What size closet for teenage girl

[MusicMum80s]

Hi we need to build in a wardrobe that will conceal an air conditioning unit in a new bedroom we are creating. It will eventually be for one of our daughters. Right now they are little (primary school age) but its a long term home so want to design a wardrobe that will be big enough for them as teenagers. The room is a good size 3.6m by 3.5m so we have space to make it up to 1.8m It has to be at least 1.2m so just figuring out what the ideal size is!

Same as for an adult… what would you want?

I would say slightly less than for an adult, as teenagers do not need outfits for weddings, work, interviews etc. These take up an unreasonable amount of wardrobe space!
But if you want to make the room flexible in the future, eg might your DD still be living with you as an adult, then just make it adult sized.

It wouldn't be as much as an adult. Adults as they aren't growing accumulate more clothes and she''ll be in school uniform most of the week. Right now, the kids have 5 sets of uniform for each season, school sports kit, 8 extra outfits for Spring / Summer or Autumn / Winter which includes special occasion outfits and then a few sets of sweats / leggings. I've found anymore close than this, and we'll have lots of things that haven't been worn at all by the end of the season when they've outgrown things.

And yet teenage girls tend to own a lot more clothes than say adult men in my experience. I don’t see why you’d limit it when she could be living with you well into her 20s anyway.

Teenagers do have jobs and go to weddings…

I assumed we were talking about an under 18 here, still at school. They might have an occasional wedding yes, but are unlikely to be in the stage of life where they have six weddings in a year and a whole host of occasion dresses. They are also unlikely to need separate interview clothes like suit jackets. They have interviews yes, but not for the kind of jobs you need to have entirely separate clothes for. Black trousers and smart shirt would do fine.

My teen has more clothes than me. I got her a pax in old home, that was a decent size and we are moving to a new build soon and planning to get another pax. Might have a go at boxing it in, plus a chest & dressing table. Just finished A levels, and will be a desk in spare room for when i’m working at home so not going to fit a desk in her room.

Because its more expensive and limits space for other things in the room so I only want to do what's necessary.

I have teen girls (well, just past teenage) and their triple PAX wardrobes from Ikea are literally BURSTING at the seams.

Yikes-- part of me wonders though if the more space you provide, the more they'll use. I think most people including adults only wear a very small part of the clothes in their closet.

Teenagers might not go to as many weddings (although that might depend on the family at her age) but won’t she have proms and things like that?

I would give her the same amount of space as an adult. It might be hard to imagine right now as you say she is little, but as a teenager, she might be more into clothes than she is now.

Personally I find we all need more drawers and less hanging space. Dd has a 1.6m wardrobe with drawers across the bottom. All sports kit, underwear, jeans, trackies, sweaters and T-shirts etc go in there. She doesn’t have that much stuff that needs hanging other than school shirts and a few dresses/ jackets.

Thanks, really helpful. I know whatever size we get, it will get filled up! I think we all only wear a small part of our closets though which feels even more wasteful when you'll grow things out if not worn still. Alas my husband agrees we need bigger not smaller so we are getting a triple wardrobe!!

I’d future proof it and make it the same size an adult would have. She may end up living with you well into adulthood, and if you ever sell then buyers will want proper size wardrobes

We tend to use more drawers than hangers. My DD's even had those material hanging pods as they needed more space for fold up items and shoes than hangers. They only had a few dresses, skirts, and blouses, all the rest goes in drawers and underbed drawers.