Narrow, yes. Not ideal. But if you are not large people you can probably get away with it.

how long is the tunnel? the longer it is, the less pleasant the transit would be especially in the middle of the night.

It could work but I agree barely enough space.

32" to walk through, with clothes on each side, is hardly an ideal passage between bedroom and bath. Particularly at 3 AM in the morning! What happens if shoes or a piece of clothing which fell off the hanger don't stay within their 24" boundary?

I'd never plan a walk through closet with such dimensions.

And if one needs to use a wheelchair or walker the dimensions are not workable.

That’s is horribly cavelike and ungracious. In a new construction house, it’s a major mistake. I would not want less than 48”. 60” would be better. That would allow for the wardrobes to have doors, and for someone to stand in front of a wardrobe with a door open while someone hurried past to the convenience. It’s gracious and spacious. And it makes the “walk in closet” into a series of reach in closets in a gracious wide passageway.

There is no way I’d ever design a home with free hanging clothes open to a bathroom where you had to pass through a closet to use the convenience. That is just poor design.

But a skinny little tunnel with clothes brushing you as you traveled between? Heck NO! Crumple that up and File 13 it at once, and smack the “architect” forcefully. And find s new, real, architect.

Have to agree with Sophie on this one. If it were just a closet where you walk into it and get out, 32" would be sufficient, but still not great. But where it's basically a hallway to get to your bathroom? Nope, too narrow especially if someone else is standing there with wardrobe doors open. Make it gracious and it could be a really nice architectural feature.

My closet is seven feet wide with clothes on both sides giving me a slightly wider than 36” aisle. It’s just a walk in. I would consider that the minimum width. You mention that yours will be functioning as a walk though AND will have Doors (you said cabinets sooo) No you need more space. Or 12” deep cabinets on one side and 24” on the other. Unless this is a really small urban condo...

I have a 36" hallway without clothes involved and I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

Thanks everyone for the feedback. I know the “walk through” closet is a love it or hate it topic. Obviously, I love it - and need it. Our 3 storey, 100+ year old home is in downtown Toronto; and it’s a very narrow home: interior is roughly 15’ x 40’.

Currently it’s designed with a 54” walkway connecting bedroom and bath. I should mention we aren’t planning on putting any doors in the closets. There are however pocket doors on both ends; privatizing bedroom and bath.

The problem here is that our bedroom is too small. My reasoning is that if we creat and L shape stairs, it’ll increase the length of the bedroom but shorten the width of the walk through closet.

I’ve attached a snap of our middle floor ensuite. Any idea you might have is greatly appreciated.

Bad design. Hire someone better at space planning. Or start to think about selling and moving of it does not fit your needs.

I know it is not so easy to just “sell and move” to something else in Toronto, especially if you desire a central locale (like downtown) and not one two or three hours away commute from work. As with many HCOL - and one with limited supply - people need to get a bit inventive and find ways to make something fit their needs as best they can.

Is that a hallway running along stair well to ensuite? Do you need that for some reason? I would consider ditching it and widening closet.

Alternatively, consider reworking closet so clothes cabinets are only on on one side of closet and maybe build narrow shoe cupboards on other side - for inspiration look at the IKEA Hemnes or Stall shoe cabinets that are only about 17cm deep. You can also use that side for jewellery cabinets, hooks or racks for scarves and ties...all which will take up far less room than the clothes cabinets and give you more room for walking through.

@ana_sa46 - Don't take it personally, that's just how she operates. An acquired taste...

It looks like the hallway beside the stairs will be more narrow than the walkway thru the closet, correct? I'd be more worried about the width of that first. And since this is upstairs, and an elevator will never be added to this building, making it wide enough for a wheel chair isn't a concern.

I'd ditch the isle thru the center of the closet, and instead put the isle right up against the wall, where the window is, and keep the window there to let in light and it won't feel so much like a tunnel going to the bathroom.

