Have you ever looked at the range of flatpack furniture available and not found anything that quite fits your interior design style? Our wardrobe designer may be able to help by providing incredible made-to-measure fitted furniture kits without the need to speak to a bespoke joiner.
The beauty of having a powerful design tool at your fingertips is that rather than hunt for a flatpack that’s the right size, colour, shape, style and quality and hope that they have a matching set, you can have a complete set of high-quality wardrobes made for you and delivered to your door to be installed as you please.
A wardrobe can be as ornamental or as minimalist as you like, and if you are interested in the latter, a cornice could be the perfect design flourish for your fitted wardrobe.
Do you need one? It depends on the type of look you are going for, but to understand when it goes from being a nice-to-have to being all but essential, here is a brief explanation of what a cornice is and what it is used for in interior design.
Not to be confused with a corniche, a coast road built into the side of a cliff, a cornice is an overhang on the top of a piece of furniture, wall or architectural feature.
Whilst the word itself dates back over 500 years, the cornice is one of the oldest architectural features ever, having been used in Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece, the latter of which established it as the topmost part of the roof that projects outwards.
Along with the columns it typically overhangs, the cornice is one of the most defining characteristics of Ancient Greek architecture, and this influence bled into Roman architecture and eventually into modern architecture through the Roman architect Vitruvius and his rediscovery during the Renaissance by Andrea Palladio.
Palladian, Rococo and Neoclassical architecture brought the cornice back as an architectural element, and it has stuck around ever since as both an architectural and interior design feature.
The biggest reason to use cornices on a wardrobe, particularly a large fitted wardrobe, is that it harmonises with existing cornice features. Many houses, even modern ones, have a cornice running along the top of the walls of each room, and a tall, fitted wardrobe can sometimes obscure a room’s existing features.
As well as this, a cornice can be added for the same reasons they are added to a wall; they help to hide little imperfections in older homes that are the often-inevitable result of settling, and can be used for cable tidying and other similar features.
They also help to protect the wall and the ceiling by serving as a buffer against little everyday bits of damage that can be caused to the walls and the top of the wardrobe.
This is particularly useful if the cornice is also used to help slightly extend the height of your wardrobe to bring it closer to the ceiling of the room, particularly if you have a bedroom with an unusually slanted ceiling.
Ultimately, it also helps to add an element of grandeur and luxury to a room, and that alone is often enough to make them worth considering, particularly if you have a relatively uneven ceiling.
Whilst they are often nice to have, and should definitely be considered when designing your dream wardrobe, an inevitable question that will commonly be asked is whether you actually need one for your wardrobe or not.
The answer is that you do not, and whilst they look fantastic and there are plenty of reasons to consider one as noted above, there are also rooms for which a cornice is either unnecessary, inappropriate, or both.
Contrary to popular belief, cornices are best suited to relatively tall ceilings, so if you have a relatively low ceiling in your bedroom, it is generally best to prioritise storage space over design flourishes.
Similarly, if you have a straight ceiling which allows a wardrobe to fit snugly, then there is a trade-off to choosing a cornice rather than a little extra usable space. It is a matter of what takes priority in your wardrobe design.
Finally, if you are going for a minimalist modern design aesthetic, a cornice may become a standout feature of ornamentation in a bedroom largely absent of them. However, we do have a lot of wardrobe doors and colour options that can fit your style instead.
