Fitted wardrobes, North London
Made for the wall they stand against, run to the ceiling and set out inside around what you actually own.
A wardrobe is judged twice a day, in the dark, half awake
Which is why the things that matter are rarely the things discussed in a showroom. Whether the door swings clear of the bed. Whether you can see into the drawer without kneeling. Whether the rail you reach for at seven in the morning is at the height your hand expects it to be.
A freestanding wardrobe cannot answer any of that. It was built to a standard size in a factory that has never seen your room, so it arrives with a gap behind it, a gap above it and two inches at the side that fill with nothing useful. In a London bedroom, where the wall is rarely straight and the ceiling is rarely level, those gaps are the whole story.
We build the alternative. Cut for the wall it stands against, scribed to the plaster, carried up to the cornice with the skirting returned around it. From the doorway it reads as part of the house. Behind the doors it is arranged entirely around you.
Painted by hand, so the colour answers to your room rather than to a fixed range
Four kinds of room, four kinds of wardrobe
A run built wall to wall and floor to ceiling, with the cornice and skirting carried through so it reads as original to the house. The most storage you will get from a given wall.
A dressing room painted top to bottom in one colour, hanging on three walls and drawer banks where the depth allows. The one room where a dark colour always pays off.
Hanging built into the recesses either side of a chimney breast, which is usually where it wants to go in a period bedroom. The breast itself stays clear.
Joinery cut to a sloping ceiling, where the awkward angles become drawers and pull outs instead of the dead triangle behind a curtain.
Not sure yet what you want yours to look like?
Our wardrobe ideas page collects the details worth borrowing, from colour and ironmongery to how the inside is laid out.
Before you commission
We work in houses across Highgate, Hampstead, Muswell Hill, Crouch End, Winchmore Hill, Palmers Green, Southgate, Totteridge, Whetstone, Barnet, Mill Hill and Islington. If your home sits outside that, ask.
How much more storage do fitted wardrobes give me?
On most walls, considerably more. A freestanding wardrobe loses the space behind it, above it and beside it. Building wall to wall and up to the ceiling recovers all three. The top box alone usually holds everything that currently lives in the loft.
Will the wardrobes match the rest of the house?
Skirtings, architraves and cornices can be matched so the run reads as original to the property. In a period bedroom that is the difference between joinery that looks built in and joinery that looks bolted on.
Can you build around a chimney breast or a sloping ceiling?
That is where made to measure earns its money. Alcoves either side of a chimney breast take hanging well. A sloping eaves ceiling becomes drawers and pull outs rather than the dead triangle it usually ends up as.
Do you fit lighting inside?
We plan it before anything is made, which is the only way it works properly. Lighting that comes on with the door, sockets inside a dressing room and the cable routes to reach them all get decided at drawing stage.
What do fitted wardrobes cost?
It depends on the width of the run, how the doors are built, the internal fit out and the ironmongery. We give you a written quotation against a drawn elevation, so you can see what each decision adds before you commit to it.
How long does it take?
Lead times depend on the size of the commission and what else is happening in the house. You get a schedule at drawing stage covering survey, making and fitting, so decorating and carpets can be planned around it.
Send us the bedroom and we will draw it out
Tell us what the room does badly at the moment. We will measure it, set the inside out with you and show you an elevation before anything is made.