What Are The Most Common Mistakes When Designing Wardrobes?

Whether renovating your home, moving house or wanting to turn your property into your home, there are a lot of reasons to opt for a custom-designed fitted wardrobe.

With our bespoke, easy-to-use wardrobe designer, getting a fitted wardrobe is easier and more affordable than ever before. 

With that, getting a fitted wardrobe that suits your exact needs is far more attainable, but to make the most of your wardrobe, here are just a few common mistakes people make when buying or installing a wardrobe and how you can avoid them with a fitted solution.

Can You Take A One-Size-Fits-All Approach To Wardrobe Storage?

The traditional problem with flatpack wardrobes is that you have a limited range of options when it comes to the types of storage you have available. By definition, flatpack furniture tends to be designed as a one-size-fits-all solution that is functional to most people, but ideally suited to nobody.

Often, this leaves people having to make do with the storage space available and either cobble together makeshift solutions or deal with the stress of having nowhere to put certain items of clothing.

At best, this causes no small amount of stress when it becomes impossible to find a certain piece of jewellery or a belt for a particular outfit. At worst, it can actually cause delicate and expensive items to be knocked around and damaged unnecessarily.

If you are opting for a custom-fitted wardrobe, you should never settle for a one-size-fits-all solution, but instead seriously consider what your storage needs are, what you are struggling with in your current wardrobe and how you can fix this if you have greater control of your design.

Which Storage Solutions Should Be In Your Wardrobe?

Whilst everyone has different clothing needs, most fitted wardrobes have at least the following:

• Hanging space for long clothes, such as coats, suits, and long dresses. Double-hanging rails can also be used for trousers, shirts and skirts.
• Folding space for t-shirts, sweaters, jeans, tracksuit bottoms and towels. Usually, this takes the form of adjustable shelving.
• Drawer space, for small items, delicates and gym clothing. Drawers of multiple sizes or featuring dividers can be essential.
• Additional accessory space, such as jewellery trays, shoe racks, belt hooks, tie racks and bins for smaller accessories. Add as many as you need.

Exactly how much of each you need will depend invariably on your wardrobe. If you have an array of suits or long dresses, you are going to have very different needs from someone with a large collection of band t-shirts or shoes.

How Can You Maximise Your Vertical Space?

A big problem with a lot of flatpack wardrobes is that they are often shorter than the space they are filling, leaving vast amounts of untapped potential space that can be used to store stackable boxes, bins, luggage storage or other pieces.

Our wardrobe designer can help here because we design our kits around your space, and you can increase the height, width and depth of the wardrobes to fit the size of the room.

Do You Need Lighting In Your Fitted Wardrobe?

One remarkably common frustration which a lot of people seem to simply put up with is dark and dingy wardrobes. This can make it harder than it should be to find the right item and add to your stress when getting ready to go out.

However, there are a lot of options for adding light to your fitted wardrobe easily:

• Adding strip lights: Affixing a simple, affordable, self-adhesive strip of lights on the top of each shelf can make it much easier to see your items of clothing and add a tasteful ambience to your wardrobe and vanity.
• Installing self-adhesive lights: A similar, albeit cheaper solution, self-adhesive button lights can be opened and simply switched on to see everything in the wardrobe.
• Fit the wardrobes parallel to the window: Take advantage of natural light to illuminate the wardrobes. It is especially effective in combination with one of the above dedicated lighting solutions.
• Installing a floor or bedside lamp near the wardrobes: Whilst not always an option, depending on where your bedside cabinet or vanity is placed, it may be possible to use a powerful enough lamp as a light for your wardrobe. 

Do You Need Hinged Doors For Your Fitted Wardrobe?

Sliding doors are always tempting for fitted wardrobes; not only are they seen as modern and sophisticated, but they are also beneficial for narrow bedrooms.

The problem is that they are typically less than ideal for a wardrobe if you want to maximise the amount of space you use, as the sliding doors typically do not open completely.

Hinged doors tend to be more beneficial, are easier to install and come in far more stylish options.