Fitted Wardrobes Dilemma- Is it worth it?

Charlotte09

Hi

I really need some advice please regarding fitted wardrobes

We moved in new home last year so has been nearly one year. House was fully renovated upstairs so we have had no cupboards/storage for while and now am loosing patience! Bedroom 1 & 2 have chimney breasts and bedroom 3 has a stairbox so freestanding furniture looks like it will look clunky and make the rooms even smaller?

I have got so many quotes for fitted wardrobes from the big names of Sharps & Hammonds and lots of independents and local joiners too. However I still cannot decide whether I should invest ££ in fitted wardrobes.

Also I recently read that if you use just a front frame system only it is cheaper? Any advantages/disadvantages of this?

knightstyle

Easy DIY job, we measured and planned carefully then went to timber merchants and bought 2 sheets of 18mm MDF. they cut them accurately to the required sizes. Then assembled them and bought a triple sliding door set from another supplier. Looks good and we didn't even paint the MDF in the end.
Warning if you go to B&Q make sure the doors and rails you buy are compatible, ours weren't so we returned them and went elsewhere.

tacpot12

Investing in fitted wardrobes seems to make sense if you are going to stay in the property for a long time, whereas if you are only staying a couple of years, stand-alone furniture that can move with you makes more sense. Fitted wardrobes should maximise the storage space as you loose nothing due to the gaps between standalone furniture and the walls. If the house is on the small side, fitted wardrobes probably make sense.

JimmyChanga

I'd stay away from Sharps, Hammonds etc. Overpriced crap.

Just measure up and get down to Ikea is my suggestion.

[Deleted User]

Ikea PAX wardrobes with sliding doors are excellent and so much cheaper. You can kit them out exactly how you like. You can even pay IKEA to assemble them and it will still work out a lot cheaper than fitted wardrobes although they are fairy easy to do yourself.

Doozergirl

In our new house we'll be using our carpenters to create Ikea wardrobes as if they're fitted and doing quite a bit of 'hacking' to make it look bespoke, or creating our own better quality carcasses and using the Ikea fittings. I'd love properly fitted wardrobes but the quality I'd like is going to be about £10k for our dressing room and we're struggling to justify that.

Sharps and Hammonds etc aren't 'bespoke' at all and charge outrageous prices. I find with most furniture that there's nothing genuinely in the middle in terms of price and quality, just overpriced cheap stuff.

ka7e

The alcoves in our bedroom are fairly shallow, so we fitted a 3m run of Pax wardrobes in front of the chimney breast. It was a bit of a struggle to fit brackets to strap them to the recessed walls, but worth it for the money we saved on removing the chimney breast. They are fully fitted out with trouser rails, drawers and shelving to suit our needs. There is also the option to change the doors in the future if our tastes change!

vansboy

Another vote for Ikea.


Go into the store with your measurements and spend some time on their planners, looking at the styles, components and bits n pieces, on the displays, in 'real life'. You can change so many aspects and get help from their staff without hassle, as and when you need it.


Then when you are back home, make as many changes, before you decide on what style is best for you. It will price it as you add or remove items, so you can control your spend and they don't have false pricing, but do have occassional offers, with maybe a gift card free, depending on spend level.



VB

Maz1963

They are great, but if fitting on an outside wall, especially corner of house, you can get damp problems. Previous occupants did lots of 'clever' things in house, but this was not one of their best - I wasn't aware of the issue when we moved in, and lost a lot of clothes due to damp and mould. I now open the doors in winter to ventilate and keep good clothes elsewhere, just in case.


In my loft conversion I had a carpenter fit some wardrobes and shelving into the sloping space and he did a great job. No damp issues here as loft conversion well insulated!

Davesnave

I think we fitted out our dressing room with Pax for around £600. We didn't want doors, which kept the cost down.

Charlotte09

Thank you everyone; looks like will have to try Ikea then for sure

Yes have a fairy smallish 3 bed semi so really need to maximise storage and minimise furniture taking up excess room