Fitted wardrobes have the potential to transform your bedrooms. They’re ideal to tuck away into nooks and crannies where there might have been dead space around freestanding furniture before, giving your space a newly-streamlined finish.
Instead of having the tops of your wardrobes collect dust, by investing a bit of money, time and effort, you can have fitted wardrobes installed – or, if you have the patience and the skill, you could try your hand at building them yourself.
In this article, we’ll be exploring:
- How much fitted wardrobes cost
- What affects the cost of fitted wardrobes
- How to save money on fitted wardrobes
- How to know if fitted wardrobes are the best choice for your home
- How to find and hire a professional to fit the wardrobes for you
If you’re tired of your existing furniture and want to invest in a space-saving storage solution, keep reading to find out how to do just that.
How Much Do Fitted Wardrobes Cost?
Depending on the size of the fitted wardrobe required, your price will vary. Here’s a selection of prices based on their sizes below:
| WARDROBE SIZE | ESTIMATED COST |
|---|---|
| 2-door wardrobe | £2,200 to £2,800 each |
| 3-door wardrobe | £2,800 to £3,600 each |
| 6-door wardrobe | £4,500 to £5,000 each |
| 3-section sliding wardrobe | £3,500 to £4,000 each |
| Drawers | £120 to £150 each |
| Hanging Rails | £120 to £150 each |
| Shoe Racks | £100 to £120 each |
| Mirrors | £160 to £200 each |
A standard two-door wardrobe will come in at between £2,200 to £2,800. Adding in one extra door will raise that estimated price to between £2,800 to £3,600.
Moving up the scale to a six-door wardrobe, you can expect a cost of between £4,500 to £5,000. For a slightly different style, like a three-section sliding wardrobe, you can expect a cost of between £3,500 to £4,000.
You can then choose to accessorise your wardrobe with some essential pieces of equipment, such as drawers or hanging rails for between £120 to £150 each. A shoe rack would cost somewhere between £100 to £120, while the addition of mirrors to your fitted wardrobe will come in at between £160 to £200 depending on the size you opt for.
While fitted wardrobes mightn’t go up quite as quickly as a flatpack counterpart, the time they take to be constructed and assembled will be worth it in the long run.
You’ll need to set aside a little time for your fitted wardrobe to be designed and constructed – this is usually around three to four weeks – while the installation itself will need between three to five days, depending on the size and design.
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What Affects the Cost of Fitted Wardrobes?
There are a few factors that affect the cost of fitted wardrobes – so if you’re working to a strict budget, here are the key things to bear in mind to help to reduce your spending.
The Size of Your Wardrobe
As shown in the table above, whether you opt for a two-door or a six-door fitted wardrobe understandably affects the price you pay.
It can be hard to know at a glance what size you’re likely to need in your space, and if you don’t want to enlist the help of a carpenter to build you a bespoke unit, you may not know where to begin.
A stylish and contemporary design, capable of suiting any size of room, comes in the form of a sliding door fitted wardrobe. Ideal for smaller spaces, you can add mirrors to the outside to help bounce and reflect the light around the room and give the illusion of more space, ranging from £2,500 to £3,000.
While something like a six-door fitted wardrobe is ideal for large bedrooms. The wardrobe is made up of three sections which accommodate the drawers and clothes hanging space, usually ranging from £4,000 to £4,800.
Your Choice of Materials
Much like the size, the simple choice of material will impact your overall price. For instance, if you are choosing between different types of timber, premium woods like maple and teak will be more expensive than oak.
When choosing the type of material, it’s important to weigh up the short-term cost implications and the long-term longevity of the product. If you’re able to, it’s always a better option to go for the more premium choice to ensure a good lifespan, as you might end up needing to replace your cheaper materials sooner due to wear and tear, which will end up costing you more in the long run.
The Quality of Materials
Following on from our previous point, the quality of your materials will also impact the price you pay for your fitted wardrobes. Again, it’s a toss-up between having something installed that’s right for you now, as opposed to something that has the potential to last a lifetime.
Any Accessories
Fitted wardrobes don’t stop with the structure – there’s a whole host of accessories you can choose from to enhance your fixture, from integrated lighting to shoe racks and bespoke inserts. These extras can help to make fitted wardrobes your own, optimised to your needs and functionalities, making getting ready in the morning and again at night a breeze.
You can also opt for other features such as mouldings, columns and drawers, which will affect the price you’ll pay.
How Can I Save Money on a Fitted Wardrobe?
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With fitted wardrobes easily creeping into the thousands, it’s essential we know some ways to keep the costs in reach.
