Built-in wardrobes/ cupboards for bedrooms. Any experience?

[ampere]

The house we are in the process of buying could use the above in 2 of the smaller bedrooms.

We are thinking that what we want is essentially a wooden frame attached to the floor, ceiling and one wall, 2 swing opening doors (poss sliding?) below and maybe a 2 smaller cupboards above for less used things, and the side of the unit to be plasterboard.

Inside it'd have a 'full height' hanging rail on one side (with perhaps shoe storage underneath) and probably Ikea quality drawer units or even chipboard/ply shelving on the other side, so we're NOT looking for one of those bespoke £2000 efforts you see advertised in the back of the Sunday Telegraph magazine!

What do you think this would cost? Could an everyday handyman do this for us? (we a) have no tools and b) can barely hammer in a nail..!)

yup but it will probably look sh*te. get a proper carpenter to quote and tell you whats wha. not sure what you mean by the side of the unit being plasterboard.

if you want cheap built in style wardrobes then why dont you just use the ikea ones?

The reason one side might have to be plaster board is that the dimensions of the rooms wouldn't allow a full width built-in wardrobe- perhaps 2/3 width.

As for built-in rather than ikea frames, I don't like that 1-3 inch gap above the unit to the ceiling. It's a dust trap and looks unsightly, as does the 1/2 inch the unit stands away from the wall because it's resting against the skirting board!

The end result but with 6 panel moulded doors would look like this

The ikea bits would be innards

i still dont understand the plasterboard thing. If the frame is maded from MDF or Wood then you can just as easily paint it or put some moulding and paint it to make it look anygood.

or do you mean depth? a wardrobe can be any width, but less than 60 cm deep and you cant hang hanger in them.

Sorry, I did mean depth, and by frame I meant the 2" square lengths of wood onto which you'd fix your door surrounds, hinges or sliders, AND if you couldn't GO 'full width' of a room you'd have to end the 'robe' with a side wall (hence plasterboard) WHICH if it were plasterboard, painted the same way as the other walls of the room, it'd make a proper 'built in' and not a 'stand-alone', screwed to the walls.

ok. so if you were to choose from this page what would you ideally want.

and if you dont have the full depth are you happy to have a rail which pulls out, rather then hang them the conventional way?

I'd want a full depth wardrobe, and at least conventional double wardrobe width. Wider would be good but I'm not sure it'd fit in the room without the need to dodge around the end wall as you enter the room!

The advantage over a stand-alone wardrobe is also that you usually have room for a couple of cupboards above the wardrobe itself to put less used stuff!