How To Design the Ultimate Dressing Room

With luxury features ranging from climate-controlled cabinetry to museum-grade lighting, these private spaces combine glamour and calm, writes Emma Reynolds.

It’s a dazzling month for fashion as stars parade showstopping looks at the Met Gala in New York, while “The Devil Wears Prada 2” hits the silver screen—a timely moment to spotlight the evolution of the luxury dressing room. 

In ultraprime residences such spaces are no longer treated as secondary features. As places to dress in, as well as to store and edit clothes and accessories, they are planned with care and shaped around the habits, rituals and treasures they hold. 

“The best luxury closets feel like a boutique tailored to the owner,” says Nick Damianos of Bahamas Sotheby’s International Realty. “These spaces should make day-to-day life easier and be calm, well-proportioned and intuitive.”

The dressing room at the beachfront Blue Palms in Nassau has a distinct boutique feel, featuring custom cabinetry and waterfall marble islands, paired in coastal hues. 

Now given the same level of design attention as any other major room in the house, high-end dressing rooms and closets do more than reflect a client’s aesthetic. They should align seamlessly with their owners’ lives; the place where a day begins and ends, providing privacy and peace. 

The tranquil dressing room of a Brooklyn brownstone is a case in point, functional yet calming, flooded with natural light and with direct access to a private outdoor terrace.

Killy Scheer, founder and principal of the Austin-based interior design studio Scheer & Co., says closets have evolved into immersive dressing environments. Her clients have commissioned double-height spaces with dedicated styling areas, lighting calibrated to the time of day, packing stations with integrated luggage storage, custom furnishings, fabric-lined walls, full-length mirrors that expand light, and hidden back-of-house zones for storing less frequently worn pieces.

“Many of our clients consider their closets a place for respite and recharging, so it’s important that we identify what that means to them,” Scheer explains. “We often layer ambient lighting with integrated LEDs and then introduce lighting that shifts in temperature throughout the day—cooler in the morning, warmer in the evening—to support decision-making and reflect natural conditions.”

Successful dressing rooms make even a substantial wardrobe feel organized and manageable, starting with a layout that is clear and easy to navigate. Smaller additions can make a noticeable difference, whether that means bespoke lighting or motion sensors that eliminate the need for hard switches. 

In a spectacular Bel Air home, the floor-to-ceiling closets feature illuminated glass-fronted cabinetry, custom shelving and specialized LED lighting within each display. 

Climate control to protect and preserve the longevity of clothing is equally important, Damianos notes, particularly in places like the Bahamas, where heat and humidity can impact clothing and accessories.

“We’re seeing solutions like closets with microclimates rather than a single, uniform environment,” Scheer agrees. These include humidity-controlled areas for fine leather goods and furs, UV-filtered glass to protect delicate fabrics, sealed vitrines for handbag collections, museum-grade lighting, and even refrigerated storage or integrated scent systems.

While many dressing rooms remain adjacent to a home’s primary suite, some are positioned further away from bedroom and bathroom, creating a quieter or more private enclave. 

Bespoke wood paneling offers privacy by establishing both a visual language and concealed organization in the walk-in storage space of a landmark Parisian mansion. Meanwhile, ornamental detailing lends a sense of occasion and history to a home in Genoa, Italy—a reminder that dressing rooms have long occupied a more ceremonial place in the home than a regular closet.

While there is no single formula for the ultimate luxury dressing room, the best examples are unified by clarity. Bespoke construction around a specific wardrobe and an individual’s lifestyle is what ultimately sets them apart.

Article written by Sotheby's International Realty