Fitted wardrobes

Participant · 12 May 2013 at 18:04

Hi all

We moved into our house in December, and have since been hanging our clothes on Argos rails. Well we've had enough of those and have decided to get a fitted wardrobe for the area.

This is the space:

It's quite deep, which means that a conventional wardrobe with hanging rails left to right would not make sufficient use of the depth. So the designer came up with this:

Single door, walk-in with three hanging rails and lots of shelves. We requested the three drawer chest on the left but now aren't sure if it might look better blank, but this would mean wasted space behind the left-hand hanging rail.

Price quoted: £1,400. The company is Hammonds as you can see.

Basically I was after opinions on a) what the designer's done, as it seems like there's going to be an awful lot of blank wood, and b) the price.

The range is Libretto and the style is Avola White if anyone is interested. We might add a full length mirror on the right hand side. The designer wanted to put the mirror on the rear of the door with a 180 degree hinge, so to look in the mirror you'd have to open the door.

Any views welcome...

Maccapacca · 12 May 2013 at 18:13

We pay 1000 a unit for fitted wardrobes that's two number 1200mm to 1500mm wide with swinging or sliding doors a rail and shelf. I'd say your price is not far off the mark including fitting at high street prices

Id just have the drawers internal so you can't see them

StevenG · 12 May 2013 at 18:14

Im going to go out on a limb here and say that is way overpriced, i'd build a stud frame, add a door and some form of rail to the right full depth from front to back. and then drawers or shelving on the left pretty much as has been done there.

wood frame, door, boards, skim if need be £250-300?
Rail & shelves £150?
drawers pricing depending what you want installed.

Participant · 12 May 2013 at 18:26

maccapacca said:
We pay 1000 a unit for fitted wardrobes that's two number 1200mm to 1500mm wide with swinging or sliding doors a rail and shelf. I'd say your price is not far off the mark including fitting at high street prices

Id just have the drawers internal so you can't see them

Cheers. How would the drawers best be hidden? Behind a hinged door? If so, the bloke said they'd have to charge a full-sized door price on top of their quote for that :/.

StevenG said:
Im going to go out on a limb here and say that is way overpriced, i'd build a stud frame, add a door and some form of rail to the right full depth from front to back. and then drawers or shelving on the left pretty much as has been done there.

wood frame, door, boards, skim if need be £250-300?
Rail & shelves £150?
drawers pricing depending what you want installed.

It's the skill we're paying for though, the skill to do a proper job and not waste the materials, a skill that I lack in spades. You need to factor in labour into your costs to make it a fair comparison...1 day's work for an experienced joiner?

Maccapacca · 12 May 2013 at 18:38

StevenG said:
Im going to go out on a limb here and say that is way overpriced, i'd build a stud frame, add a door and some form of rail to the right full depth from front to back. and then drawers or shelving on the left pretty much as has been done there.

wood frame, door, boards, skim if need be £250-300?
Rail & shelves £150?
drawers pricing depending what you want installed.

Quite true if it's all hidden just build a stud wall and a door then keep the drawers you have inside and shelve it yourself. Studding and plaster boarding is easy maybe get a chippy to fit the door and skirting and a plasterer for a couple of hours.

GinG · 12 May 2013 at 19:00

We went with Sharps, but ours was a lot more space, spent around £4k.

Very happy with the finish and quality:

GinG · 12 May 2013 at 19:00

Excuse the mess, the bedroom is next on list to decorate and sort out!

Let me know if you want interior pics but everyone has hanging rails in.

Edit 2...we looked at Hammonds, and it is an option from Persimmon and quality looks good. Price wise though Hammonds was twice the price when we were getting quotes in. May be worth getting Sharps in, but never pay full price. They usually have 50 - 75% off deals!

Participant · 12 May 2013 at 19:18

Booked an appointment with Sharps and 50 minutes after he was due to arrive, we get a phone call from the designer saying he couldn't make it as he was still in Wolverhampton. Wrote an email to customer services one week ago and have heard nothing back, therefore Sharps will not be getting our business

.

Yours looks nice though. Unfortunately unless we sacrifice space, the walk-in option is the best one for us it would appear.

