Closeted desire

Wardrobe space has never really been an issue for me. Well, that is until I moved to London. In my previous apartment I had a gloriously big double wardrobe with plenty of space and huge overhead shelves as well as a separate hanging rack for my ongoing designing projects and a tall set of drawers for jumpers and knickers e.t.c.

Now I find myself in a very cute, but also very much smaller apartment. And like everything space-wise in London, my wardrobe space is currently at a premium. I only arrived with two suitcases, and I certainly haven't been shopping to my full potential since arriving, yet my wardrobe is literally bursting at the seams. I've made an assessment and believe that the issue is two-fold:

(1) For the first time since co-habiting with my (very lovely) boyfriend we are forced to share not only a wardrobe, but also a set of drawers. And he has plenty of clothes - especially suits, ties and shirts, so we are having to be even-stevens about the wardrobe space. Despite my best efforts at sharing, my clothes have already started to encroach on his space.

(2) I have a lot of items that need hanging - dresses, coats, skirts. I thought I was so clever rolling all this little things into my suitcase, packing them in super tightly and paying scant attention to baggage weight limits. Now I'm forced to admit that despite having very few winter clothes with me, I really do have more than enough summer clothes to last out the season and need to put off further purchases until there is more space to store things.

Unfortunately, the close confines these garments are currently residing in mean that every time I want to wear something I have to re-iron it. Clearly the situation is not working for me.

The solution is clear. Obviously I need another wardrobe. Thankfully, the bedroom can probably accommodate a closet with some (hopefully minimal) juggling of furniture.

So I am currently researching some options for a new wardrobe space. While my options will probably be limited to Ikea (since we are renting and all), during my research I noticed New York magazine has done a great series on New Yorker's wardrobes.

{photo from www.nymag.com}

I absolutely fell in love with Anna Sui's "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" closet which is in fact a room with a closet placed in front of it. The back of the closet has been removed to create a door way through to the walk in space, so fantastic!

{other photos above from www.ikea.com}