We have been looking at prices for a decent fitted wardrobe. When we had our extension built we designed in a space for a wardrobe so correct space is already there. We just need the internals fitted and doors/frames. It is big, 3.8m wide. We have a quote for decent, solid doors, all the internals made up of double height hanging, shelves and drawers for £4.5k. Seems a little steep to me but there is lots of timber being used and it is a big space.

I’ve never bought a fitted wardrobe before, is that the right sort of price? Its a relatively local company with good reputation.

Doesn’t sound bad for bespoke. I had a load made to go in the alcoves beside the fireplaces in our bedrooms, were about £1500 each but that was 15 years ago or more. Ours were bespoke, each alcove was different in width, so completely unique design each time.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2jZn6iu]Wardrobe[/url] by Ben Freeman, on Flickr

Sounds reasonable. 3.8m is pretty wide! We had quotes of £1800 and £2600 (from memory) for our two 1.2m wide alcoves last year. They were going to be MFC, albeit well-fitted. Didn’t take either of them up, you can buy a nice bike for that!

Thanks. Door are actually about 3.2m, wide another 60cm or so of usable space within the frame.

We went with Ikea for ours as bespoke was gonna be far too expensive – 3.6m wide space, full height. All the carcasses, doors and internals (drawers, hanging space, shelves etc) cost about £850 and then a day or 2 for a carpenter to fit.

Can easily buy off the shelf doors, handles and internals if/when we fancy a change.

Believe it or no, but the main carcass of these came out of ikea, i produced the fronts door/drawers. Stained glass shows the phases of the moon(and theres another 3 wardrobe and a short 2nd drawer unit off camera.

Paneled doors are constructed of 12mm mdf, with the overlay of 6mm mdf to create the paneling. The house was built in 1700’s so a painted finish really worked well, and it wasnt sprayed as they wanted more a handworked look.
Units were single 600mm rear carcasses, one side removed on a pair to join to make a double. Outside of initial sawing of the door and drawer fronts it was pretty much glue and pin.
Places like B&Q have a wal saw and you could have every part of those fronts cut by them to size, with you only needing to work out lengths and widths.
Flaws to big gaps arent a prob, as it filled and painted so retains a clean look.

Can you assemble an ikea wardrobe or drawer cabinet ?.
Can you wield a glue brush and be capable of hammering in and driving down some small nails ?
Can you fill gaps in wood filler, sand smooth and slap over with paint ?

Then you can easily make that above unit.

Sounds about right yes, depending on details obviously.

A lot of work in these things.

I did a huge set recently in a manor house with a curved ceiling. Was a smidge over 4k I think. I’m not a rich man.

Sounds not too silly. We had the Sharpes fella come and give us a quote (2.5m width) because, I thought they’d actually help us design it, instead, it was “here’s the options, pick your rails and shelves and drawers” then £6000 including the discount…

Off to IKEA I went and did a beautiful job of it if I may say so myself. bit of bodgery, 3 sliding doors and nearly-fitted wardrobes have we (for about £1100).

This is worth a watch, if only to appreciate how big a difference there can be in quality and pricing thus what to look for.

Our wardrobes are much like the cheap example, done by a guy someone has recommended to my wife. The poor detail bothers me every day, the lazy shaker style doors done by sticking rails and stiles on a flat sheet that’s now warped. Had to fit magnetic catches just to hold the doors closed. And I had to spend weeks painting the bloody things but at least the edges aren’t as bad as the cheap example in the video.

Sharpes is pretty much standard sized carcasses “fitted” with lots of filler pieces and trim. You’re not getting something made to exactly fit your space.

Frank – I can recommend Douglas Turner, he’s local and has always done a superb job for us on various bespoke doors etc

https://www.yell.com/biz/g-h-turner-and-son-galashiels-656979/

This is worth a watch, if only to appreciate how big a difference there can be in quality and pricing thus what to look for.

His comparison isn’t quite right eg my one man band cabinet maker made our wardrobes off site to the exact alcove size and then all he had to do was scribe and trim the edges to match the deviations in the 100 year old walls and then fix in situ, so each one fitted in under a day. All solid wood as well, personally I wouldn’t have MDF.

The cheaper shelving unit in his video is terribly finished, they could have at least fitted edge bands to the cut edges so it was all smooth before painting.

4k sounds about right.

Quoted a few similar jobs recently.

Whether analogue in the workshop or getting most things done on the CNC prices came out about the same.

People seem to have odd ideas about what bespoke items should cost. I blame IKEA.

Had a guy a few weeks back wanting me to come round and price a job for him. Standalone wardrobe done in a shabby chic country style (lots of trimming around the doors) and a built in sink unit. He said his budget was tight. Asked what he expected to pay and he tells me 1500. Not each, but in total.

Lots of eye rolling ensued. Not bothered to quote nor visit.

We got a Sharpes one in the end. Think you need to catch them at the right time. They gave us a £6k ‘best price’ quote and we sucked in our teeth and said way too much and walked away when they rejected our request for further discount. We weren’t too bothered about getting them from Sharpes. However they kept coming back over the course of the next few weeks and we ended up getting them down to £4,500, which was stil a bit more than I wanted to pay but no regrets now. It’s a pretty solid job and looks pretty swish.

Howden’s do a variety of sliding doors – mirrored or panels
Shelving can be made from furniture board and painted – internals can be set up how you like
Rails are easy

We had 4 beds to do at the same time and this approach gave a nice, cost effective finish that still looks good 4 years on.

Carpenter fitted it all

I imagine you could get your quote down if needed

Yeah it’s very difficult as many folks have absolutely no idea about the benefits of bespoke, but subsequently the potential costs that might be involved.

When I quote for something like that, I’ll often visit to chat, measure up and really get a sense of what they’re after in terms of style, finish, layout etc.

I’ll then produce CAD drawings of their space, even adding details such as window placement etc so they can picture it well.

Then eventually we come to taking about costs(bear in mind I’ve already done several hours work just to get to this point)

This is where I fairly frequently find out that they thought it might cost maybe £50 more than getting an off the shelf piece from Ikea or somewhere. 😂

I’m getting better at establishing a realistic expectation of budget faster, but it’s difficult.

I go the extra mile for people and I enjoy doing that, so it’s always a bit of a shock and a disappointment to me that they sometimes don’t think that has value.

All solid wood as well, personally I wouldn’t have MDF.

Why?

I go the extra mile for people and I enjoy doing that, so it’s always a bit of a shock and a disappointment to me that they sometimes don’t think that has value.

I guess its whether they see it as somewhere to hang clothes / store books or something to look at and admire everyday for the next x years etc.

Personally, I’d go bespoke every time – you get a work of art as well as a functional item.

just having one made at the moment from a local joinery shop. 2.2m wide with a sloped ceiling at one end to work in. 2 hanging units with shelves and 2 shelve units made from MDF, he’s going to edge the front edges of the MDF to make it easier for me to paint. then 4 oak doors, just basic frames with oak faced MDF panels, 3 in the higher doors, 2 in the one where the sloped ceiling is.
costing about £1700 including the vat fitted.

Thanks everyone. Thats really helpful. I have no issue with paying a fair price for quality. I was just looking for reassurance as have never paid for wardrobes like this before. Some really helpful opinions here from people who really know what they are talking about. Seems like the quote is fair.

Thanks again.