Fitted wardrobes solve two problems at once: they use the awkward parts of a room that freestanding furniture cannot reach, and they give you an interior planned around what you actually own rather than a generic rail and a shelf.
The planning is the valuable part. Anyone can build a box. Getting the right ratio of hanging to shelving, in the right heights, in a room with a chimney breast and a sloping ceiling, is where the difference shows.
Measure what you own before you measure the room
Count your long hanging items — coats, dresses, suit carriers. Count short hanging: shirts, jackets, trousers folded over a hanger. Then think about what lives folded, and what lives in a drawer. That list decides the internal layout far more than the room does.
Useful working figures: short hanging needs around 1.0m of height, long hanging around 1.5 to 1.8m. A double hanging section gives you twice the capacity in the same footprint, which is why most wardrobes end up with one tall section and the rest double-hung.
- Short hang: 1.0m height, shirts and jackets
- Long hang: 1.5–1.8m, coats and dresses
- Shelves: 350–400mm apart for folded clothes
- Drawers: keep them below waist height so you can see in
- Shoes: angled shelves at 200mm spacing hold far more than a flat shelf
Depth, and why 600mm matters
A wardrobe needs about 600mm of internal depth for clothes to hang square on the rail without pressing against the doors. Anything less and you are into side-hanging, which uses a pull-out rail running front to back and holds noticeably less.
In a narrow room, side-hanging or a shallow shelved wardrobe can still be the right answer — but it is a choice to make deliberately rather than discover at the end.
Sloped ceilings, alcoves and chimney breasts
This is the main reason people commission fitted wardrobes rather than buying them. A loft bedroom with a coombed ceiling has a triangle of space that no flat-pack unit can use. A handmade carcass follows the slope, puts full-height hanging in the tall part, and uses the low end for drawers and shoe storage.
Alcoves either side of a chimney breast are the same problem in miniature. Because they are rarely square, each side has to be measured independently and scribed to the wall. A 10mm discrepancy across a 2m opening is completely normal in an older Hampshire house and is invisible once the units are scribed properly.
Doors: hinged, sliding or open
Hinged doors give you the full opening and can be panelled or shaker-style to match panelling elsewhere in the room. They need swing space, usually around 600mm in front.
Sliding doors need no swing space, which makes them the answer in tight bedrooms, but you can only ever see half the wardrobe at once and the track takes internal depth. Mirrored sliders bounce light around a small or loft bedroom and are still one of the most effective ways to make a room feel larger.
Open dressing-room joinery — no doors, just shelving, hanging and drawer banks — looks superb and costs less in door hardware, but it demands tidiness. It suits a dedicated dressing room better than a main bedroom.
Interior finish and lighting
The inside gets seen every day, so it is worth finishing properly. A light interior makes it easier to find dark clothing. Soft-close hinges and runners are inexpensive and remove the one noise that dates a wardrobe instantly.
PIR-activated LED strips inside the carcass, or a lit shelf underside, cost very little at build stage. In a dressing room they turn the joinery into the feature of the room.
What it costs
Handmade fitted wardrobes are usually priced by the linear metre of run. A simple painted run with hinged shaker doors and a straightforward interior typically starts around £1,000 to £1,500 per metre supplied, fitted and decorated. Sloped ceilings, mirrored sliders, internal drawers, lighting and dressing-room joinery push that up.
Compare quotes on the interior specification, not just the doors. Two wardrobes with identical fronts can be very different behind them.
Hinged doors or sliders
Hinged doors give you the whole opening at once, which makes the interior easier to use and easier to fit out with drawers and pull-outs. They need clearance in front, usually around 600mm, so they suit rooms where the bed is not tight against the wardrobe run.
Sliding doors need no clearance at all, which makes them the answer in a narrow bedroom or a loft room. The trade-off is that you can only ever see two thirds of the interior, and the track takes around 100mm of depth. Mirrored sliders are particularly effective in a small room because they double the apparent space and remove the need for a separate mirror.
Whichever you choose, ironmongery is worth spending on. Soft-close hinges and good-quality runners are the parts you touch every day, and cheap ones announce themselves within a year.
Planning the interior
Start by counting what you own rather than filling the space with shelves. Measure how much long hanging you actually need for coats and dresses, how much short hanging for shirts and jackets, and how much folded storage for knitwear and denim. Most people over-provide hanging and under-provide drawers.
A useful default for a double wardrobe is one bay of double-height short hanging, one bay of long hanging, drawers at the base of one bay, and shelving above the doors for luggage and bedding. Put the drawers where you stand rather than in a corner.
Allow for shoes properly — angled shelves or a simple deep base shelf — and put a socket inside if you want lighting or a charging point. Both are far cheaper to include at the design stage than to add later.
Common questions
- How deep should a fitted wardrobe be?
- About 600mm internally so clothes hang square. Shallower is possible with pull-out side-hanging rails, at reduced capacity.
- Can wardrobes be built into a loft room with sloped ceilings?
- Yes — that is one of the strongest reasons to have them made rather than bought. The carcass follows the slope and uses the low space for drawers.
- How long does a fitted wardrobe take?
- Typically two to three weeks from final measure to installation, with one to three days on site.
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