We build and install fitted wardrobes made to the room rather than assembled from standard modules. That covers built-in and alcove wardrobes, sliding door systems, walk-in dressing rooms and matching bedroom furniture. Because our own carpenters both make and fit the work, the wardrobe is scribed to your actual walls, floors and ceilings — which in most South London housing stock are not square, not level and not consistent from one end of the room to the other.
The argument for fitted over freestanding is straightforward. A fitted wardrobe uses the full height and depth of the space, including the corners and the awkward angles that freestanding furniture cannot reach. In a typical bedroom that difference amounts to a considerable amount of extra storage, and it does it without the gap above that collects dust and the gap behind that collects everything else.
We survey the room, design the internal layout around what you actually store rather than a standard configuration, then make and install. That means hanging space at the right heights, drawers positioned where they are usable, shelving where you need it, and doors that suit the room — hinged where there is space to swing them, sliding where there is not.
The work is made to measure rather than assembled from a catalogue of standard carcass sizes. In a Victorian bedroom with a chimney breast, two alcoves of different widths and a ceiling that is not level, that is the difference between a wardrobe that looks built-in and one with packing strips visible down one side.
Most high-street fitted wardrobe companies use modular carcasses — standard-width boxes assembled in the room, with filler panels scribed in to take up the gaps at each end. It is a sensible system, it is quicker to install, and it costs less. In a modern house with square walls and a level floor, the result is genuinely good and you would struggle to tell the difference.
Made to measure means the carcasses themselves are built to the dimensions of your room. It costs more and takes longer, and in a straight, square, modern bedroom it is arguably unnecessary.
Where it earns the difference is in older property. When the two alcoves either side of a chimney breast are different widths, when the floor falls twenty millimetres across the room, or when the ceiling has a slope, a modular system needs increasingly wide filler panels to absorb the discrepancy — and those fillers are what stop it looking built-in. Made to measure absorbs the irregularity inside the construction instead of hiding it at the edges.
We will tell you honestly which your room needs. If a modular system would give you the same result for less, that is worth knowing before you spend the difference.
Full-height wardrobes built into the room and finished flush to the walls and ceiling. The most space-efficient option and the one that reads as part of the house rather than as furniture placed against a wall.
Built into the recesses either side of a chimney breast — space that in most period houses goes largely unused. The two alcoves are almost never the same width or the same depth, which is exactly why alcove wardrobes are worth making to measure rather than buying.
For rooms where there is not enough floor space to swing a hinged door: narrow bedrooms, or where a bed sits close to the wardrobe run. Sliding doors need no clearance in front, though one section is always closed, and the track adds a little to the overall depth.
Converting a box room, or a section of a larger bedroom, into a dedicated dressing space with open hanging, shelving and drawers. Walk in wardrobe installation usually works out cheaper per metre than a closed wardrobe run, because there are no doors.
Storage built into sloped ceilings and eaves, where standard furniture simply will not fit. Frequently the only way to make a converted loft bedroom genuinely practical. See our loft conversions page if the room does not exist yet.
Matching bedside units, drawer banks, dressing tables and over-bed storage, built to the same specification and finish as the wardrobes so the room reads as one piece of work rather than several.
Hanging rails at single and double height, shelving, drawer units, shoe racks, pull-out rails and lighting. The internal layout is what decides whether a wardrobe is genuinely useful or just large, and it is the part most worth spending time on at design stage.
The same approach applied elsewhere — media walls, alcove shelving in reception rooms, understairs storage and home office joinery. See our carpentry and joinery page for the wider range of bespoke work.
Most fitted wardrobe companies are sales operations that subcontract the fitting. The person who measures, the person who makes and the person who installs all work for different businesses, and when something does not line up, the conversation about whose fault it is happens in your bedroom.
We are a building contractor whose own carpenters do the work. That also means we can deal with whatever the room presents — a wall that needs making good, a socket that has to move, skirting that needs adapting, a floor that needs levelling — without booking another trade and losing two weeks to it.
Balham, Clapham, Brixton, Streatham, Tooting, Wimbledon, Mitcham, Worcester Park
Gravesend, Northfleet, Dartford, Meopham, Higham, Shorne, Cobham, Ebbsfleet
Based in Balham SW12 and working across South London and North Kent.
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Call 07472 137237 and ask.
Fitted wardrobes cost is driven far more by the door mechanism and the internal fit-out than by the width of the run, which is why per-metre pricing quoted online is usually misleading. The real drivers:
We quote in writing after measuring, itemised so you can see where the money goes.
We will come and measure the room, talk through what you need to store, and give you a written quotation. If a standard system would do the same job for less, we will tell you that too.
Cost is driven mainly by the door mechanism and the internal fit-out rather than by any fixed rate per metre. A straightforward alcove wardrobe with hinged doors and basic hanging sits at one end of the range; a full wall of sliding doors with drawers, pull-outs and integrated lighting sits well above it. We quote in writing after measuring, so you get a real figure for your room rather than an estimate based on an average one.
Typically three to five weeks from the design being signed off to installation, with manufacturing accounting for most of that time. The installation itself is usually one to three days depending on the size of the run and how much making good is needed around it.
For storage per square metre, yes. A fitted wardrobe uses the full height and depth of the space including corners and sloped ceilings, and there is no wasted gap above or behind. The trade-off is that fitted wardrobes stay with the house when you move. Whether that matters depends on how long you plan to stay and how much the extra storage is worth to you in the meantime.
Yes, and it is often the only way to make a converted loft bedroom genuinely usable. Eaves storage takes space that no freestanding furniture can reach, and it is one of the clearest cases for making something to measure rather than buying it.
They generally improve how a property presents, particularly in bedrooms that would otherwise look small once furniture is in them. Whether they add measurable value depends on quality and finish — well-made fitted storage reads as an asset to a buyer, while poorly finished units read as something they will want to rip out.
Usually. We can spray or paint to a specified colour and match timber species and finishes where possible. Bring a sample, a paint reference or a photograph to the design consultation and we will tell you what is achievable before you commit to it.
Yes, removal and disposal can be included. Mention any existing furniture at the survey so it is priced in from the start rather than added later, and tell us if anything is being kept so we set it aside rather than treating it as waste.
Around 600mm internally is the working minimum for hanging clothes on a front-to-back rail, since that is roughly the width of a coat hanger plus clearance. Sliding doors add a little more because of the track and the overlap between panels. Where a room cannot give up that depth, we can use side-facing rails instead, which need less depth but hold fewer garments.
