Building a fitted wardrobe

TomsMom

We have a natural alcove in our bedroom and are thinking of turning it into a fitted wardrobe. It is approx 2m wide x 2.2m high. We would want 4 x hinged doors, hanging space behind 3 doors and shelves behind 1 door. The room has just been newly decorated so it's all pristine and clean.

How do we go about building this? What sort of wood is needed for the frame? I'm thinking that if it's just plain wood then when the doors are opened it will look very much a DIY job. What do the professionals use? If we buy the vinyl wrapped type of doors, is there matching wood that's used for the frames?

diable

You could always go to a timber yard and have MDF cut to size that you could fit together and paint, you can always add 6mm strips to the doors to give it a more pleasing look. The guy that built the wardrobes in my youngest sons small bedroom did an excellent job and to this day it looks good. For shelves though have the metal bits cut into the side (can't remember what they are called) so you have the option to adjust the shelf heights.

I would post photos but the ex wife got the house and furniture in the divorce lol

ormus

might be better to find a ready made wardrobe that fits the space and just make a similar piece to fill in the top.
2m width should be fairly easy to find.

Steve_Groves

Decide on whether you are going to buy or make the doors and source them. IKEA are fairly cheap for smart doors (kitchen or bedroom). Don't forget that you do not need one door that goes floor to ceiling, you can screw 2 together to make one single door and stop it looking too bland.

With the doors chosen you can now decide on the cabinets. A good, cheap and easy way is to build them from MDF and then paint them.

If you go to one of the B&Q Warehouses, they will have a timber cutting service so work out what pieces you need and they will cut them to the right size. Each section of the warerobe will require 2 sides, 1 back, a top and bottom.

So if your cabinets were 2.1m high x 600mm wide x 500mm deep then using 18mm MDF would need the following pieces cut:

2 sides @ 2100mm x 500mm
1 back @ 2100mm x 564mm (600mm wide - 2 x thickness of MDF)
2 top/btm @ 600mm x 500mm

To join them together then buy the knock down fittings from Isaac Lords (www.isaaclords.com). This way you will have a solid box and not need to do any joints. They also sell the BLUM hinges and anything else you might require.

Paint the MDF with MDF primer a couple of times + undercoat and top coats and you will have a professional looking job.

Best of luck.

TomsMom wrote: »

We have a natural alcove in our bedroom and are thinking of turning it into a fitted wardrobe. It is approx 2m wide x 2.2m high. We would want 4 x hinged doors, hanging space behind 3 doors and shelves behind 1 door. The room has just been newly decorated so it's all pristine and clean.

How do we go about building this? What sort of wood is needed for the frame? I'm thinking that if it's just plain wood then when the doors are opened it will look very much a DIY job. What do the professionals use? If we buy the vinyl wrapped type of doors, is there matching wood that's used for the frames?

TomsMom

Steve_Groves wrote: »

With the doors chosen you can now decide on the cabinets. A good, cheap and easy way is to build them from MDF and then paint them.

If you go to one of the B&Q Warehouses, they will have a timber cutting service so work out what pieces you need and they will cut them to the right size. Each section of the warerobe will require 2 sides, 1 back, a top and bottom.

So if your cabinets were 2.1m high x 600mm wide x 500mm deep then using 18mm MDF would need the following pieces cut:

2 sides @ 2100mm x 500mm
1 back @ 2100mm x 564mm (600mm wide - 2 x thickness of MDF)
2 top/btm @ 600mm x 500mm

To join them together then buy the knock down fittings from Isaac Lords (www.isaaclords.com). This way you will have a solid box and not need to do any joints. They also sell the BLUM hinges and anything else you might require.

Paint the MDF with MDF primer a couple of times + undercoat and top coats and you will have a professional looking job.

Best of luck.

Thanks Steve, that's really useful, and I've added isaac lords to my favourites.

OK - silly question time! Do I need MDF sides for the two side walls of the alcove, and a bottom and a back? I'm thinking if it was a sliding door wardrobe, would you just put a track top and bottom for the doors to fit into to enclose the alcove? If so, do I need sides? I suppose I do if I want shelves behind one of the end doors. I'm probably being thick 'cos I realise there'd need to be a framework to allow the doors to be hung. The room has just been decorated and a new carpet put down so it's all clean and new.

I think I've tied myself up in knots there, doesn't seem to make a lot of sense any more :rotfl: .

I'm sure sliding doors would be easier but it's not the look I want .

diable

I would build in a bottom floor but work out what doors you want as it is cheaper to build/adjust to a standard size. I know mirror sliding doors are not the best but if you don't have any dress mirrors then it may be a good idea, at the end of the day its your decision but choose carefully.

vegasvisitor

We got a 2 door one (2 big doors) fitted by a company for about £750. The internal fittings include a long hanging rail, shelved section the a section which takes up about half the width and has 2 hanging rails, one above the other. Then there's a shelf right along the top. I have a feeling it might be a ready made self assembly interior pack. Look in the DIY shops, I think they might sell 'interior packs'.

TomsMom

Andy - thank you, thank you. You must have got inside my head and unscrambled everything and understood exactly what I'm thinking about. It was the framework I couldn't get my head around and what the doors would hang on and how to fix a shelf and hanging rails etc. I know what I mean but it doesn't always come out in an understandable way :rotfl: .

OH said he would try and do it but was worried it would be too amateurish as he's not done that sort of thing before. And where to get oak effect stuff for the bits that show. Also, he is much weaker now and it's not long before he's off to Bristol for a few months for his transplant. He's very mindful that it needs to be done quickly and that he might not be around (in every sense, being realistic) to finish it if he starts it.

We could ask the hunky army if they're willing to do it but it would cost a lot in travelling time on top of everything else because of them being based 60 miles away.

I do think the sliding door option is the easiest and probably the cheapest. If OH is home for the weekend and we can get out, I think I'll try and see if we can get anything that looks decent enough to go with those oak chests we like, although I'm thinking that is a last resort. I'm remembering when our children were young we had white sliding doors (probably from MFI) and they weren't much better than hardboard, quite wobbly and flimsy so I suppose that's put us off.

We do have the old pine wardrobes (picture number 8 on that page) in the second bedroom that I was wondering about painting the same colour as the walls (Timeless). Two of those doors have mirrors in the top panels. But I really wanted something a bit more modern than the arched panels which I think would look better with the chests. Still it's another option work thinking about as we do have all the bits and pieces and more than enough to fit into the space we've got.

Thanks again, it's nice to know that there are people who understand my ramblings at times .

TomsMom

andrew-b wrote: »

Alternatively howabout buying some kitchen parts...such as oak larder doors and plinths that you could use around the edge. You might remember at one point i was considering building our bathroom vanity unit out of B&Q kitchen bits!

Andy

Now that's a good idea! Thanks Andy.