I hate the crappy alcove closet

[INeedToBuyaZoo]

You know the ones you typically find in ex council houses, with the useless space. It has a shelf which I bung a load of crap on and then one hanging rail and it makes me irrationally made. It's nearly 1am and I am sat staring at the bad discoloured oil painted doors that barely close due to the many many layers of oil paint.

Should I rip the doors off, the frame, the shelf, the rail. Plaster it and stick. Wardrobe in the gap?

Just take the doors off and maybe stick a chest of drawers inside.

Do nothing

I hate it, such a waste of space!

Oh I have one of these
I'd never seen one before this house. Although I don't think mine is ex council house
I actually quite like it. I think it's proving quite useful

Please ignore the mess, I'm mid throw things out and pretend I'm not a hoarder.

@purpleme12

Oh I have one of these I'd never seen one before this house. Although I don't think mine is ex council house I actually quite like it. I think it's proving quite useful

It's useful for me to hide things in but I don't find it very practical, the doors don't shut properly and when I manage to get the doors to shut the corresponding ones above or below pop open. It's also wider than the doors, but the extra width isn't the same depth as the middle part. I'm desperate for good storage space and this cupboard taunts me with its impractical solution and crumbling plaster!

I wonder if this is a wardrobe in the alcove beside a chimneybreast. Very common in older houses.

They are only about 300mm deep so you have to hang things facing out, rather than a rail running along, but are fine for shelves and drawers. You can get a pull-down spring-balanced rail (also seen in aircraft) to maximise hanging space.

You can fit different shelves and drawers if you want, and change the doors according to your whim. No need to have shabby old ones.

They are useful for blocking noise from the people on the other side of the wall, provided the doors go all the way from floor to ceiling.

Ah yours is a bit different to mine
Mine's just like a cupboard in the middle of the wall.
Yours is way bigger!

@PigletJohn

I wonder if this is a wardrobe in the alcove beside a chimneybreast. Very common in older houses.

They are only about 300mm deep so you have to hang things facing out, rather than a rail running along, but are fine for shelves and drawers. You can get a pull-down spring-balanced rail (also seen in aircraft) to maximise hanging space.

You can fit different shelves and drawers if you want, and change the doors according to your whim. No need to have shabby old ones.

They are useful for blocking noise from the people on the other side of the wall, provided the doors go all the way from floor to ceiling.

Yes it is next to the chimney breast, and in fact right at the back it is wider, nipping into the chimney breasts space. The chimney breast is blocked up entirely downstairs but it's definitely real as it runs up through the loft.

It runs floor to ceiling, someone suggested building a frame inside to accommodate the inwards for IKEA pax wardrobes. I'm not sure I could put new doors on as even the hinges have been painted. I'd have to replace the whole frame I think

"I'd have to replace the whole frame I think"

A simple carpentry job.

The sort of places that make kitchen doors often make wardrobe doors too, the construction is similar. In your case you don't need the carcase, only the doors and shelves. The doors would preferably be ordered to fit the actual size of the alcove (allowing for the frame) without needing much, if any, filler pieces.

We had this problem.
Best thing we ever did was get a handy man in and he cheaply built frame of a bed into it. It freed up so much space in the room.

I've just had three of these built in . Much deeper though, so they take rails along the width. They are fab - sooo much more storage space than wardrobes.

We have one of these in the 2nd bedroom in our 1930s house, it was put in when the house was built. It's the cupboard where I put all those things that you keep but never seem to need, I feel it's too old to put clothes in but it was probably built for clothes as it has fixed pegs in it. Its quite shallow. When DS had the room we still used it for all our old crap as he had a normal wardrobe.