If you keep a keen eye on the markets, you can tell when companies will be having their annual offers – be that for Black Friday or Cyber Monday, a Christmas or New Years’ sale. By shopping at these times, you can take advantage of discounted prices on the same products.
With this route, you’ll be sacrificing the immediacy of having something fitted with a quick turnaround, but what you save in money can help to make up for the increased wait time.
Contrary to simply opting for the cheapest option outright, thinking a little more tactically can save you from needing to fork out on something new again in a few years.
Choosing better quality materials and build types can ensure your fitted wardrobes stand the test of time. While cheaper materials like MDF may seem appealing from a cost point of view, in time they’ll show signs of wear and tear far sooner than more premium materials.
What may seem like the cheapest option in the first place can quickly end up costing you more with replacements further down the line.
One of the main ways of cutting costs right down when installing fitted wardrobes is to simply do the job yourself.
A good tactic is to take advantage of a fitting company’s free consultation and design service to obtain a design and precise dimensions. Once you have a design and crucially, the dimensions, you can then shop around to see if you can purchase a DIY wardrobe that matches your needs.
This way, you can leverage a professional installer’s design capability for free, while you’ll likely save a lot of money by purchasing and installing the wardrobe yourself.
Understandably, the downside to taking a DIY approach is that you will not achieve the perfect finish you would expect from professional joiners or installers. You may also experience errors in dimensions, which may require you to cut down sections yourself, which may prove tricky for some less-experienced DIYers.
Time is another big implication, as you will have to find the space in your schedule to complete the job yourself around your other commitments.
Are Fitted Wardrobes the Best Choice for My Home?
When deciding what’s best for your home storage, it can be hard to know if fitted wardrobes are the best choice for you. To help you decide, here are the main advantages and disadvantages of fitted wardrobes:
| ADVANTAGES | DISADVANTAGES |
|---|---|
| Space-saving attributes, able to fit perfectly into awkward spaces and gaps | A lot more effort than flat pack furniture |
| Sleek design, in a range of materials, finishes and colours | One-time use, meaning you can’t take them with you when you move house |
| Fitted wardrobes add value to your home | Bespoke fitments often carry higher costs than flat pack |
| Endlessly customisable | Might not be to future homebuyer’s taste |
As you’d expect, high on the list of accolades for fitted wardrobes is their ability to be extremely space-efficient. If you have a small nook in your bedroom where you can’t fit a stand-alone piece of furniture, a fitted wardrobe will be sure to slot in with ease.
The addition of sliding doors can help with space limitations even further, by not requiring the opening space of a traditional door.
Available in a range of materials, you can make your fitted wardrobes entirely bespoke to you, meaning you can design something that suits your home style perfectly. Fitted wardrobes look neat by design, as they slot flush into areas, reducing the need for dusting on top of.
Popping a fitted wardrobe into your home will add value to your home when it comes to selling it. Although it means you can’t take the wardrobes with you to your new place, the investment you make in them in the first place will be absorbed into your home’s sale price, making them a sound investment.
Sliding doors, hinged doors, wood, glass, mirrored – the list goes on! The ways in which you can customise your fitted wardrobes is practically endless.
Instead of having to rely on a ready-made product that might not have all the features you want in a wardrobe, by having a fitted wardrobe installed in your space, you can make it exactly how you want it.
Simply put, having a fitted wardrobe installed is a harder feat than a flat-pack piece of furniture. If you’re enlisting the help of professionals to build the structure for you, this mightn’t be too much of a concern – but if you’re wanting to go down the self-build route, bear in mind that it won’t be as simple as affixing a ready-made wardrobe together.
Although fitted wardrobes will raise the value of your home when you come to sell, it comes with an obvious drawback – you can’t take the furniture with you when you leave. You must view it as an investment in the property and be happy to part with it when you leave.
Following on from our last point, fitted wardrobes are inherently bespoke, which by nature raises their price. Owing to the necessity for individual designs to be drawn up for each piece of furniture, the costs will be higher than that of a regular, off-the-shelf item.
What’s Involved in Installing Fitted Wardrobes?
Firstly, your installer will come out to your property to assess the available space and to take measurements. Some suggestions may be given immediately during the visit, while more comprehensive plans will likely be shared after the visit, along with suspected costings.
At the visit, it’s a good idea to have strong ideas of what you’d like and wouldn’t like so that your designer can take this on board when drafting up your ideas – this will save you both time in the long run. Also, settle on a budget, and let your designer know so that they don’t go way over.
