How easy is it to remove part of a plasterboard wall?

[mumat39]

Hello.
We have 2 ridiculously impractical wardrobes built into a plasterboard wall in our bedroom. There is a hanging rail in each and a shelf which has good height but the doors are too short to make that space useful. The plasterboard wall goes to ceiling height and has ornate coving that matches the rest of the room.
In between the two wardrobes there is about 50cm of plasterboard wall which means there is space behind which is not being used.

I'm wondering how easy it would be to cut a whole into the plaster board to slot in some IKEA pax wardrobes. We could fit 5 of the 50cm wide ones into the space.

What would I need to consider?
How could I ensure we get a neat hole?
How would I fill in the gaps between the new wardrobes an the wall ?
Would I have to fit the wardrobes so that the doors are flush to the old wall or could they jut out slightly?
Or, is this a really bad idea?

Many thanks in advance for any help or advice. :)

[mumat39]

Anyone?

[PigletJohn]

What is behind this wall? Roof space?

How old is the house?

[mumat39]

Hey PigletJohn, thanks for replying.

The plaster board wall is what has been used to build in the wardrobes. The back of the wardrobe is a solid wall. This plasterboard wall doesn't support anything.

The house is about 11 years old. Does that make a difference?

Thanks again :)

[PigletJohn]

if it's 11 years old there probably isn't a chimney in that non-wardrobe space, for example, though there might be pipes.

When you say you have wardrobes built into a plasterboard wall do you mean they are built against a structural wall, and there is a filler between them for no apparent reason? Maybe make a hole in it, through the side of a wardrobe, and look in with a torch. Perhaps the builders walled someone up in there. Or if you live in a flat it might be a service duct. Have a look in the room below and above for clues.

[AMumInScotland]

It seems a bit unlikely that the builders would have walled that space off if it was available - surely they would just have put wardrobe doors all along? Do what PigletJohn suggests and make a little hole though the side so you can look in and see if it is really a space at all. You could start with a small screwdriver and just poke it in then use a larger one to make the hole bigger.

[mumat39]

Thank you both for your help.
Ok, I don't think I explained it very well.

We live in a terraced house and the bedroom is a rectangle shape and the full width of the house. At one end there these 2 wardrobes. The doors to the wardrobes are hung onto a plasterboard partition wall , which is approximately the depth of a regular wardrobe away from the main wall. In the wardrobe there is a shelf with a light on it and a hanging rail and that's all. If I get in the wardrobe to play hide and seek I can see that there aren't any pipes or anything else. The electrical supply to the light is one issue. The other is that at the top of the plasterboard partition wall, the ornate coving that goes around the room is also on that wall.

I hope you're still with me...

What I would like to do is to get some cheap wardrobes from ikea and slot them into the space between the main wall and the plasterboard wall after removing the hanging rail, shelf and doors from what's there at the moment. The ikea wardrobes are taller and wider that the holes that would be left when the existing doors are removed, so could I make those bigger so that the new wardrobes would slot in?

If that sounds ok, then what would I need to do/use to neaten up the edges where we have cut back the plasterboard ?

We would like to keep the coving intact to keep things simple.

I hope this makes sense and if you've read this far then thank you so much!

[mumat39]

I think I understand what you both mean. I'll investigate with a screwdriver.

Thanks again. :)