Designing fitted wardrobes - tips and tricks

[renovationcarroussell]

This is my first fitted wardrobe I will have built in - what should I avoid? What should I definitely incorporate? Do you have back panels/side panels, top panels? What are the pros and cons?
Grateful for your advice and experiences

Many thanks in advance!

First step - what will actually go in your wardrobe. Spend some time thinking about this.

I had some fitted wardrobes put in a few years ago and looked into all the bells & whistles, and decided none of that was for me as it was too restrictive. Eg, a shoe rack holding x shoes; what if you then have 2x shoes?

I just have a top shelf (one side has baskets for loose/small items, the other side is for duvets etc) and a pole. I've always kept shoes in boxes anyway so they just stack at the bottom.

One thing I did consider was a full length mirror on the inner door that swung out for use, but I have a full length mirror elsewhere so didn't bother.

Take account of your own height and anyone else who will use the wardrobes. Our’s were done professionally and the top rails are too high for me to reach. also, include shoe storage. I ended up hanging canvas toy storage from a lower rail in order to store my shoes. We definitely don’t have back panels and the wardrobes stop short of the outside wall to avoid damp/ cold.

Run the skirting round the front of the wardrobes to match the rest of the room.

Thanks! I was wondering how to make it personal for what I want to store but also let it remain flexible if demands change at a later date .. Good point about rail height!

Shoe storage - do you have pull out shelves or drawers for shoes?

Well, will you want shoes upstairs? We don’t wear shoes indoors, so it’s unnecessary faff for us to carry shoes up and down stairs (our house is tall lots of stairs) to store in a wardrobe. We have large fitted cupboards for coats and shoes in the back hallway, so I don’t have any wardrobe shoe storage space at all.

I had pull out shoe storage fitted in mine with wire bits to rest shoes on. They only work with heeled shoes. So useless for most of mine. So they slide around awkwardly. I'd have been better off without.
That's the sort of thing to consider. We had a top shelf put in which means rails are lower and I can store all that stuff I hardly use.

Unfortunately need to store shoes in wardrobe - 'everyday shoes' and muddy boots are by front entrance but not enough room there for all shoes..

My current wardrobes were built by a local carpenter. The best thing I did was to have one section with two hanging rails for shirts and jackets etc.. I don't have any shoe racks, just rails and shelving. One section is all shelving. There are cupboards on top which have no shelving so they can be used for large suitcases and duvets.

If you want to play around with ideas I recommend the IKEA design planning tool. You can set the room dimensions and customise the interiors. If you select 'Guide Me' it takes you through the process with suggested configurations.

(I'm designing wardrobes for my new place and was originally going to get them built in like my current ones, but now looking at the IKEA Pax wardrobes, as they work out at less than a third of the cost and look great.)

I've got, long hanging for dresses. Two sections of short hanging, cubby holed and four drawers. And two shelves for shoes.

Ours are from ikea. They are huge, take up a whole wall. My favourite bit is the lights that come on when you open the doors. Dh wasn’t fussed but I put my foot down. Love it!
We each have a double wardrobe, one side is for longer stuff and then I used the other side for jumpers etc. 3 drawers under either side and 2 mesh pull out baskets at the bottom. There’s also storage at the top for random boxes of junk. So he has the same the other side and then in the middle there’s another door which has shelves and drawers and mesh baskets. We went to ikea and they helped us plan it. Dh built them. Some of the doors are mirrored too. They aren’t the most beautiful wardrobes but they are so functional, I’d be lost without all the storage.

Some long hanging, some double rails, shoe trays can be flat or have bits for heels. Boots in the bottom,
drawers for scarves, hats, gloves. Anything for jewellery, cosmetics.

Few pics for inspiration

Few more - mine doubles up as office/dressing room!

Drawers. Drawers are almost always better than shelves and you can't havr too many.

Drawers instead of shelves.
High and low rails. The low rails can be doubled up, one higher, one lower, great for shirts and tops.
I got drawers built into the plinth. They slide out with shoe racks in and are great. The wardrobe doors are separate and above.
Full length mirror on one or more of the doors outside. There is never enough natural light if the mirror is inside the door.
A light inside.

Ooh drawers in plinths sounds fancy!

Thanks very much all for your comments!

We are having new flooring too. Do you lay the flooring underneath the wardrobes? Or wardrobes first?

Same here. I think with hard flooring it's better to lay it first, so you need to take into account any impact on ceiling height, although it doesn't really matter too much if you are having the skirting run across the front. For carpet it's better to put the wardrobes in first, according to what I've read, presumably so that the wardrobes are on a firmer base.

Going for MDF painted - interior paint what would you go for? White? Same as exterior? Dark?

In my last house ( yes it was huge), I personally fit most of the hand-built wardrobes , let's say about 14 of them? But kept everything as simple as possible for versatility.

Now that I have downsized into 2 different locations I went the easiest route possible. I got rid of almost everything .
Life is so much easier and carefree ! I just don't need stuff anymore!

@Whataretalkingabout Noted! 😅 I'll take that as plan b!

Will they be on external walls? If so you might want to consider ventilation or heating so you don't get damp inside the wardrobes.

I have 40 pairs of Birkenstocks so measured the depth of them and had a cupboard built in a very narrow space two pairs wide. To me it's a work of art. I only have two other pairs of shoes which sit on the floor of one of the wardrobes.

Additionally I also looked in my existing wardrobes and how I wore my clothes and designed the rail heights and length of rails accordingly. I also had a number of drawers for underwear, socks, pj's. And then I added shelves for handbags. And my cute little desk/ make up table has drawers in one side.

I made and en-suite bathroom and a walk in wardrobe in the space that had been just a very large en-suite. It make me happy every time I go
In there. Absolutely no one else is allowed in there.

I taped the floor and measured everything. Eventually I made a to scale floor plan and all the wardrobes stood up to scale. And it worked perfectly.

Good luck to you. It's a valuable process to evaluate what you have, what you're keeping and how you will use the space.

Hi op
Ive included a sketch of what we had built just before Xmas
My bit is on the right with the double height hangers
It's full length across one wall and the mini shelves in the middle go across the chimney breast
It's all oak veneer inside as well on the doors outside
Large full length mirror inside door as well
Floor to ceiling cost £3,400 total