Built-in Wardrobe kits - Recommendations wanted

[Phil Addison]

As subject, Built-in Wardrobe kits - Recommendations please, and any gotchas to watch out for. I plan to buy a self-assembly kit so wondering if anyone has done a fairly recent survey of what's available, also opinions of good/bad makes.

This is for a 4mx3.8m bedroom with chimney breast(1.36mx0.34m) in the centre of 3.8m wall, and a bay window to it's right along the 4m wall. Ceiling is 2.6m with plaster cornice all round.

There will be an L-shaped wardrobe to left of chimney and a single one to it's right. Currently there is a dressing table in front the chimney breast, which will probably need to be shifted to the bay window. I'd like to have a complete run of 'something' in front the chimney to match in the wardrobes either side, but the difference between the depth of the breast and a wardrobe is only about 4 to 6 inches, so I'm thinking this will have to be either some narrow shelves, or just false doors to cover it (but I hate wasting space!!). I imagine trying to put a 'built-in' dressing table there will be impractical, but ideas appreciated.

On the wall opposite the chimney breast is a double bed, and the bedroom door away from the window. I want to put bedside cupboards either side of the bed, and possibly a high-level storage unit above it.

An alternative option is to move the bed to the chimney breast.

Phil A

[Tricky Dicky]

At our last house we had exactly the same sort of bedroom. Although I canno t help you with kits I can tell you what I did. I used sliding mirrored doo rs that went across the front of the chimney breast and both alcoves, the m irrored doors had the effect of making the room look larger but each to his own other finishes could used. I lined the alcoves with melamine faced chi pboard giving me a depth of 2ft for each wardrobe and that left a gap of ap prox. 6" between the chimney breast and doors. That space we used for thing s like tie & belt racks some hooks for hanging some clothes and fixed wire baskets to hold small items and SWAMBOs handbags, later we mounted a flat s creen TV.

Richard

[Phil Addison]

Thanks for that, but why did you line the alcoves with melamine faced chipboard? Mine are wallpapered and in reasonable nick.

Phil A

[Graeme]

In message , Phil Addison writes

I could have written Richard's post almost word for word, except the lining. I just painted to walls white, and that worked well, the main benefit of the mirrors being light. The room appeared much brighter.

The interior was, as Richard says, a mixture of shelves and rails, built to our needs and far more space efficient than stand alone wardrobes. The only slightly tedious part was getting the doors right - exactly vertical and sliding well, but worth the time spent. Not difficult, but just a little time consuming.

The doors were Stanley white framed mirrors but this was 30 years ago, so I couldn't comment on today's product, but do endorse the general idea.

[Chris J Dixon]

I guess with your size room three doors will not be considered. Go for four anyway to ensure you don't have sections you can't fully access.

Chris

[The Natural Philosopher]

Uk.buy-it-in is that way =>

[Harry Bloomfield]

Graeme expressed precisely :

..and 40 years ago, I built a full width one, 4m long/wide (6x door panels), full height and 300mm deep. It has a wardrobes at either end, with some very deep shelves between them. Over the top I made three very large cupboards.

I originally made the mistake of hinging the heavy doors, but the hinges soon broke in use. A few years ago I changed them from hinges, to a sliding door system. All six door panels can be slide to one end or the other, to give full access. The high level cupboard doors had a similar problem of the hinges being over loaded, so I rebuilt those at the same time with stronger hinges.

The slider rails are fixed along the floor and along the wardrobe top/ cupboard bottom panels. I had to devise some metal brackets to fix the upper rail. I imported the rail system from a German supplier.

Those three massive cupboard require a step ladder to access, they are used for the likes of Christmas decorations, luggage and spare toasters, kettles, coffee makers. I never found a satisfactory way to make those heavy cupboard doors (hinged along the top edge) stay open safely, by themselves. My botch was a length of chrome tubing, inserted between a catch on door and cupboard bottom, to prop them open as needed.

[Tricky Dicky]

board? Mine are

Unlike yours the walls were in crap condition. The previous owner had built some useless cupboards into the alcoves already and removed things like sk irtings in the process. By the time I had removed the existing rubbish and repositioned a couple of sockets the alcove walls were in a right state so it was simpler to line them than replastering.

Richard

[Tim Lamb]

So they are but it is difficult to assess the quality and finish of flat pack stuff from on line promotional photos.

The last wardrobes I fitted were from MFI 25 years back. Sloping ceilings but I was able to adapt the backs.

I have a different problem now in that the cottage bedrooms have included attic ceilings which means shaping doors to suit or having stepped enclosures. Lots of outlets do those. IKEA. B+Q etc. Nearest IKEA is a long hour away but the B+Q stuff looked acceptable. Delivery timescale might be an issue. (kitchen stuff 3 weeks)

[spuorgelgoog]

Standard depth wardrobes may not be quite deep enough for gentleman's jackets to hang without the shoulders crushing. Either a front-to-back rail, or an extra depth section.

Ironmongerydirect have lots of sliding door systems and also the internal basket/rail stuff.

Owain

[Harry Bloomfield]

[e-mail] pretended :

Mine is - I made them with side to side rails, right section has full height hanging, left side has two rails/half height for the likes of jackets. Front to back depth is 0.3M more than adequate for even the heaviest jackets to hang without any crushing. Despite the size and storage ability, they always fill up :-?

[newshound]

Another +1 for the Stanley type sliding doors running on bottom rails. Mine isn't across an alcove, I have two solid and two mirrored doors. I used 18mm shuttering ply for the structural stuff for speed and economy; once rubbed down filled and painted (with vinyl emulsion) it's only visible with the doors open.

[Phil Addison]

Thanks Chris, good point.

I think NP was being sarcastic. No change there then, since my last visits here a few years ago :-(

Phil A

[Phil Addison]

Thanks Owain, I'm aware of that need for jacket depth, but hadn't considered that kits can constrain the depth. Something else to watch out for.