Juliette & Victor: The tailor-made dressing room

Wood Fashion is a Belgian company, specialized in custom furniture, present for almost 20 years in Waterloo. In their 600 m2 showroom, interior designers and designers imagine and develop elegant and functional design projects, personalized and exclusive but also timeless. Wood Fashion offers kitchens, dressing rooms, bathrooms and bookcases.  Their teams travel throughout Belgium, France and Europe.

Tempted by a dressing room project?

Here is some information and advice from Laurent Lechat, founder and manager of Woodfashion, before embarking on the adventure:

What should we think about?

It is obviously necessary to start by taking exact measurements of the intended location: there is usually 60 cm of outside depth, and minimum 30 cm for T-shirt shelves and 40cm for sweaters. Then, you have to think about everything you will want and have to put away, such as accessories and other small objects, what types of clothes, in what quantities etc.

Can a dressing room be adapted to all configurations: soupente ceiling, round wall, etc.?

Yes, absolutely, and the existence of a soupente is also one of the main reasons that push our customers to opt for a tailor-made dressing room. For a rounded wall, there is no problem either, then we usually create furniture "angled", but it must be borne in mind that this type of dressing room will waste space, that it is better not to provide doors in this case, and that we then opt for tailor-made in order to optimize the available space.

How much does it cost?

Obviously, in case of soupente and rounding, it will cost a little more. Then, prices are extremely variable depending on the options chosen, and start around 4000 euros for a standard dressing room of 3 meters by 2.5 meters, and up to 30,000 euros depending on the complexity, ceiling height, length, materials, and rounded and soupent constraints. Drawers also increase the cost a bit.

What materials are in vogue?

If the materials used have diversified in recent years (glass, mirrors, curtains, leather effect ...), wood remains a safe bet:
"We offer pine as much as more noble and expensive species such as maple or oak. More unprecedented, we have already used rosewood too, but it is expensive the dressing room! The wooden parts are combined with MDF parts painted with a special paint, more resistant and solid because it hardens more than most paints.

Our particularity is not to use laminate or melamine, either indoors or outdoors. It is also possible to have a real oak exterior and paint the interior, and the choice of colors is endless. Finally, oak can also be brushed and covered with a matte varnish, for a raw and untreated effect very trendy, in the Scandinavian style." On the door side, Woodfashion offers different species of wood or MDF, but also braced windows or mirrors with wood frame.

Obviously, all the woods today come from sustainably managed forests, mainly from Germany and Poland, and our paints are water-based and comply with current standards. On the other hand, current ecological paints do not allow sufficient resistance to our eyes, so we do not use them. Our other particularity is not to provide adjustable cleats, but old-fashioned racks, which is quite unusual and more aesthetic. Finally, in response to the wishes of our customers, alongside the more classic models, we are beginning to turn to more pure and contemporary forms.

Is the structure scalable?

It is always possible to modulate and evolve the dressing room over time, but it must be specified in advance to provide this flexibility, especially at the level of baseboard connections. In addition, as we really adapt to the space, from floor to ceiling, and do not simply "put down" the dressing room, this can thwart some subsequent developments in case of atypical configuration of the place.

Is a men's wardrobe considered differently from a women's wardrobe?

Yes, because dressing rooms are increasingly accessorized, with specific compartments for belts and ties on the men's side, while more drawers and compartments on the women's side are generally provided for jewelry, scarves and underwear, not to mention the shoes. The dressing room of these remains a little more voluminous than that of their husbands, but I have the impression that the latter are more in demand than before for a real storage space adapted to their needs. In terms of the volume needed, providing more wardrobes does not necessarily take up more space for men, because pants and suit jackets can hang on the same hanger, but for ladies, you have to think about more things, and a wardrobe adapted to long dresses obviously takes up more space.

Doesn't an open dressing room gather too much dust?

It's very personal. Personally, I prefer with doors,which protect not only from light and dust but also from moths! On the other hand, models without a door are more suitable for small spaces, because even a sliding door takes up more space and requires a greater depth, 70 cm instead of 60 cm.

What are the deadlines?
From the moment you have chosen the model, aesthetics and measurements, it takes 6 to 8 weeks. We take care of the design, placement and painting work in-house, as well as the finishes on site, where we usually fine-tune the finishes, even if the dressing room is already painted for the first time in the workshop.

And what about lighting and other "gadgets"?

LED lighting is now widespread and accessible, with or without automatic detection. There is also a democratization of the concept of dressing room, with a very wide range and large differences in price, but also quality and finishes. As for the concept of connected dressing, consisting for example of scanning all your clothes and accessories to obtain proposals for outfits, this remains anecdotal, even if we may use it commonly one day!

Article Source: http://www.jvmagazine.be/nos-adresses/shopping/mobilier/3647-wood-fashion