A walk-in closet (North American) or walk-in wardrobe (UK) or dressing room [1] [2] is typically a large closet, wardrobe or room that is primarily intended for storing clothes, footwear etc., and being used as a changing room. [3] As the name suggests, walk-in closets are closets sufficiently big as to allow one to walk into them to browse through the items. It is often a small room with wall-mounted cabinet, shelf and drawers, and these can either be with or without doors (for example sliding doors). Walk-in closets often do not have doors in front of shelves, which can give a better overview of the clothes, [4] but also leads to more dust. [5] When the walk-in closet is large enough for dressing and undressing, the wardrobe is often also equipped with one or more mirrors. The room should also have good lighting, and a bench or chair can be handy. [5] A dressing table is sometimes also found in the walk-in closet, and such dual use can relieve congestion around other rooms such as bathrooms.
One advantage of a walk-in closet is that it makes it possible to collect most clothes in one room, which can relieve space in the other rooms in the house. Conversely, however, an extra room would often be needed for the walk-in closet. [6] Walk-in closets are generally thought of as being a luxury feature seen in wealthier homes.
Ancient Roman soldiers were among the first developers of the modern-day walk-in closet when they invented the armarium, a wooden box for the use of transporting weapons and armour to every military camp.
The first walk-in closet was developed in the Kingdom of France in the storing of weapons and art techniques. In the 18th century, pieces became the common way to store clothing, along with shelves and drawers, which usually featured a hanging section for cloaks and other long garments.
For the first time, in the 1870s, the hanging rod was incorporated in the walk-in closet. The Dakota, a luxurious apartment in New York City, broke ground in 1880, when it featured some of the United States' first reach-in closets specifically designed for clothes.
In the 1950s, the walk-in closet gained popularity in the middle and lower class houses, particularly in suburban residential areas.
A closet is an enclosed space, with a door, used for storage, particularly that of clothes. Fitted closets are built into the walls of the house so that they take up no apparent space in the room. Closets are often built under stairs, thereby using awkward space that would otherwise go unused.
A stairwell or stair room is a room in a building where a stair is located, and is used to connect walkways between floors so that one can move in height. Collectively, a set of stairs and a stairwell is referred to as a staircase or stairway. In buildings with several housing units, a stairway can be a necessary common area for getting to and from apartments.
A bedroom or bedchamber is a room situated within a residential or accommodation unit characterized by its usage for sleeping. A typical western bedroom contains as bedroom furniture one or two beds, a clothes closet, and bedside table and dressing table, both of which usually contain drawers. Except in bungalows, ranch style homes, ground floor apartments, or one-storey motels, bedrooms are usually on one of the floors of a dwelling that is above ground level. Beds range from a crib for an infant; a single or twin bed for a toddler, child, teenager or single adult; to bigger sizes like a full, double, queen, king or California king). Beds and bedrooms are often devised to create barriers to insects and vermin, especially mosquitoes, and to dampen or contain light or noise to aid sleep and privacy.
Garderobe is a historic term for a room in a medieval castle. The Oxford English Dictionary gives as its first meaning a store-room for valuables, but also acknowledges "by extension, a private room, a bed-chamber; also a privy".
A commode is any of many pieces of furniture. The Oxford English Dictionary has multiple meanings of "commode". The first relevant definition reads: "A piece of furniture with drawers and shelves; in the bedroom, a sort of elaborate chest of drawers ; in the drawing room, a large kind of chiffonier." The drawing room is itself a term for a formal reception room, and a chiffonier is, in this sense, a small sideboard dating from the early 19th century.
A changing room, locker room, or changeroom is a room or area designated for changing one's clothes. Changing-rooms are provided in a semi-public situation to enable people to change clothes with varying degrees of privacy.
A chest of drawers, also called a dresser or a bureau, is a type of cabinet that has multiple parallel, horizontal drawers generally stacked one above another.
