What Is A Stairs Bulkhead?

The stairs bulkhead is something we have to deal with on a regular basis and building a wardrobe over a stairs bulkhead is becoming a regular occurrence for us. What is a stairs bulkhead you might be asking? Well it is the part of the stairs that protrude into the room above. Usually a bedroom. The result of this protrusion is to markedly reduce the available floor space in the bedroom. It will then often restrict the amount of and placement of the bedroom furniture. Not an ideal scenario.

One fix for this problem is to build a wardrobe over a stairs bulkhead in the bedroom. This makes the best use of the space and also hides the ugly stairs bulkhead from view. If you look at the two images you can see the stairs bulkhead in this particular example.

A Brief History Of The Wardrobe!

So, Real Room Designs was tasked with finding a solution to the problems of storing clothes efficiently by providing hanging spaces with built in shelves and drawers – a wardrobe!

The history behind the modern day wardrobe is that it is a form of standing closet or some people may describe it as a type hanging cupboard to literally retain the king’s robes.

The word we now understand to be a wardrobe first became commonly used in the English language during the 14th century. It has its origins in ancient French language words “warderobe, wardereube and garderobe”. The “warder” bit meant “to keep, to guard” and “robe” obviously is associated with what we now know as “garments or clothing”.

The history lesson over, let’s get back to the task in hand!

A Tricky L-Shape Wardrobe Over A Stairs Bulkhead

This job however was a little bit different than our usual solution to this tricky problem of building a wardrobe over a stairs bulkhead. Mr and Mrs M wanted to use this space in the bedroom to fit a round the corner L-shaped wardrobe alongside a double wardrobe to maximise the full use of the alcove.

Firstly, we started by building the wardrobe carcasses. However, we had to measure up the L-shape wardrobe for the stairs bulkhead and cut out a small triangular section to be able to slide the L-shape wardrobe straight in over the stairs bulkhead and hide it with a covering panel.

The rest of the job was a lot more straight forward with the double wardrobe and the internals going in quite easily. Also we had to ensure that there was an infill next to the internal drawers so they would open past the doors and give full access. We then hung the doors and handles to complete the job.

This job took 1 full day including delivery and installation and was completed with the cabinetry done in a Limed Oak finish and the doors a White Textured décor. Building a wardrobe over a stairs bulkhead is no big deal for us at RRD even as with this case when the customer wanted an L-shaped wardrobe.