Almirah, Armoire, Chifforobe, Closet, and Wardrobe—What’s the Difference?
Today we have multiple options for housing our clothing and personal items. These include closets, wardrobes, almirahs, armoires, chifforobes, and more. Indeed, America’s desire for open floorplans, clean lines, high-quality cabinetry, and comparable pricing is prompting vendors to offer more choices. Having so many options to work with can be exciting from an interior design standpoint—but learning the lingo can also be a bit daunting for homeowners.
At Southern Closet Systems, we’ve been incorporating these storage features and others in our home organization systems for 40 years. If you’re in the Tampa Bay area, we’ll be delighted to take a look at your space and help you select the ideal components to design customized storage solutions for any room in your home, including your garage. In the meantime, let’s compare some of the most popular ways to store household items.
Storage Options Defined by Size and Portability
The biggest difference between a closet and the other storage options listed above is that a closet is basically a storage room that’s fixed in place, while the others are different pieces of furniture designed for housing clothing, hats, scarves, handbags, and other items. Basically, almirahs, armoires, chifforobes, and wardrobes are all large, freestanding cabinets with interior shelving and racks—but they’re generally smaller than even a simple reach-in closet. Originally, they may have been designed to house specific types of items. But, nowadays, they are essentially the same type of furniture called by different names.
Here are brief descriptions of each:.
Almirah
This storage option originated in India, and it refers to a freestanding cupboard or wardrobe. Traditionally crafted from wood, modern almirahs come in a wide variety of sizes, styles, and materials. Powder-coated metal cabinetry has become popular for spaces like the garage, where a homeowner might want to use an almirah to store tools and gardening equipment. Almirahs can be custom made by a carpenter or purchased as prefabricated models.
Armoire
Initially designed as a tall, slender cabinet with lockable doors, the original armoire was intended for the storage of firearms, thus creating an “armory.” Typically built of wood, an armoire has one or two doors plus a hanging bar. It usually occupies space as a piece of furniture and can house all sorts of items, including clothing, office supplies, tools, and toys.
Chifforobe
The word “chifforobe”—often spelled “chiffarobe” or “chifferobe”—is rarely used today. True chifforobes were an American invention of the early 1900s that combined the French chiffonnier, which was a small chest of drawers for needlework and fabric scraps, with the popular wardrobe, which was designed for hanging garments. Typically, the chifforobe was a piece of wood cabinetry about 6 feet in height that featured a set of tall double doors enclosing a bar for hanging shirts and blouses. Below that space or to one or both sides were drawers that could be large, small, or a combination of sizes to accommodate various storage needs.
Wardrobe
Wardrobes are essentially larger, modern takes on the armoire. They are freestanding pieces of furniture with doors that open outward. The distinguishing feature of these cabinets is their short legs, but many wardrobes are designed to sit flush on the floor.
As its name implies, a wardrobe is designed for garment storage. Typically, a wardrobe will house a large space with a hanging rod for shirts, blazers, and slacks, and there may also be shelves or drawers to accommodate socks, ties, scarves, and other clothing items.
Closet
A closet is usually built into a room or hallway as a small-to-large space for storing clothing, linens, shoes, and other personal items. Closets help people enjoy organized storage by using hanging rods, drawers, shelves, wire bins, and cabinets. Although many people associate closets with clothing storage, a closet can be used to store home office supplies, toys, and other items. In fact, an enclosed kitchen pantry is a type of closet for storing canned and boxed food.
There are three main types of closets:
Which Custom Storage Solution Is Right for You?
At Southern Closet Systems, we have many solutions and can consult with you about which system would work best in your space. In fact, in many cases, there’s no need to select just one storage solution—we can show you how a stylish armoire or chest of drawers can bring beauty as well as organization to your walk-in or spacious reach-in closet.
Would you like to work with the best closet company in Tampa Bay—one that stands out for its deep roots in the community, excellent customer reviews, and reputation for producing high-quality results? Then, you’ve come to the right place: Southern Closet Systems.
Contact Us Today
In business since 1983, Southern Closet Systems was the first custom closet company ever to serve the Tampa Bay area. From our factory and showroom in Odessa, Florida, we’ve assisted thousands of clients from Crystal River to Tierra Verde with our custom closet designs, storage cabinets, shelving, and other accessories.
Give us a call today to make an appointment at 727-447-7227 (in Pinellas), 813-926-9348 (in Pasco), and 813-855-2255 (in Hillsborough) or send us an email.
