Wardrobe Space Measuring Guide

Once you’ve considered the space in your room and any constraints, it’s time to get your tape measure out.

Every House and room will be different, however the basics will be the same. We’d always recommend getting help from someone, this way they can hold one end of the tape measure tight to the wall while you can then concentrate on taking the size. Always ensure that the tape measure is parallel and pulled taut to get an accurate measurement.

The measuring guidance below is for a generic box room with 90 degree corners on the walls and ceilings. For any rooms that don’t have 90 degree corners please contact us for further advice.

Measure the Height

If your wardrobes are going floor to ceiling, measure the exact size of this.

Always measure the height at either end of where the wardrobes are going and also the middle. Don’t worry if these sizes vary slightly, they normally do. As long as they are within a 30mm (3cm) range it will be fine. If they are greater than this variance, please contact us and we’ll advise on next steps.

Pay attention to floor coverings, if it’s carpet, push the end of the tape measure down into the carpet.

If you’re going to have new carpet fitted you might want to remove the existing carpet and take that measurement before your new carpet is installed.

Our wardrobes come with a 100mm high base structure which is included in the size you provide for your wardrobe. We’ll explain this a little further in the example below.

We also recommend having a 100mm infill panel (called a scribe) at the top of the wardrobes, this helps with any height differences and makes it easier to build the wardrobes on the floor and stand them up with ceiling clearance. These top scribes are available within the Furniture Builder.

If your wardrobes are not running to the ceiling and you’re determining the height they finish at, you don’t need to measure the ceiling height. Just ensure that there is at least 100mm clearance at the top to ensure they can be built on the floor and stood up in your room.

Once you’ve taken note of these measurements, measure them again to check they’re correct. “Measure twice cut once” is our company motto!

Measure the Width

If your wardrobes are going wall to wall measure the exact size of this.

Always measure the width at the top, middle and bottom. Don’t worry if these sizes vary slightly, they normally do, as long as they are within a 30mm (3cm) range it will be fine. If they don’t please contact us and we’ll advise on next steps.

Make a note of your skirting thickness, if it’s more than 25mm then please contact us for further advice.

We recommend having a 50mm infill panel (side scribe) at either side of your wardrobes. This allows for the walls being out of level, for any skirting board and for the doors to open up. We’ll explain this a little further in the example below.

If your wardrobes are not going wall to wall then you need to determine where they finish. If they’re going against one wall we recommend having a 50mm infill panel (side scribe) at that wall end and then an end panel (gable) at the other. Both the side scribe panel and end gable are available within the furniture builder and order process.

Once you’ve taken note of these measurements, measure them again to check they’re correct. Remember “Measure twice cut once”.

Example Bedroom

For our example room we’re presuming that all wall, floor and ceiling angles are 90 degrees and our wardrobes are going floor to ceiling and wall to wall.

Firstly check all of the items under part one of this Guide: Planning & Positioning. Please also consider anything else that might impact your wardrobes and where they are located.

Height

Measure the height of the ceiling at the left side, middle and right side. Our sizes for this example are:

• Left side: 2620mm
• Middle: 2612mm
• Right side: 2600mm

Once you’ve taken the three sizes, measure them again to ensure they’re correct.

As you can see the sizes vary slightly which is expected. The difference between the smallest and largest is only 20mm so within the 30mm tolerance, if it’s 30mm or over please contact us for further advice.

The size we’ll use for the height of our bedroom will be the smallest of these sizes: 2600mm.

Width

Measure the width of the room wall to wall, at the top, bottom and middle. Most rooms will have skirting boards and some may have coving. Don’t worry about these, just make sure you measure the width from just above the skirting board and below the coving. If you do have coving it might be best to contact us so we can advise on what to do. Our sizes for this example are:

• Top: 3115mm
• Middle: 3108mm
• Bottom: 3100mm

Once you’ve taken the three sizes, measure them again to ensure they’re correct.

As you can see the sizes vary slightly, which again, is to be expected. The difference between the smallest and largest is only 15mm so within the 30mm tolerance, if it’s 30mm or over please contact us for further advice.

The size we’ll use for the width of our bedroom will be the smallest of these sizes: 3100mm.

Depth

Check the depth of the wardrobes against the side walls and ensure there will be no obstructions - we’ve checked through our ‘things to consider’ list and everything else in the room is ok.

