We are called into a lot of bedrooms where the fitted wardrobe was clearly designed by someone thinking about elevations and door styles rather than what was actually going to live inside it. The doors look smart, the wardrobe fills the wall nicely, and yet the owners have coats folded over the top of a shelf because there is nowhere proper to hang them, and shirts creased into a drawer that was never meant to hold them.
It is a really common problem, and it almost always comes down to the internal layout being an afterthought rather than the starting point. Getting hanging, shelving and drawer space right is not complicated, but it does need to be worked out from what you actually own, not from a standard template applied to every wardrobe regardless of the household living with it.
The three types of hanging and why the mix matters
Double hanging, where one rail sits above another, is the most space efficient way to store shirts, folded trousers on hangers, skirts and jackets, since it fits roughly twice as many items into the same width as a single rail. It only works for shorter garments though, so a wardrobe built entirely with double hanging leaves nowhere sensible for dresses, long coats or suit bags.
Long hanging, a single rail set high enough to clear full length garments without them dragging on the floor of the wardrobe, is essential for dresses, coats, and suits that are stored on a hanger rather than folded. It uses more width per item than double hanging, but there is no substitute for it if you own any of those things.
Most households need a genuine mix of both, and the mistake we see most often is a wardrobe built with one long rail across the whole width, which wastes huge amounts of vertical space for people who mostly own shirts and folded items, or the opposite, an entirely double hung wardrobe that leaves winter coats and dresses with nowhere proper to go at all.
Working out your actual ratio before anything is built
The right approach is to physically go through what is currently hanging in your wardrobe, or piled on a chair because there is nowhere for it, and count roughly how much falls into each category, short hanging items, long hanging items, folded items that could go in drawers or on shelves, and anything unusual like shoes or bags that need their own space.
As a very rough general guide for a typical adult wardrobe, something like sixty percent double hanging, twenty five percent long hanging, and the remainder given to shelving and drawers works reasonably well, but this shifts a great deal depending on the person. Someone with a lot of dresses or suits needs more long hanging proportionally, while someone who lives mostly in folded knitwear and t shirts needs more shelving and drawer space and comparatively little hanging at all.
For a shared wardrobe between two people, it is worth planning each person's section separately rather than splitting the whole wardrobe fifty fifty by width, since two people rarely have identical wardrobes in terms of garment types, and one person often needs noticeably more long hanging than the other.
- Count actual garments by category before designing the layout, not after
- Roughly sixty percent double hanging, twenty five percent long hanging, rest shelving and drawers as a starting point
- Plan each person's section separately in a shared wardrobe
- Leave room to adjust rail heights later as wardrobes and seasons change
- Do not forget shoe storage, which is easy to overlook until the wardrobe is built
Drawers and shelving matter more than they get credit for
A wardrobe with generous hanging but only one shallow shelf at the top forces folded clothes, underwear and accessories into other pieces of furniture around the room, which rather defeats the point of a fitted wardrobe designed to hold everything in one place. Internal drawers, even two or three good sized ones, take enormous pressure off the rest of the space and keep folded items far tidier than stacking them on open shelves.
Adjustable shelving is worth specifying wherever possible rather than fixed shelves at set heights, since needs change over the years and a shelf that cannot move becomes a permanent limitation on how the space can be used later.
Retrofitting a wardrobe that has never worked
If you already have a fitted wardrobe with the wrong balance of hanging and storage, the doors and frame are usually not the problem, it is almost always the internal carcass that needs replacing or reworking, which is a considerably smaller and cheaper job than replacing the whole wardrobe.
In many cases we can strip out the existing internal shelving and rails, keep the doors and outer frame if they are in good condition, and rebuild the interior around a proper mix of double hanging, long hanging, shelving and drawers based on what is actually needed. It is a satisfying job because the transformation in how usable the wardrobe feels day to day is huge, even though from the outside nothing has visibly changed.
Where the existing carcass is flimsy chipboard that has already sagged or is not worth rebuilding around, it sometimes makes more sense to start again with a new interior on a solid frame, but this is still generally cheaper than a full wardrobe replacement including new doors.
What a retrofit or new interior tends to cost
Reworking the interior of an existing fitted wardrobe, keeping the doors, typically runs from around 400 to 1200 pounds depending on the width of the wardrobe and how much new carcass work, drawers and rail systems are involved. A full new fitted wardrobe interior and carcass with existing doors reused where suitable tends to sit a little higher, and a complete new fitted wardrobe from scratch, doors included, generally starts from around 1800 to 2000 pounds for a single wardrobe and rises with size and specification.
Give us a call
If your fitted wardrobe has never quite worked and clothes end up everywhere except where they should be, it is very likely fixable without replacing the whole thing. Call us on 02380 201687 or 07833 227576, or email info@vipwalls.co.uk, and we can come and work out a layout that actually matches what you own.
Common questions
- How much hanging space do I actually need in a wardrobe?
- It depends entirely on what you own, which is why it is worth counting your garments by type before designing the layout. As a rough starting point most people need considerably more double hanging than long hanging, but anyone with dresses, coats or suits needs a meaningful amount of long hanging too.
- Can I add more hanging space to an existing wardrobe without replacing it?
- In most cases yes, since the doors and outer frame can usually stay while the internal shelving and rails are reworked or replaced entirely. It is a much smaller job than a full wardrobe replacement and often solves the problem completely.
- What is the difference between double hanging and long hanging?
- Double hanging is two rails stacked one above the other, fitting more short garments like shirts and folded trousers into the same width. Long hanging is a single higher rail needed for full length items such as dresses, coats and suits.
- Should drawers be built into the wardrobe or kept separate?
- Built in drawers within the wardrobe are usually more convenient and make far better use of the space than relying on separate chests of drawers around the room. They are particularly worth including if the wardrobe currently has little or no dedicated space for folded items.
- Is it worth having adjustable shelving in a fitted wardrobe?
- Yes, fixed shelving at set heights becomes limiting as wardrobes and needs change over the years, whereas adjustable shelving lets you reconfigure the space later without any building work. It costs very little extra to specify at the design stage.
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