Rough costs of a fitted wardrobe

Hannimal

I have been aspiring to get a fitted wardrobe for quite some time, and now I am at a point where I could either order one in or buy a non-fitted wardrobe. I am looking at websites like made.com and I can see that a reasonable wardrobe to the space I have would cost around £1500-2500, including assembly. This is actually not that different to the cost of an IKEA Pax unit for this size - I am looking around 250cm-or-so. If it is fitted, the space is 270cm wide and about 240cm high. 

About a year ago I had quotes from local carpenters. I didn't love their designs (a bit too traditional for me, I like a modern and sleep look, hence IKEA reference) but they looked good enough. How ever the quotes were £8000 and £6500, which is way more than I can afford for a bloody wardrobe. A new bathroom with installation cost me half of that! 

Does anyone have experience with getting quotes from Hammonds, Sharps and the like? I know I can just book a visit but if the quotes are likely to be in region of £8k then I don't want to waste my time or theirs. It's impossible to get an idea of cost from their websites.

greensalad

I'd be careful with Made.com. Though I have quite a few pieces of furniture from them, they are not the best quality. And the price is really high. They're more on par with IKEA's slightly higher priced furniture if you know what I mean, but I feel like they charge double. 

I looked into Sharps when I wanted my dressing room done and the cost was similar to the local carpenter price you say. I expect that you could get them to knock it down a bit as they're a big national chain, but it's still going to be several thousand. 

If you were interested in DIYing with PAX I've been doing that project now for a few weeks and am really pleased with the result. I've been documenting it here: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6388428/framing-in-around-ikea-pax-wardrobe

You can buy aftermarket doors and handles for the PAX range if you want to make it a bit more luxury. The carcasses have been pretty decent though, considering I've been hammering and painting and sanding and whatnot all over them!

Doozergirl

greensalad said:

I'd be careful with Made.com. Though I have quite a few pieces of furniture from them, they are not the best quality. And the price is really high. They're more on par with IKEA's slightly higher priced furniture if you know what I mean, but I feel like they charge double. 

I looked into Sharps when I wanted my dressing room done and the cost was similar to the local carpenter price you say. I expect that you could get them to knock it down a bit as they're a big national chain, but it's still going to be several thousand. 

If you were interested in DIYing with PAX I've been doing that project now for a few weeks and am really pleased with the result. I've been documenting it here: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6388428/framing-in-around-ikea-pax-wardrobe

You can buy aftermarket doors and handles for the PAX range if you want to make it a bit more luxury. The carcasses have been pretty decent though, considering I've been hammering and painting and sanding and whatnot all over them!

All of this. 

Sharps, Hammonds etc are all fur coat and no knickers.  Hugely expensive for no reason - no design skills, no imagination, no quality no flexibility.  I would pay a carpenter for bespoke before ever handing a penny to them.  In fact, I'd rather use the floor.  

Ikea are the best for this sort of thing.  Even if you have a very awkward space, a carpenter can work wonders.   I've designed so many in the past, but ours are fitted around a corner within sloping eaves and they look amazing.  I bought an extra carcass to use for the 'Ikea Hack' in the gaps so everything is the same materials.  

benson1980

I've fitted PAX wardrobes in the past- they are good. In our current house I went for Fittingly, partly because there was a massive shortage of PAX, at the time. They were around 40% more expensive, but they were designed to specifically fit into the gap we had so definitely more bespoke in that sense.

PAX has really good internal design options with drawers and hangers, and wotnot. The backing panels are really flimsy though- not that it matters too much but it is nice with the fittingly ones that the backs of the units are properly solid.

I would therefore say fittingly are worth a look as well. They are a bit more expensive but we're happy with them, and the design phase is really good I would say where someone will actually put together a configuration for you and send it to you to review. The only thing that irritated me was they just sent random numbers of fixings for the DIY option rather than actually counting out and supplying what you need, which I ran out of so couldn't finish them on the days I had planned. 

TELLIT01

We had Hammond wardrobes installed quite a few years ago and can't remember the cost.  The quality was high, as was the design which certainly maximised the storage capacity.  What wasn't so good was the difference between the designers claims and the reality of the installation.  We wanted the new wardrobes to be the same length as the ones being removed because the room had intricate picture rail and we didn't think we would be able to match.  'No problem' according to the designer.  Fast forward to installation completion and the wardrobes were about 2" shorter than the old ones.  Queried with installer and was informed that length was determined by the combination of doors used and nothing could be done about it.  I showed him the original plan which had a filler piece to create the correct length.  He said there was no such item and basically what he had installed was it.  Like it or lump it.  Complained to Hammond and got absolutely nowhere.