Our standard wardrobe depths are 600mm, but this is customisable within the Furniture Builder. We’ll allow for a 20mm thick skirting (plinth) board, so will need a depth of around 620mm to accommodate the depth of the wardrobes.

We now have our overall sizes for our bedroom and fitted wardrobes.

• Height 2600mm
• Width 3100mm
• Depth 620mm

We can enter these values into the Furniture Builder so that it can confirm any sizes entered will fit the room and also allows our team to double check for you.

We’re allowing a 100mm scribe (infill) panel at the top. This means we need to order a 2500mm high wardrobe - the 100mm plinth base is already included in the wardrobe height.

We also reduce the width by 100mm, with 50mm infill panels on both the left and right to allow for the doors to open cleanly. This leaves us with an overall width of 3000mm for our wardrobes.

We now need to split this into the individual wardrobe units. For our bedroom we’ve decided that we would like some double hanging rails, long hanging rail, a shelving unit and a drawer unit with another hanging rail. All of our units are listed within the furniture builder, but can also be found here, where you will find an extensive range of wardrobe types which are easily identifiable by the visuals and descriptions.

To achieve this we’ve decided we’d like the following configuration of units:

Single wardrobe with adjustable shelving (product code: CSW_0006)
2500mm high x 500mm wide x 600mm deep

Double wardrobe with double hanging and a fixed shelf (product code: CSW_0057)
32500mm high x 1000mm wide x 600mm deep

Double wardrobe with 4 drawer unit, hanging rail and a fixed shelf (product code: CSW_0029)
2500mm high x 1000mm wide x 600mm deep

Single wardrobe with a long hanging rail and fixed shelf (product code: CSW_0003)
2500mm high x 500mm wide x 600mm deep

Now we’ve decided on the wardrobes we need to add the infill panels to the top, sides and plinths to the bottom. All of these components need to be ordered oversized, which will then allow us to scribe (cut to the exact size) them to the floor, walls and ceiling - as each of the three measurements (top, middle, bottom) we made of each dimension (width, height and depth) had a slight discrepancy.

Don’t worry if you end up with a slight gap after you have fitted them, this can be expected. Anything up to around 5mm can be filled with a matching mastic or decorators chalk and painted out with your wall colour as you prefer.

As all our measurements are within the 30mm tolerance as previously stated, we’ll order the following sizes:

Plinth

We’ll allow 100mm extra on the overall length, and because we require longer than the maximum available size of 2800mm long, we need to order multiple plinths. When covering a large area and requiring multiple plinths, pelmets or infills, you need to consider where it’s best to join the pieces so they blend better with the wardrobe suite.

We’ve decided it will look better if the joint is central to the wardrobes (where our double wardrobes also meet in the middle), so we’ll order two lengths. For the height, we’ll order with an extra 40mm to allow for scribing to the floor, so our order will be two plinths at 2800 x 140mm.

Top Scribe

Our top infill will be approximately 100mm, so again we’ll order two top scribes at 2800 x 140mm with the extra 40mm for any discrepancies in the ceiling. These come with fixing cleats which will help with attaching them to the wardrobes.

Side Scribes

Our left and right side infills will be approximately 50mm to allow for scribing against the walls, we’ll order each of these at 90mm. These also come with fixing cleats to attach them to the sides of the wardrobes.

Our Furniture Builder for Bedrooms will make the process of ordering your dream wardrobes simple and quick. You are able to order any of our wardrobes to your individual sizes (minimum and maximum sizes will apply) and customise the following:

• Carcase/unit colour
• Door style and colour
• Drawer front style and colour
• Drawer box style and colour
  
• Front edging colour
• Handles
• Hanging rail colour
• Accessories
• Lighting

Once you’ve completed this, you can just hit the ‘get pricing’ button and you’ll have a price back for all of your wardrobes, components and fixings in less than a few minutes. You can then make further tweaks and adjustments, re-price and then once happy, add it to your basket and go through to purchase.

Once your order has been placed and paid for, one of our team will be in contact (usually within 48 hours during weekdays) to confirm that we’ve received your order, it’s been checked and we’ll advise on the lead time.

If you’re not sure about measuring your room please contact us for further advice or alternatively ask a professional to do it. The above are guidelines only, each project will have its own requirements and uniqueness.