DIY fitted wardrobe

I was very mediocre at DT at school so the idea of designing and building a fitted wardrobe for our bedroom was borne purely out of being a tight Yorkshireman. However, during the process I found that I love working with wood and it’s definitely the most rewarding thing I’ve done in the house. Paying for custom-built wardrobes would cost upwards of £2K, so you’ll be saving a heap of cash even if you have to buy all the equipment.

There are quite a lot of steps so for those who just want to dip their toe in, here’s a relatively brief summary. For the hard-core, follow the links for full details.

#1 | Planning

Who knew that designing a wardrobe could be enjoyable? Being able to fully customise the design is such a massive plus of DIYing it. For us, we wanted to fulfil our storage needs whilst matching the finish to the style of our 1930s interior doors. I spent ages sketching out different designs (unexpectedly fun) and once this was done, planned out the materials we’d need (also unexpectedly fun). I’d strongly recommend doing some market research at furniture shops so you can take measurements and get some inspo.

#2 | Framework

This is when shit got real. It’s all well-and-good sketching out the ideal wardrobe, but actually putting it together is a totally different kettle of fish. The trickiest part of fixing the framework in place was getting the shape ‘square’ because the height of the space varied by 2cm from one end to the other and the walls weren’t plumb either. Otherwise, this is a pretty easy stage and it’s really cool to see the space transforming.

#3 | Shelving

If you get the wood for your shelves accurately cut where you buy it from (B&Q do this for free), this can be seriously quick. It’s just a case of screwing in some shelf supports, plopping your shelves on top and voila!

#4 | Doors

It was all pretty plain sailing until this point… I decided to make some ‘faker shaker’ doors out of MDF and used concealed hinges for a neat finish. The end result was worth the effort, but getting the doors to fit tightly and look good whilst getting the hinges right took a looooong time. It’s possible to make this step a lot easier by buying the doors but that’s not proper DIY, is it? Also, taking the DIY route means you have 100% control over the finished look.

#5 | Hinges

Yeah, that’s right, a whole post about hinges. Settle down for an exhilarating read. Seriously though, doors aren’t much good without hinges so choosing the right ones and fitting them correctly is key. We went for concealed hinges and would strongly recommend them as they’re, well, concealed, so leave the doors looking really smart. There’s a few other reasons to choose concealed hinges that you can read about in the post.

#6 | Finishing touches

The final bits to finish included gluing the moulding around the framework to hide gaps, fixing some knobs on and a lick of paint. And just like that, many hours and £300 later, we had a fully-functioning and pretty handsome fitted wardrobe.

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It was a really rewarding project which saved us a heap of cash and meant we could have exactly what we wanted. You don’t have to be a woodwork pro – the last thing I made was a shoe rack a couple of years ago and Haz doesn’t let me bring it into the house! If you fancy giving it a go, here are the links again. I’d love to see your DIY wardrobes so send pics to jack_pnn@outlook.com.

#1 | Planning

#2 | Framework

#3 | Shelving

#4 | Doors

#5 | Hinges

#6 | Finishing touches

If you fancy reading about some other furniture projects, here’s a post about our DIY scaffold board dining table and another about how I made our decking with integrated storage seats.