Have you considered eliminating the asile through the closet, closing both opening (bedroom and bath), and using a slightly wider common hallway for access to everything...?

The floor plan you posted is the existing version? I'm not seeing "L-shaped stairs" on it nor am I fully understanding how that would work in such a narrow house #NeedMoreCoffee. Sounds like you want to change the stairs/hallway and you're wondering how this will impact the master suite/closet?

Since you have so much length to work with (upwards of 12'), having closets on only 1 side of a more narrow closet will still mean there's lots of storage. As a side note, if there isn't an exterior door in the Master, I personally wouldn't add one - seems like that would eat up way too much floor space =)

I have a walk-through master closet & from base trim to base trim at the narrowest portions around the doorways is 37” across. I couldn’t view your plans very well & it wouldn’t let me enlarge it enough not to go cross-eyed, but my closet is also set up very differently from what it looks like yours would be. In mine, the clothes sit further recessed back in on both sides, so the middle portion of the walk-through part is open on the left & right to walk further in to the clothing areas. It’s what my house came with & I’ve never had a walk-through before, but no complaints. It was hard to find a place that didn’t have the closet in the back of the bathroom, which I find gross & utterly disgusting, so I’m happy having a buffer between the bedroom & bathroom. However, I do think any narrower than 36” would be tough for passing through unrestricted. And you’ve gotta have some room to back up to view the clothes, maneuver them on & off the racks, etc. Otherwise you’re banging into the rack of clothes behind you.

Now knowing this is a 100 year old house and you're retrofitting things, changes the answer a bit. Your result will be less than ideal, but that's going to have to be OK because you don't have the luxury of acres of land and starting from scratch. I think your layout is pretty good, but I don't think your master is going to get any bigger. For the closet part, consider only 24" deep wardrobe on one side and 12" on the other. The 12" can be shelves and shoes. The 24" side is hanging and drawers. You don't need 24" deep shelves. Another option to consider is to remove the walk-through element of the closet and get rid of the door from the closet to the bathroom. Only keep access to the bathroom from the hallway entrance. The benefit of that is now you gain another wall for clothes storage. The negative is you have to walk through a narrow hallway to get to your bathroom. But since the whole floor belongs to you, it's private anyway.

As suggested above, keep hanging rods, some double height, on the inner wall. Without closet doors, clothes don’t fill the full 60 cm/24 in that a cupboard would take. The real saving grace is that window. With drawers with full action runners set on much of that outer wall about 45 cm deep and 100cm or so high this will give plenty of extra storage ( we have them and love them), set down areas and elbow room as you pass through your bright dressing room. 55 cm
for hanging, 50cm max for drawers and the rest is walking space. It’s not a massive space but very adequate. Because of that window.
Also, I’m sure you have a reason for it but is the bath Mission Critical? That space could house the toilet instead and allow the bedroom to expand a little.

Virgil Carter Fine Art -- having to use a common hallway to access my closet and bath defeats the purpose of an ensuite for us. We'd like to keep it a private access.

damiarain -- The "L Shape" Stairs are not on the plan. By breaking the stairs and turning them into the hall, we can extend the bedroom wall deeper into the house, creating a wider room. But by doing so, we'd have to push in the "Dressing Room" wall (hence my narrow dressing walkway dilemma) as to allow more space for the common hallways, as the "L Shape" stairs would eat into the existing wall. The one-wall-closet solution seems to make sense, but 12' doesn't seem enough for my husband and I. As for the exterior door in the bedroom, the Juliette balcony door will likely become two smaller french doors - less opening space.

swrite -- Happy to hear others appreciating the Walk Through closet. And you're definitely right, having some room to back up and even get dressed in properly is important.

gthigpen -- Eureka! That is actually a great idea. That would allow us to bring that common hallway wall in even just 6"; which would give our room a 9" increase. And with narrow homes like this, every inch counts!

brizcs -- thanks so much for those detailed suggestions.