Dream Closets

I'm yet to meet a single person male or female who would not like a walk-in closet/dressing room and I've met quiet a few who are absolutely in LOVE with the idea of having their own celebrity style walk-in closet thus I figured I'll write about dressing rooms and what you need in one to make it stand out and be ELLE Decor worthy.

So what's a dressing room for as oppose to say having a wardrobe or closet in your bedroom. A dressing room is a place where you go in to plan or put on an outfit as oppose to "storing clothes" which is what a closet or a wardrobe is for.

In a dressing room you are; storing clothes and accessories, displaying special items, getting your hair and makeup done, trying on different clothes/shoes, and finally emerging in an "outfit"

So what would you need in a dressing room for it to be both, efficient and awe worthy?

Just like a wardrobe or a closet; one of the main purposes of a dressing room is storing and displaying clothes. That job is performed by closets, shelves, hanging rods, drawers, etc...(which is basically what a wardrobes/closets fit-out company would do for you such as; American Wardrobe, Creative Wardrobe, IKEA and any of the other redundant shops in Doha,

The type and amount of storage depends on 3 main factors; the room area, the type of clothes you want to store/display, and the amount of clothes you want to store/display. Now whether you want to "store" or "display" your clothes that is also an additional factor.

While you might want to hide away all of your clothes in closed wardrobes and drawers

Or put a few special items on display

others might like to go all out and have open storage for everything that they own

And some might even go the extra mile to do a very extravagant display of something they cherish so much, wedding gown in a box frame ladies? or are you more of a "display it on a mannequin" kind of bride

Adrienne Maloof, former cast member of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills had her wedding gown displayed oh-so beautifully in a clear box frame

a gown put on display on a mannequin in a shop. This could very much be done in your own dressing room for an exclusive boutique sort of feel. 

or maybe it's jewelry, makeup, or bags and shoes that you like to keep out in a special display?

The choices of how to display these items are endless and they depend again on space, quantity, and type of items. It could be a jeweler stand, a counter with a clear top or clear boxes just like at jewelry boutiques, an open or glass front armoire, shelves, and just a corner in the dressing room, the last will make the piece look like it's a sculpture or a vase on display!

Now for the utilitarian makeup savvy artist the top vanity is a dream come true , but you can still get your beauty on (hair & makeup) at a fit for a Hollywood star vanity and get to store all of your makeup and hair products. Be it modern and more on the utilitarian side or fancy and old world glamorous, a vanity table, mirror, and chair are a must have in a good dressing room.

This leads us to the trying clothes on and getting ready role of the dressing room. Now what's also essential in a dressing room for getting ready is for it to be equipped with the following; seating, to sit and put shoes on or to wait while someone else is trying clothes on, a hanger/table to put whatever you want to wear on while your getting ready, a full size mirror, and adequate lighting.

Now with seating and the mirrors you can either make them statement pieces or make them blend in with the rest of the interiors and be a built in within the wardrobe set.

I absolutely love having hangers and counter tops or tables for laying out or hanging clothes out to wear them. It helps a lot too if you need to get something steamed.

Would you like a hotel bellboy sort of golden rail cart to hang your clothes out on for steaming? I wouldn't mind! will make you feel like you are staying at a hotel.

And last but not least is what I believe to be the most important thing in a dressing room, adequate lighting. You want your dressing room to be well lit with soft general lighting that is a mix of slightly warm light and daylight in order to be able to see the true colors of your clothing/make up yet still get the tone improvement effect of having the warmer lights. Steer clear from directional lighting and strong lights that cast harsh shadows because they will put a super model to shame (changing room meltdown flashback anyone?)

So whether you've got a small space to use as a dressing room

or a huge space

got a classic style

or a quirky one

There is always room for dressing rooms love!

Just remember:

Put your clothes away

But show off some

Vanity Fair

Sit

Get Ready

and Go!

What do you think? do you have a dressing room envy? or do you already have your dream closet fitted?

Wall Decal Finally Completed!

so after another Friday completely spent by, mainly my sister, and myself; measuring, sticking, cutting decals. The feature wall in baby Farida's nursery is finally done! Woohoo.

What do you think? We are loving it.

Baby Girl Nursery- Take 2, a project by me

So finally the furniture arrived, 10 days ago!, the crib is the Yale white crib from Mamas and Papas and the rest of the furniture is all IKEA. I was supposed to finish the wall behind the crib before the furniture arrived but things have been crazy around here, can you notice from how many times I said I will post pictures about the nursery and never got to it?

the pillows on the nursing couch and the cloud pillow in the crib are all purchases that I made on ETSY

the nursery walls are painted a light shade of grey except for the wall behind the crib which is supposed to be a feature patterned wall with peach and golden wall decals from Walls By MUR

I'm personally not into changing tables and baby bath stands, I'd rather get a dresser with a changing pad to go on top and a bath sponge.

A great way to upgrade any furniture like IKEA's is to replace it's hardware with nicer hardware. I replaced the white knobs with these mother of pearl brass knobs from Anthropologie which I had purchased originally for my bedside tables with a couple of extra ones which came in handy!

Finally last Friday I managed to in list the help of my sister and her friend to start on the feature wall behind my baby's crib. It took a very long time to stick these decals in place all perfectly aligned. We used a ladder, pencil, X-acto, masking tape, a straight edge, and a level and it's really an exhausting job. They did the majority of it really.

Here you can see the room starting to take shape

The golden triangles are actually metallic which add glamor to the nursery in a subdued way. I LOVE it and love the colour of the triangles and that they are not baby pink but a peachy pink colour.

so I will hopefully post again soon on finishing the feature wall with decals from Walls by Mur and some other updates in the nursery. Once the nursery is completed and I have my baby I will be sharing the rest of the apartment's design space by space and how we turned it around from absolute nothing-ness (I love inventing words) to the beautiful 3 bedroom small apartment that we absolutely love.