How to: Ordering Your Fitted Wardrobe

When starting a bedroom project, it’s important that you balance your space – there’s nothing worse than a cramped bedroom with no space to move around. You also need to make sure that the size of wardrobe you choose is suitable for all your possessions and that everything you need to complete the project is present on the order. To help with this, we’ve put together a step-by-step guide that covers how to order your fitted wardrobe.

Step 1: Clear Your Space

The first thing you must do when measuring for a new fitted wardrobe is to clear the area you are planning to fill. This ensures that you can get the full picture of what you have to work with and can account for issues such as the walls not being completely straight or a chimney breast which may be covered by the existing furniture. Once this is out of the way and you have an open area, you can begin to measure it.

Step 2: Measure the Area

Next, you need to measure the height, width and depth of the space you are looking to use for your fitted wardrobe. You should then make a sketch of this on a piece of graph paper or by using our measuring page. This includes any obstacles you may encounter such as the door or windowsills. 

Click here for our guide

Step 3: Choose Your Wardrobe

Once your measurements are recorded and sketched you can choose the wardrobe you would like to go for. When accounting for size, remember that you need the space of the wardrobe carcass plus an extra amount of depth depending on the width of the doors (so they have room to swing open).

For the height, you must deduct at least 100mm from the height of the room so that the built wardrobe can be stood up. It is also advised that you leave at least 50mm tolerance on the side closest to the wall to allow for the doors to swing and not hit the wall or scribing.

For example, for a 600mm wide, 2260mm high and 600mm deep wardrobe, you would need a total area of 650mm in width, 2360mm in height and 900mm in depth. This is because the doors on this are 300mm, which would need room to open in front of the wardrobe.

Don’t worry about any gaps, as all of our carcasses and doors will have a range of filler panels that can be used to cover them and provide a nice, fitted look. They can be scribed to the ceiling to provide the appearance of being built into the wall, or a cornice can bit fitted which is popular among more traditional looks.

Here are our available bedroom units

Step 4: Choose Your Doors

Once you have the measurements accounted for you can work on selecting the style of your wardrobe. This bit is mostly up to you and your personal style. The only thing that may limit your choice is sizing, as some ranges may not have styles available in non-standard sizes. We offer a wide variety of popular wardrobe door styles, from modern gloss and matt slab doors to painted style shakers and panelled doors, so you can feel confident that your choice will be fresh and stylish for years to come.

If you have a style in mind, first check that we have them in the sizes you need. Wardrobe doors need a little bit taken off their measurement compared to the wardrobe carcass due to the need for a tolerance, which enables the doors to open smoothly and not catch on the frame. This is usually 5mm taken from the height and 4mm taken from the width.

You also need to know the usable height of the wardrobe, as the quoted height will include a 100mm plinth by default. For example, a 600mm wide, 2260mm high carcass would require two doors at 2155mm height and 296mm width. These doors have had the 100mm taken from the height of the carcass to account for the plinth, another 5mm taken to account for the height tolerance and 4mm taken from the width to ensure the doors open smoothly.

Here is our range of replacement wardrobe doors

Step 5: Plinths and Panels

For an attractive fitted wardrobe appearance, most opt for plinths and panels which match their doors. Bedroom units have a 100mm plinth unless specified, and these will be available by default from the accessories page of the doors you’ve chosen.

To work out how many plinths you need, add up the widths of your units and if the end is on show and you are not using panels, you also need to add the depth of this unit, as the plinth will need to wrap around. Finally, you must add 10% for cuts.

For panels, most fix one to each end when the units are open or use filler panels when the units are in an alcove. When using panels, you should order them at least 50mm larger than required, so that they may be correctly fitted to the wall and adjusted. When using fillers these can be made from plinths. Many opt to scribe to the ceiling, which is where the space above the wardrobe is filled with a plinth, similar to what you may do for the sides. If you don’t want to scribe to the ceiling, you can instead use a cornice or multi-purpose rail, which fixes around the top of the units. When working out how many are required, use the same calculation as the plinths, the total width of the units, plus the depth if the edge is visible, plus 10%.

Step 6: Hang Rails and Shelving

Within your wardrobe, you of course need a way to store your clothing and other accessories. By default, our wardrobes do not come with the rail, so this would need to be configured to your desire and added on. You can opt for a few different styles by default or ask for them to be undrilled for customising on-site. This means you can fit extra shelves and section your wardrobe as needed.

Extra shelves are available from our site in default sizes based on our default wardrobes, with the option for customisation if needed. In addition to extra shelves, you can opt for wirework within the wardrobe, which is becoming increasingly popular. We offer extras such as tie and belt racks, shoe racks or even pull-down hanging rails. These can be a great way to make your storage more convenient to access and help keep your space neat and tidy. 

Here are our storage systems

Reasons to Choose a Fitted Wardrobe

There are many different reasons to opt for a fitted wardrobe that are both cosmetic and practical.

Cosmetic Reasons

  • Attractive
  • Fill unused space
  • Modern and classic styles
  • Can be fully integrated into the wall with fillers
  • Many different accessories are available

Practical Reasons

  • Increase storage space
  • Sturdy
  • Flexible storage within
  • Multiple hanging styles are available
  • Available with drawers for folded clothing

If you have made sure that everything is on the order, then you can go ahead and place it! If there is anything you are unclear about or need further information on, we are always here to help.

Our office team is able to provide technical advice and support for all of the wardrobe products mentioned in this guide to help ensure that you have a simple and easy ordering experience.

Contact Us Today

If you would like more advice or have any questions then please contact us either by phone or email