Sharps review part two: the wardrobes of dreams

I have never been very good at keeping my clothes tidy. As a teenager my bedroom was so obscenely messy that I once trod on my guitar and didn’t realise until a few days later.

Not any more.

No more puddles of clothes on the floor or stacks of washing needing a home. Oh no. Because I have THE WARDROBES OF DREAMS. (Otherwise known as my new built-in wardrobes from Sharps.)

I admit that I was nervous during the planning process. (Read about that bit here.) I’ve never had proper built in wardrobes before and I was worried that they might look a bit, I don’t know, tacky maybe? I’m not even sure that’s the right word, but hopefully you know what I mean. I think it was just that built in wardrobes felt like such a grown up thing to have – how could they be cool at the same time??

But OH MY GOODNESS they are SO cool. (Or my definition of cool at least.)

Here’s the space pre-fitting:

You have to empty the room and take the carpets up before your fitter arrives. They don’t fit wardrobes on top of the carpet because they need a firm, sturdy surface. The space like this looks pretty small, but here it is with the wardrobes:

For starters, I want to say how totally 100% impressed I was with the quality of the fitting. You almost don’t notice, because it’s so good that they look like they have always been there, but when you actually LOOK at how the fitter has shaped each individual edge to fit the walls and ceiling exactly, and then filled it all so neatly – it’s very impressive. He worked non-stop for an entire day and cleared everything up after himself. I really cannot say enough that’s positive about the fitting.

You can see from the picture what I mean – the ceiling is actually not straight, but the frame has been cut to perfectly fit it. Around the skirting boards as well, and in the corners, it’s just a dream. The wardrobes also come with a 12 year product guarantee, so you have peace of mind should anything go wrong.

I went sliding wardrobe doors to save space, and a mix of matt and gloss white glass. I wanted something that was going to be fairly neutral colour wise, and I didn’t want it to be full of mirrors or anything. I definitely do NOT need to see myself full on naked first thing in the morning. The strip of gloss glass is fairly reflective though, and I love that when you’re in bed you get a strip of the trees outside. That’s just about enough for me.

The doors and the drawers inside are soft close, which is a nice extra touch and means you’re not always have to slide the doors closed carefully. I can just get dressed, swoosh the door shut and saunter off in a sassy way.

Let’s have a look inside shall we?

Now obviously I couldn’t fill my brand new wardrobe with all my old mismatched plastic coat hangers, so I went to Homesense and treated myself to some new ones. They only cost me around £20 and were totally worth it.

The left hand side is the long hanging space, so this is where all my dresses are. You can get specific shoe storage but I decided just to keep shoes on the shelf under the dresses, as the space is more flexible then. I have a big shelf at the top, which is perfect for hiding Christmas presents, (don’t tell Belle), and a couple of drawers for pyjamas and jumpers.

The right hand side is even more exciting. On this side I have split level rails, so I can have tops on the top half and bottoms underneath.

For both skirts and dresses I have been EXTRA geeky and arranged them in order of length. I considered colour order, but as everything is crazy patterns I couldn’t really make that work. With length I figured that I could decided exactly how sassy I was feeling that day and then choose length accordingly.

‘Hmmm…’ I could think to myself, ‘I’m feeling a bit cheeky today, let’s go to the short end of the rail.’

See?

Genius.

The right hand side also has some smaller drawers for underwear and t-shirts, plus a super cool trouser rail that pulls out of the wardrobe. You could very easily have kept this are as another normal hanging rail and fitted the same amount of stuff on it, but this is FANCY and I like it.

My new built-in wardrobes aren’t just about being able to put my laundry away properly – it’s much more than that. It’s a chance to take stock of what you have and don’t have, throw away the things you don’t wear and identify gaps in your wardrobe. I’ve always known I was partial to a floral pattern, but having tops, skirts and trousers all lined up next to each other makes it obvious that I need to invest in a few plain things too.

Having the built in wardrobes, with all of my clothes just right there in front of me, has changed the way I dress too. Now when I wake up in the morning I don’t rummage through drawers, sighing heavily, churning things over, trying to find something that matches – it’s all THERE. I pick a top and a pick a bottom to match. Boom.

It’s a joy!

Because I had to empty the whole room, I decided that it was also the perfect opportunity to have a proper think about how I want my bedroom to look. I’ll have another post coming next week with a bit more of a bedroom makeover theme, so do come back and have a look then if you’d like more of a nose around my room.

If you’re considering built in wardrobes I have no hesitation at all in recommending Sharps. If you’d like to find out more, pop into a showroom or have a look on their website.

This project was a partnership with Sharps where my wardrobes were provided free of charge. All opinion my own.