5 Antique Wardrobe Closets From Around The World

What we now call a wardrobe closet has an interesting history. Originally known as an armoire, a French term that is broadly applied to any stand alone, wooden covered shelves or cupboards, modern day wardrobe closets have become common items in many peoples homes.

We primarily use them today to store clothes, hence the wardrobe term, yet in the past they were made for storing weapons and armor! How wild is that? :)

Along with armor and weapon storage, people also used them for food, misc. items, and yes - clothes, too.

Historically, these items were all hand crafted with much care and attention given to making a pleasant, intriguing design, yet also providing functional storage in a stand alone closet.

Now, hundreds of years later, people collect these items as precious antiques! With that in mind, let's take a look at 5 antique wardrobe closets from around the world.

Above you'll see a cool french armoire. This antique is dated from roughly 1915 to 1925.

It might be hard to tell from the photo, but the sides of this wardrobe closet are encased in bronze. This item is nearly 7 feet tall, 4 feet wide, and almost 2 feet in deep.

This armoire from Italy is very neat looking. The designs are intricate and the qualify of the artist behind it is evident at first glance. This green armoire, dating back to the early 20th century, has beautiful hand painted flowers on the doors and sides.

Standing at a little over 7 feet and nearly 7 feet wide and 2 feet deep, it's no wonder this armoire weights almost 200 pounds!

We have a close up picture below of the legs and the hand drawn art too - very nice!

Just looking at this English-Victorian Armoire, you get the feeiling how powerful such an item can be in someones room! This unit looks strong and solid. It actually looks surprisingly modern to me, actually - how about to anyone else?

Inside there is a ton of shelves and open closet space - this is quite a versatile armoire. Unfortunately I don't have any information on how much it weights but it must be a ton!

Here we have a very interesting armoire from China. Dating back to the early 1800's, these types of armoire are quite rare to find because China has made it illegal to take anitiques such as this one out of its borders. Naturally, this makes collectors go bananas for such items and pay even more!

This is considered a kitchen armoire as it's designed to store dishes and kitchen ware. It's not as big as the others pictured here, coming in at about 6 feet tall, nearly 4 feet across, and about 2 feet deep.

Personally, I really dig the design on this one, it's quite unique and the art stands in stark contrast to European styles.

Yes, I saved the best for last as this is my favorite armoire out of all the different ones featured here. The design just takes my breath away. This is considered "Vasstu" art, and is obviously hand made. I don't know the date on this nor the weight, but it's about 4 feet tall, 2 1/2 feet wide, and a little over a foot deep.