Would I use them again - no chance.

Hannimal

Thanks so much everyone. Would it be stupid to ask a carpenter to come make an ikea unit look fitted in? It sounds like this could be the cheapest option but I would not be able to do this myself because I am busy and have no life skills

benson1980

Hannimal said:

Thanks so much everyone. Would it be stupid to ask a carpenter to come make an ikea unit look fitted in? It sounds like this could be the cheapest option but I would not be able to do this myself because I am busy and have no life skills

You can do I’m sure but as said if you want wardrobes similar to pax and fitted for you I would advise having a look at fittingly. On reflection the fitting charges were very reasonable as it took me at least two full days to do it all. We have an L shape of built in units in a room around 13 x 11ft and diy was 1400. Fully fitted charge was an extra £450 I believe.

I suspect the pax plus trying to find a tradesperson to create a bespoke look, would work out as more expensive. Plus you then have the hassle of design and trying to find someone to do it.

Hannimal

benson1980 said:

Hannimal said:

Thanks so much everyone. Would it be stupid to ask a carpenter to come make an ikea unit look fitted in? It sounds like this could be the cheapest option but I would not be able to do this myself because I am busy and have no life skills

You can do I’m sure but as said if you want wardrobes similar to pax and fitted for you I would advise having a look at fittingly. On reflection the fitting charges were very reasonable as it took me at least two full days to do it all. We have an L shape of built in units in a room around 13 x 11ft and diy was 1400. Fully fitted charge was an extra £450 I believe.

I suspect the pax plus trying to find a tradesperson to create a bespoke look, would work out as more expensive. Plus you then have the hassle of design and trying to find someone to do it.

Based on the IKEA website I think I could get a PAX for £900 and they estimate fitting cost through task rabbit to be £260. Can fittingly really do cheaper than that? The PAX unit has all the fancy shelving inside as well. 

benson1980

Hannimal said:

benson1980 said:

Hannimal said:

Thanks so much everyone. Would it be stupid to ask a carpenter to come make an ikea unit look fitted in? It sounds like this could be the cheapest option but I would not be able to do this myself because I am busy and have no life skills

You can do I’m sure but as said if you want wardrobes similar to pax and fitted for you I would advise having a look at fittingly. On reflection the fitting charges were very reasonable as it took me at least two full days to do it all. We have an L shape of built in units in a room around 13 x 11ft and diy was 1400. Fully fitted charge was an extra £450 I believe.

I suspect the pax plus trying to find a tradesperson to create a bespoke look, would work out as more expensive. Plus you then have the hassle of design and trying to find someone to do it.

Based on the IKEA website I think I could get a PAX for £900 and they estimate fitting cost through task rabbit to be £260. Can fittingly really do cheaper than that? The PAX unit has all the fancy shelving inside as well. 

I don’t know but it’s probably worth getting a quote.

 All I can tell you is that for our configuration, fittingly wasn’t a whole lot more expensive than Pax and the units were slightly better.  This included filler/end panels etc. The back of the units are 18mm and you don’t have all the holes everywhere to cater for all of the different internal configurations.

I also suspect it might be a bit of a hassle finding a carpenter to do a job like this, plus who provides the filler panels etc. This needs to be included in your workings out. 

FaceHead

Get a local carpenter. Discuss getting the IKEA unit 'hacked', or having something built from scratch. Have the same conversation twice more with two more local carpenters. 

Understand the pros and cons, and ask them to quote for the two options. If you get it built from scratch can you paint it, or do you want that done. Painting is about a third of the cost. In my head this should cost 3k to have it built from scratch. Given the recent madness of timber prices and demand driving labour costs, I would expect quotes (for the bespoke option) to come in the 4-5k range. 6500-8000 a year ago is madness.  

Hannimal

FaceHead said:

Get a local carpenter. Discuss getting the IKEA unit 'hacked', or having something built from scratch. Have the same conversation twice more with two more local carpenters. 

Understand the pros and cons, and ask them to quote for the two options. If you get it built from scratch can you paint it, or do you want that done. Painting is about a third of the cost. In my head this should cost 3k to have it built from scratch. Given the recent madness of timber prices and demand driving labour costs, I would expect quotes (for the bespoke option) to come in the 4-5k range. 6500-8000 a year ago is madness.  

Yes, IKEA it is. That is well over my budget.