You would think a closet is a pretty simple affair. It’s an empty box with doors, basically.
In our case, the bedroom closet is also the divider between that room and the doma. It is currently a completely blank slate. Right now this space is a void – no supports, nothing in the way. It will be built out from scratch. Anything goes!
Way back in March 2022 when we were figuring out the location of stairs, Bruce and I creatively envisioned the bedroom closet. It was a wonderful design – a cross between furniture and a wall. It had drawers that opened to both sides, a coat closet with dual access and my favorite part, a window seat in the bedroom creating a place to sit to put on socks (or for cats to nap) and allowing light pass into the bedroom from the south-facing doma. Great idea! So cool.
But it’s too much now.
The interior window puts yet another element into a visually busy space. The doma already has four exterior windows, the front door, the cat door, a broad step leading into the house, three interior sliding doors, the hand-tiled floor, a vaulted ceiling and it will also have furniture like a coat rack, a bench and perhaps a cafe table. Maybe my rocking chair.
So I have reluctantly concluded that the window seat in the bedroom has to go. I will use mirrors on the closet doors to reflect light in the bedroom. That will work well enough.
And if the window seat is going, the bedroom closet can be a big box with sliding or bifold doors and another space above for additional storage. Or it can be an alcove that we fill with wardrobes from IKEA or Dinos or wherever.
Either way, the doma side will be a plain wall. This is where I will hang the Shikoku ranma and some pieces of kumiko woodwork I have received. It will be a beautiful and welcoming display to everyone entering the house.
