housethingsgoing
A frog and a duck living in a 4rm resale flat

How we created a hidden vanity in our 4RM flat without built-ins

37
  • Minimalist
  • HDB (Resale)
  • ~900 sqft
  • 3 br
  • Couple Living
  • Welcome to our vanity area! This looks very basic, but there was a whole lot of planning that went on behind it, starting from our main problem: The king-sized bed we insisted on having :) What happens when your flat is really small and you insist on having a king-sized bed AND a wardrobe in your master bedroom? That was us when we were planning our master bedroom layout - we only had barely 60cm of space left between our bed and the wardrobe, which meant almost no space for a vanity (or a really tiny vanity).
  • Check out the tiny gap left between the bed and the wardrobe :) We also had several other requirements - we wanted our wardrobe to have hinged doors (Duck had a bad experience with sliding wardrobe doors LOL) and also didn't have any budget left for custom bedroom carpentry. After lots of thinking and furniture catalogus browsing - here's the solution Duck came up with!
  • Instead of having a low bedside table, we opted for this BAGGEBO rack from IKEA, which is super slim (at only 25cm) so it gives us ample space to open our wardrobe doors. The top shelf of the rack serves as a "vanity" of sorts where we have our hairdryer and some essentials (e.g. everyday skincare and a little trinket dish for hair ties and bobby pins). The second shelf matches the bed level so it became Duck's bedside table with all her chargers and stuff - more on that in our upcoming master bedroom post! Fun fact: Keeping our hairdryer at a higher level means that Duck can sit on the bed and turn the stand so she can dry her hair hands-free! It's the same concept as the hairdryer stands on Taobao :) The BAGGEBO rack also convenient happens to be metal, so we attached a magnetic hook at the side for scrunchies too :) But you might be wondering... where's the rest of our stuff?! Are we truly THAT minimalist?
  • We wish we didn't have any more stuff... but the truth is, it's all hidden in the wardrobe :) We installed a mirror with a removable light on the inside of our wardrobe door and dedicated a section of the wardrobe to containing all our other beauty/skincare stuff. The lamp is great not just because it has adjustable brightness levels, but is also really helpful if one of us is coming home/going out at night and doesn't want to turn on the bedroom lights while getting our clothes. There clearly wasn't enough space, so Duck added an additional shelf inside (it's actually a shelf for kitchen pots) to raise up her makeup and skincare to a more comfortable height, while creating space at the bottom to store other stuff. The reason why the shelf fits so perfectly (it satisfies my OCD!) is because the shelf is expandable LOL so we bought one slightly smaller than the depth of the wardrobe and adjusted it to match the wardrobe exactly :) There's also this random hook (originally meant to be for drying shoes LOL) that we hung from the wardrobe clothes rack for caps and necklaces.
  • Here's a closer look at what we have! The top shelf contains mainly daily/frequently used makeup and skincare, while the bottom level contains jewellery, refills and also random things that everyone has (like... spectacle boxes and random pouches you think you will never need but scramble to find one day). It's also a great place to store our Slurpy Bear dehumidifier without it being too obvious!
  • And this is how the vanity looks like on a whole! The concept is modelled after a traditional vanity (i.e. mirror with light in the middle, hairdryer on the left, jewellery/makeup/skincare on the right) - just that there is no chair. Another fun fact: Duck used to have a proper vanity in her old bedroom but she has NEVER used the chair (it's literally still wrapped in plastic) so she decided to do away with the chair this time. Our vanity mirror also serves as our full length check-your-OOTD mirror so we don't feel the need to get another mirror for the time being. The stuff inside the wardrobe is not the neatest TBH - Duck doesn't claim to be the neatest or most well-organised person around (*nervous laugher*) but she does her part by keeping all the mess hidden :) Pro-tip: If you're also looking to mount a mirror inside your wardrobe like us, get a soft acrylic mirror (just search on Shopee/Taobao/online) - it's a lot lighter (less chance of falling off) and also bending so it doesn't shatter like a normal mirror). The "resolution" of the reflection is not as sharp as a glass mirror but it doesn't really make a huge difference (unless you really wanna use it to inspect the pores on your face, then maybe this wouldn't work hahaha) That's all for our vanity tour! It's not the most conventional vanity area, but it's been serving us well so far :)
  • 1 February
Report Post
2
My Cart
Close
Your cart is empty