A cupboard is a piece of furniture for enclosing dishware or grocery items that are stored in a home. The term is sometimes also used for any form of cabinet or enclosed bookcase. It gradually evolved from its original meaning: an open-shelved side table for displaying dishware, more specifically plates, cups and saucers.
A chifforobe, also chiffarobe or chifferobe, is a closet-like piece of furniture that combines a long space for hanging clothes with a chest of drawers. Typically the wardrobe section runs down one side of the piece, while the drawers occupy the other side. It may have two enclosing doors or have the drawer fronts exposed and a separate door for the hanging space.
A technical room or equipment room is a room where technical equipment has been installed, for example for controlling a building's climate, electricity, water and wastewater. The equipment can include electric panels, central heating, heat network, machinery for ventilation systems, air conditioning, various types of pumps and boilers, as well as telecommunications equipment. It can serve one or more housing units or buildings.
A wardrobe, also called armoire or almirah, is a standing closet used for storing clothes. The earliest wardrobe was a chest, and it was not until some degree of luxury was attained in regal palaces and the castles of powerful nobles that separate accommodation was provided for the apparel of the great. The name of wardrobe was then given to a room in which the wall-space was filled with closets and lockers, the drawer being a comparatively modern invention. From these cupboards and lockers the modern wardrobe, with its hanging spaces, sliding shelves and drawers, evolved slowly.
In a building or a ship, a room is any enclosed space within a number of walls to which entry is possible only via a door or other dividing structure. The entrance connects it to either a passageway, another room, or the outdoors. The space is typically large enough for several people to move about. The size, fixtures, furnishings, and sometimes placement of the room within the building or ship support the activity to be conducted in it.
A locker is a small, usually narrow storage compartment. They are commonly found in dedicated cabinets, very often in large numbers, in various public places such as locker rooms, workplaces, schools, transport hubs and the like. They vary in size, purpose, construction, and security.
The Suntop Homes, also known under the early name of The Ardmore Experiment, were quadruple residences located in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, and based largely upon the 1935 conceptual Broadacre City model of the minimum houses. The design was commissioned by Otto Tod Mallery of the Tod Company in 1938 in an attempt to set a new standard for the entry-level housing market in the United States and to increase single-family dwelling density in the suburbs. In cooperation with Frank Lloyd Wright, the Tod Company secured a patent for the unique design, intending to sell development rights for Suntops across the country.
The Sonny & Cher dolls were a collection of 12-¼ inch high celebrity doll likenesses of pop rock duo Sonny & Cher. The line was released by Mego Corporation in 1976. The release of these fashion dolls coincided with the popularity of The Sonny & Cher Show prime time variety TV show.
A Welsh dresser, sometimes known as a kitchen dresser, pewter cupboard or china hutch, is a piece of wooden furniture consisting of drawers and cupboards in the lower part, with shelves and perhaps a sideboard on top. Traditionally, it is a utilitarian piece of furniture used to store and display crockery, silverware and pewter-ware, but is also used to display general ornaments.
A hidden compartment or secret compartment is a compartment whose existence or access is not obvious at first glance, and can be used as a hiding place for objects or sometimes even for people.
A cabinet is a case or cupboard with shelves or drawers for storing or displaying items. Some cabinets are stand alone while others are built in to a wall or are attached to it like a medicine cabinet. Cabinets are typically made of wood, coated steel, or synthetic materials. Commercial grade cabinets usually have a melamine-particleboard substrate and are covered in a high-pressure decorative laminate commonly referred to as Wilsonart or Formica.
Overhead storage can refer to shelves, cabinets, hooks, lift tables or track systems mounted at height, and can be a form of area-saving storage by moving storage up from the floor and utilizing the volume at height.
A drying room is a room intended for drying objects. It can act as a replacement or complement for drying cabinets, tumble-dryers, and outdoor drying. Compared to outdoor drying, a drying room means one usually does not have to consider the weather forecast in case of rain.