Home / Fitted wardrobes
Bespoke fitted wardrobes in North West London
Wardrobes built to the millimetre for the room you have. Alcoves, chimney breasts and sloping loft ceilings are the normal job, not the difficult one.
A wardrobe that uses the whole wall
A bought wardrobe is made in standard sizes. Put one against a real wall in a real North West London house and you get a gap at the top, a gap down the side and a strip of floor you cannot hoover. You paid for that space and you cannot use it.
A built-in wardrobe goes to the ceiling, into the alcove and up to the skirting. The awkward bits of the room become storage instead of dead air.
It also matters what goes inside. Before I quote I ask what you are actually putting away, because a wall of long hanging is no use to someone with forty pairs of shoes and a drawer problem.
- Full height, ceiling to skirting
- Alcove pairs either side of a chimney breast
- Sloped loft and eaves spaces
- Double hanging, long hanging and shelves
- Drawers, shoe racks and pull-out rails
Old rooms are rarely square
The housing round here is mostly Victorian and Edwardian terraces, 1930s semis and converted flats. That means chimney breasts with a recess either side, settled floors that are not level and walls that are not plumb.
None of that is a problem when the wardrobe is made for the room. It is scribed to the wall, packed off the floor where the floor has dropped, and finished so the joint between the carcass and a hundred-year-old wall looks deliberate.
It is the whole argument for made to measure, and it is why a flat-pack answer in a period house never quite looks right.
A wall of wardrobes in Feltham
Most fitted wardrobe websites show you the doors closed. The doors are the easy bit. Here is the same job opened up, which is where you find out whether it was built properly.
What customers say about the wardrobes
We asked a family friend for a personal recommendation for a reliable and trustworthy carpenter and this is how we came across Max. We were looking for custom built wardrobes to be designed and built in two bedrooms as well as other bits and pieces.
From start to finish, Max has been a godsend. The advice and help provided has been invaluable. The dedication he has to producing work to a very high standard is second to none. On top of this, Max is punctual, hard working and a pleasure to have around. We are so happy with his work that we are now exploring additional projects. Thank you Max!
Max is a brilliant carpenter, and I recommend him wholeheartedly.
He has carried out a varied portfolio of carpentry work for me, in two properties, from 2024 to the present, including building built-in wardrobes, shelving units, and boxing-in for an air conditioning system, removing and reassembling wooden furniture units, fixing doors, fitting door handles, and putting up mirrors and pictures.
Max always finds a way to get the job done to a high standard. He is unfailingly courteous and responsive. Any enquiry to him is acknowledged within one day, often sooner.
Max at Barraclough Carpentry built a bespoke wardrobe for me, and I’m really pleased with the result. He was professional and easy to deal with throughout, and the team he brought along were excellent too. I’d happily recommend them.
Fitted wardrobes, answered
How much does a fitted wardrobe cost?
It depends on the size of the run, how the inside is laid out and the finish you want. A single alcove cupboard and a wall of full-height wardrobes with drawers are very different jobs.
The honest answer is that I need to see the room. Tell me the measurements and roughly what you want and I will give you a realistic idea before anyone commits to a visit.
Are fitted wardrobes actually worth it?
If the room is square, you have plenty of space and you may move in a year, probably not. A free-standing wardrobe is cheaper and it comes with you.
They are worth it when the space is the problem: an alcove either side of a chimney breast, a sloping loft ceiling, a ceiling too high for anything you can buy. In those rooms a fitted wardrobe is not a luxury version of a free-standing one. It is the only thing that uses the space at all.
Will fitted wardrobes add value to my house?
Honestly, not reliably, and anyone who promises you they will is guessing. If you are selling in the next couple of years, do not do it for the valuation.
What they do is make the room work while you are living in it, and make it show better when you do come to sell. That is a good enough reason on its own, and it is a more honest one.
Fitted wardrobes or IKEA PAX?
PAX is good value and there is no shame in it. If the budget is tight it will hold your clothes perfectly well.
What it will not do on its own is fill the room. You get the gap at the top, the gap down the side and the visible join. Plenty of people buy PAX and then have a carpenter scribe it in and box out the gaps so it reads as built-in, which costs a fraction of a full bespoke run.
If that is the route you want, say so when you get in touch and I will tell you honestly whether it is the better answer for your room.
How long does it take?
Most wardrobe jobs are a few days on site once the parts are ready. I will give you the timescale with the price, and if it changes you will hear it from me.
Can you build around a sloping ceiling or a chimney breast?
Yes, and that is usually the reason people ring. A sloped loft ceiling, a chimney breast with a recess either side, a boxed-in pipe: those are the spaces a bought wardrobe cannot use and a built-in one can.
Painted or a wood finish?
Both. Most of my wardrobes go in painted, and plenty go in a wood finish like a grey oak. The photographs on this site show both, so you can see how each looks in a real room.
Which suits your room better is worth a conversation. I will tell you honestly what I think will look right, and talk you through the finish and who does what.
Will my house be full of dust?
There is no such thing as no dust, but there is a lot of difference between a tidy job and a messy one. I sheet up, cut outside or in one place where I can, and clear the room at the end of every day. It is the thing my customers mention most often.
Do you work on flats as well as houses?
Yes. A good deal of my work is in flats and maisonettes across the NW postcodes, where the rooms are often the most awkward and a fitted wardrobe earns its keep the most.
Got a wall that is doing nothing?
Tell me about the room and I will tell you what it could hold. Rough measurements are enough to start.