we really liked the cool sliding doors with aluminum frames and pale green frosted glass. Fortunately our GC's crew assembled that for us--I would NOT have wanted to attempt it. Unfortunately we chose the white laminate cabinets which have the basic cheapo look of much of Ikea's lower end furniture. The "birch" (although also laminate) would have looked much nicer, especially when used with the birch innards but our architect talked us out of that as the "birch" I originally wanted would clash with the other wood details in the bedroom (!!!). The painful part is that the price would have been exactly the same. One other note: it's a bit of a pain putting together and installing the interior fittings (which we're doing ourselves) but I think it will be worth it once finished, and for the most part the cabinet is hidden when the doors are closed.

73 shirts??!!! WOW! I'm pretty sure my husband and I don't have 73 of anything combined! ;) I do try to purge a minimum of twice a year, and I do rotate hanging clothes into the black hole (well put!) out-of-season. I do like the shelf idea that ShadesOfIdaho posted to my flickr page, though. Maybe I can do shelves on the bottom and hanging clothes over the top? I'm not hanging any ball gowns that require full-height hanging space. It's certainly not the worst house-related problem to have, that's for sure. But it is just odd that they built them this way in every single bedroom. Black Hole or not, the relatively generous closets are the main reason we are still able to live in our small house (no attic, no basement, no garage).

This is the space I have so I'm just trying to make the best of it and I know there is room for improvement over what I have now. It's really more of a reach in with a pivot to the right or left closet instead of a walk in. I was hoping not having all the bulky units and the more shallow shelves with boaxel would help.