Built in bedroom furniture: I get it now

[MorrisZapp]

I've always been a bit snobby about built in wardrobes etc in bedrooms, I'll never forget the overbed 'unit' my parents had in the eighties.

But having spent all day yesterday in a hurricane of dust, cleaning out our underbed storage and the boxes on top of the wardrobe, I'm now fantasising about full height built in storage.

We have high ceilings so there's space up there - being in a flat means all space is at a premium.

DP will freak out at the mere mention of built in furniture in our Victorian tenement flat, but it seems so sensible to me.

Anyone got built ins in an old house?

Pax are 201 or 236cm height. You might require a bit of ceiling clearance to lift the 236cm from being built on the floor to upright. I recall in my research I came across people building them upright however it's more difficult.

The hinged unit widths are 100cm (double door) or 50cm (single). You can attach them to create whatever configuration you desire

The sliding door units are 75cm wide but the doors are a bugger to fit by all accounts. I went with hinged doors with soft closures.

The drawers, rails, shelves etc come in 50cm, 100cm or 75cm width depending on the carcass, see above.

The hinged unit depths are 35cm and 58cm from memory. I have the 58cm. I wouldn't recommend the 35cm unless your space is really limited, they're quite shallow and I'm not sure whether all the interior components are available either. Not sure on the depth of the sliding door units as I didn't investigate!

Whattodo and Softkitty the wardrobes were custom made by a local joiner and cost £1400 for 3 double full height wardrobes with a mixture of drawers, shelves and rails. The same company also built me fitted units and shelves in the lounge alcoves at the end of last year.

Defo do it! Stand alone furniture is way too small and not sturdy enough. Waste of space. All our bedrooms have fitted white gloss wardrobes. Had them about 10 years now. Still look new. Do it.

We put in 3.5m of Pax along one wall in the main bedroom of our Victorian flat. Believe it or not, it saves so much space. We now have too much storage for two people! We have ditched all bedroom furniture except my dressing table.

We went for the most expensive Pax shaker style doors (Tyssedal) and had our joiner surround with plaster. They look amazing, like a £8,000 job for an all in cost of about £1,000 plus labour. I genuinely believe they've added value to our flat.

We live in a Victorian terrace and like you I was so averse to built ins. I wanted to buy an antique armoir for our bedroom though due to an unusual landing we soon realised nothing would fit up the stairs! So we had no option but built ins and had two alcove wardrobes made for the bedroom but Victorian inspired so as not to take away from the character of the room (they certainly don't have to be minimal modern or shaker). We used the original Victorian doors for inspiration and are pretty happy with the end result. It was £2K for two alcove wardrobes, MDF, including painting. We just need to add some antique brass handles. Here's a pic.

Gerbita do you mind if I ask what colour you painted your wardrobes? Your room looks so calm.

Butterflycatcher our wardrobes and bedroom, actually our whole house, is painted in Farrow and Ball Pointing (wardrobes in eggshell, walls in emulsion). It's a warm white and feels very serene and changes in the light. Very happy with it.