You will then be able to look through the designer’s options, and based on your budget and wishes, choose an option that’s right for you – or merge elements of one or two together to create something perfect. Once selected, the installer will then have the furniture created which can take weeks – and sometimes months – to create, depending on lead times and current demand.
Once the items have been created, the installer will set a date with you to start the work. Your installer will then spend a number of days in your property installing the furniture – it’s a good idea to clear spaces beforehand as much as you can to ensure the work is done in the most efficient way possible.
How Do I Find and Hire Someone to Install Fitted Wardrobes?
Finding the right carpenter can be challenging. At HouseholdQuotes, we can connect you to carpenters in your area.
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The best place to start in your search for someone to install your fitted wardrobes is to seek out recommendations from friends, family or neighbours who have had similar work done recently. This way, you save time hunting down names of traders who might turn out to be no good and instead jump straight into having a named contact who has a good history.
Ensuring the Professional Is the Right Fit
With any home renovation job, it’s important to get hold of a written quote and an itemised plan of what will be included in that price. This helps to avoid any nasty extra charges at the end of the project.
Seeking out the trader’s experience and reading any customer testimonials is also a good route to take, as well as seeing any photos or videos of their previous work to see if you like what they can do.
Finally, all traders should carry insurance, but it’s always best to double-check this before they start work to make sure they are covered in the event of an accident.
Final Checklist
If you’re sick of ill-fitting wardrobes in your bedroom, it might be time to invest in some fitted wardrobes. Here’s our final checklist to make sure you’ve thought of everything before the project starts:
- Decide if you’re going down the DIY route, or if you want a trader to build the wardrobes for you
- Make use of the company’s in-house design to get an idea of what would work best in your space
- Choose your materials wisely – are you able to invest in premium materials to ensure longevity?
- Remember the cost of fitted wardrobes will eventually turn up in the sale of your property
- Enjoy your new, sleek storage solution!
Use HouseholdQuotes to find local carpenters and potentially save money on your carpentry project.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Is the Best Material for a Fitted Wardrobe?
This comes down to personal preference. You may want to prioritise having a hard-wearing material to deal with wear-and-tear, or you might opt for something that looks the part for the style of your home.
Some fitted wardrobes come with self-cleaning runners or other added features, so it’s a good idea to do your research and see what’s best for you and your individual needs.
Are Sliding Wardrobes Cheaper Than Doors?
The answer will come down to the size of the wardrobe in question – from our table above, the costs of a 3-door wardrobe and a three-section sliding wardrobe are largely the same, at between £2,200 to £3,000.
How sliding wardrobes trump hinged wardrobes are in their space-saving capabilities. You’ll get a sleeker look and will be able to fit in a sliding fitted wardrobe into a tight nook far easier than you would something hinged – so depending on your space allowances and other considerations, it’s down to personal preference as to which design is best for you.
Can I Paint an MDF Wardrobe?
Multiple sources say that painting over MDF is a hard job, drying blotchily and in an uneven way. The best tactic is to use specialist primers to seal the MDF first, then follow to paint with a paint of your choice.
Will Fitted Wardrobes Add Value to My Home?
Fitted wardrobes are highly regarded by potential house buyers as they’re one less thing for them to organise themselves. With this being said, it’s a good idea to have a timeless design added to ensure buyers aren’t put off by the style you’ve chosen – it’s best to keep things neutral and simple to attract as many people as possible.
With wardrobes costing into the thousands, a well-designed and thought-out fitted wardrobe can definitely add value to your property, making it a sound investment.
Do Fitted Wardrobes Cause Damp?
If you fit wardrobes into a brand new home before the plaster has had a chance to dry out, you do run the risk of having damp patches appear. This is true of any fitment or furniture item pressed up against newly-plastered walls, as they need adequate air movement to dry out.
In situations like these, it’s best to wait a few months before having the wardrobes fitted to avoid any issues that will end up costing you more than the initial payout.
Should I Decorate Before or After Adding Fitted Wardrobes?
The answer to this can go both ways – while it’s a good idea to have painters or decorators round once your fitted wardrobes have been installed to ensure that any paint or chips are tackled once the furniture is in place, it can also be a good idea to get walls painted or wallpapered entirely before their fitting to ensure a sleek finish.
If you are using particularly expensive wallpaper or paint, however, there’s no point in wasting it on the walls that will be hidden by the fitted wardrobe, so bear this in mind when you make your decision.
Can You Install Fitted Wardrobes on Carpet?
Yes, it’s possible to install fitted wardrobes on carpet, but it does take a little more work and preparation than a wooden or composite floor might. This is because the floor needs to be perfectly even and flat to ensure the fixture doesn’t sit wonkily or run the risk of collapsing.
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