MatteH Oxford · 12 May 2013 at 21:18

I think it would be better to have had a triangular shaped door to the left of the ones on the right, then you could have had the option of putting either a separate set of draws or a built in unit in that space.

As it is, it seems space is a bit wasted, it looks awkward to have to fully walk in to the wardrobe to access the space on left hand side.

MatteH Oxford · 12 May 2013 at 21:31

To give you some idea of what is possible, here's some push doors we made to fit in a space very much like the one you want to fill. Every door opens in to a usable space.

Apologies for not being able to find the inside pictures, basically it is a mix of hanging space, shelving & fully open cupboards. Oh, and the bottom panel is missing plus the doors aren't gapped yet either!

Participant · 12 May 2013 at 21:48

MatteH Oxford said:
I think it would be better to have had a triangular shaped door to the left of the ones on the right, then you could have had the option of putting either a separate set of draws or a built in unit in that space.

As it is, it seems space is a bit wasted, it looks awkward to have to fully walk in to the wardrobe to access the space on left hand side.

Immediately to the left of the door shown in the design? But then there couldn't be a full height hanging rail surely?

I agree that it looks a bit clunky though.

MatteH Oxford · 12 May 2013 at 22:09

I was thinking perhaps twist the rail 90 degrees and have a panel separating the full height hanger from the two on the left, this would give you a cubby above the hanging rail - or does it give you more hanging rail length the way it is - could the rail be dropped a bit?

Kinda hard without knowing the dimensions, just chucking a few possible options - workable or not!

Windle · 13 May 2013 at 00:29

The big nationwide companies are ridiculously expensive, we had Hammonds round for a quote. They were here for 2 hours and quoted 1700 quid for what we wanted. We found a local company which specialised in sliding wardrobes and got exactly what Hammons offered us for £700 fully fitted. Worth seeing if there is a local equivalent where you are!

Participant · 13 May 2013 at 09:09

MatteH Oxford said:
I was thinking perhaps twist the rail 90 degrees and have a panel separating the full height hanger from the two on the left, this would give you a cubby above the hanging rail - or does it give you more hanging rail length the way it is - could the rail be dropped a bit?

Kinda hard without knowing the dimensions, just chucking a few possible options - workable or not!

Thanks Matteh, for the pic too. Looks good. Wife just wants to go with it but I'm not so sure...the guy was a bit of a dinosaur and I think he was just thinking about being offered early retirement or something

.

If you did have any pics at some point I'd be interested to see them if poss.

Windle - I'll have a look round, but the only one near us is like Starplan in that they don't offer full height for high ceilings.

Martynt74 · 13 May 2013 at 09:42

Is it worth sticking a job up on something like RatedPeople.com, i'm sure there'll be plenty local independant joiners who'd be interested

Nightglow · 13 May 2013 at 10:11

Shame we can't compile a list of reputable contractors we have used on here, might benefit others.

MatteH Oxford · 18 May 2013 at 17:29

Robbie G said:
Thanks Matteh, for the pic too. Looks good. Wife just wants to go with it but I'm not so sure...the guy was a bit of a dinosaur and I think he was just thinking about being offered early retirement or something .

If you did have any pics at some point I'd be interested to see them if poss.

The design does have its good points, it's basically the most simple & cheapest way to do the job by the looks of it.

Sorry, can't find the other pics - I would have to go back and take some more by the looks of it

Participant · 18 May 2013 at 17:38

OK cheers.

Anyway we've decided to go for it. Got to find a sparky to install spotlights in the ceiling now. Can't flipping wait to get rid of those Argos rails now!

Deposit paid...deal now done :eek:

. Can't wait; how sad I am.

Participant · 25 Jun 2013 at 18:56

This was done today for anyone that's interested. Here's a before and after:

There's **** loads of space, we love it

. It's deeper than it looks, there's lots of hanging space. Now to get some LEDs and a push-to-break switch installed.

Tinders · 30 Jun 2013 at 12:16

Looks good, but although I can appreciate we live in a world that we don t really have time for DIY, which means that most don't have the skills either. But £1700 for something like is a lot of money and its not exactly a difficult job!

Fitted wardrobes

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