Best way of decorating around very large wardrobes?

steveandel

In our bedroom we have 4 very large freestanding (flat-pack) wardrobes which the previous owners must have constructed in the room. They are placed across the end of the room but leave a gap of a couple of inches between them and the wall at the side and about a foot from the top to the ceiling.

We want to decorate the room but they are too big to get out the bedroom door. It will be difficult decorating/carpeting around them due to the smallish gaps around them. So it appears we have a few options:

1) Try taking the wardrobes down and reassembling them after decorating and carpeting the room (could damage them if they have been glued together)

2) Leave them where they are (apart from to remove the old carpet from underneathe them and decorating behind them) and carpet around them

3) Attempt to 'convert' them into built in wardrobes which covered the width of the wall (not quite sure how this would work) and then decorate.

Anybody got any ideas/suggestions? Thanks :cool:

BlondeHeadOn

I'd be very tempted just to decorate round them, if you are planning on keeping them for the foreseeable future! I did that in my old house as I discovered that I couldn't move the freestanding MFI wardrobe/dressing table unit at all as it weighed a ton - after a lot of head scratching I decided just to paint around the unit and not worry too much about the tiny gap which I couldn't paint properly - it was so tiny you couldn't really see into it anyway.

This all looked fine, and the problem only occurred when I moved out and the wardrobe unit was dismanted (which took ages by the way, and it never went together again properly afterwards). There was a large expanse of faded and naff pink wall where the wardrobe used to be. I had kept some of the decorating paint so I slapped on a bit to cover the pink so it didn't look too bad for the new buyers of my property - I did the whole wall very quickly and it didn't look too bad at all.

I'm all for the easy life, if at all possible!

never_enough

Agree with previous poster, makes life easier for you too. I'd be inclined to leave them there when you move on too.

Little_John

I would decorate arround them also, but I wouldnt carpet arround them.
If you move or decide to move the room arround then yes you can just paint or redecorate the wall for very little but the cost of replaceing the carpet can be huge.

once empty wardrobes are not that heavy, when we decorated last I moved ours on my own. leaving them in 1 peice prevents them from twisting and breaking but can be heavy. remove the doors to make them lighter and easier to move as you have a better hold on them. move them away from the wall andmake sure the back is attached properly this keeps them from twisting also. if it isnt put some more panel pins in to secure it ne every 6" should be fine. while they are out you may as well paint and decorate the wall.

hardpressed

If you try to move the wardrobes you may find the joints loosen. Unless you intend to replace them soon I'd be inclined to work round them. Which is going to cost you more to replace, the carpet if at a later date you decide to change the wardrobes and have not carpeted underneath or the wardrobes if you attempt to move them now and they fall to pieces while your doing it?

yellowmonkey

I agree leave them where they are. If there is a gap between the back of the wardrobe and the wall use a radiator roller to roll behind the wardrobe.

ym

steveandel

Little_John wrote: »

I would decorate arround them also, but I wouldnt carpet arround them.
If you move or decide to move the room arround then yes you can just paint or redecorate the wall for very little but the cost of replaceing the carpet can be huge.

once empty wardrobes are not that heavy, when we decorated last I moved ours on my own. leaving them in 1 peice prevents them from twisting and breaking but can be heavy. remove the doors to make them lighter and easier to move as you have a better hold on them. move them away from the wall andmake sure the back is attached properly this keeps them from twisting also. if it isnt put some more panel pins in to secure it ne every 6" should be fine. while they are out you may as well paint and decorate the wall.

I think we will leave them where they are and carpet around them. I can see why this could be a problem at a later date if we were to replace/move the wardrobes etc but as I said before as they are they won't fit through the door. Most carpet businesses insist on a completely empty room now when laying carpet so there's no way we could carpet under them unless I was to attempt to lay the carpet myself which i'm not too sure about! :eek: