Blackbarn Farm, Ipsden, Wallingford OX10 6AEczbespokecarpentry@gmail.com Mon–Sun, 7:30am–5:00pm Services Service Areas Our WorkAboutReviewsAdviceContact07462 376053Get a Free Quote Fitted Wardrobes # Fitted Wardrobes Cost Guide: What Actually Drives the Price Fitted wardrobe pricing looks like a black box until you see what is actually being charged for. Here is what drives the number up or down, room by room. 14 January 20268 min readBy Corey Holleran - Home - Advice - Fitted Wardrobes Cost Guide: What Actually Drives the Price Ask three joinery firms to quote the same bedroom and you can end up with three very different numbers. That is not because someone is padding the price, it is because a fitted wardrobe is not one product, it is a set of decisions stacked on top of each other, and each decision moves the cost. We are not going to put a figure in pounds on this page, because a single number would be meaningless without knowing your room. What we can do is walk through the things that actually push a quote up or down, so that when a written fixed-price quote lands in your inbox within 72 hours of the site visit, you understand what you are looking at. This is written from ten years of surveying, quoting and building fitted wardrobes across Wallingford and South Oxfordshire, in period cottages, 1930s semis and new-build boxes, so it reflects real jobs rather than a generic price list. ## The short version - Carcass material and thickness matter more than most people expect, particularly on long spans - Door style and finish are usually the single biggest cost variable in a wardrobe run - A sprayed finish costs more than site-painted, but it is also far more durable - Internal layout, not just the outside, is where the real usefulness and much of the labour sits - Scribing to old walls and working around existing electrics adds time that a factory wardrobe never has to account for ## Carcass material and construction The carcass is the box behind the doors, and it is doing the structural work of holding rails, shelves and drawer runners for years without sagging. We build in 18mm moisture-resistant MDF as standard, because it machines cleanly, holds its shape and takes a sprayed finish evenly. Birch ply is the step up from that, used where internals are left open and the edge grain is visible as part of the design. Melamine-faced chipboard is what most mass-market fitted wardrobes are built from, and it is the cheapest option going, but it is also the one most likely to swell at a damp corner or sag under a loaded hanging rail. We do not build with it. The material choice alone can move a quote significantly, and it is worth asking any quote you receive exactly what the carcass is made from, because that word is often left off the paperwork. Span matters too. A long run with no intermediate wall to fix to needs a heavier carcass and more internal bracing than a short alcove wardrobe boxed in on three sides. The room survey tells us which we are dealing with before any price gets written down. ## Door style and material Doors are usually where the biggest jump in cost sits, because they are the visible surface and they carry the most labour. A flat slab door with a shadow gap is the simplest to make. A shaker door, built up from a frame and a recessed panel, takes more joinery time. A fully panelled or beaded door for a period property takes more again. Material follows the same pattern. Painted MDF doors are the standard route and give a clean, hard-wearing finish once sprayed. Solid hardwood or timber veneer doors, used where a stained or oiled finish is wanted rather than paint, cost more in material and in machining time, and they need to be handled differently through the spray booth. Sliding doors versus hinged doors is another variable. Sliding gear, running tracks and soft-close mechanisms all add hardware cost, and the carcass behind a sliding system is built slightly differently to accommodate the track. Neither is inherently better, it depends on the room and how much floor space you can give up to a door swing. - Flat slab doors: lowest labour, suits modern rooms and loft conversions - Shaker doors: moderate labour, suits most period and semi-period bedrooms - Panelled or beaded doors: highest labour, suits older or listed-adjacent properties - Sliding gear and track: added hardware cost, saves floor space ## Spray finish versus site painting A sprayed finish costs more than a brush finish applied on site, and it is worth understanding why before deciding it is an area to save money on. Spraying happens in our workshop in a controlled environment, away from site dust, before the doors ever come to your house. That gives an even film thickness with no brush marks, no dust nibs and no drying time competing with a live building site. Site-painted doors are cheaper to produce because they skip that workshop stage, but the finish is rarely as hard or as even, and it picks up whatever is floating around the room while it dries, which on an active renovation is often plaster dust or sawdust from other trades. Within a year or two the difference in wear becomes obvious, particularly on high-contact edges like handles and door bottoms. The extra cost of spraying buys you a finish that survives daily use rather than one that looks good in the handover photos and starts showing marks within months. ## Internal layout and hardware The doors are what you see, but the internal layout is what you actually use every morning, and it carries real labour and material cost of its own. A basic internal fit-out with a single hanging rail and one fixed shelf is the cheapest configuration. A layout with long-hang and double short-hang sections, adjustable shelving, drawer banks and a raked shoe shelf takes more design time, more components and more fitting time on site. Hardware adds up too. Soft-close hinges and drawer runners cost more than standard versions but they last longer and do not slam or drop under load. Internal lighting, pull-out accessories like tie racks or belt rails, and mirrored door inserts are all optional extras that we can price individually once we know what you actually want to store. This is one of the reasons the CAD stage matters. Seeing the internal split drawn out before manufacture means you are choosing storage that matches how you actually live, rather than paying for a generic layout that leaves half the drawers empty and the rail overloaded. ## Scribing to old walls and awkward geometry Most of the houses we work in around Ipsden, Wallingford and the surrounding villages are not perfectly square. Walls bow, corners are out of true, and ceilings sometimes slope under a converted loft. A factory wardrobe assumes a straight wall and a level ceiling. A bespoke fitted wardrobe is built to be scribed to whatever the wall is actually doing, which takes more site time than screwing a flat-pack box against a straight surface. Chimney breasts are a common example. Building a wardrobe run either side of a breast means two carcasses of different depths, a bulkhead detail above, and careful setting out so the doors still line up visually across the whole run. That extra design and fitting time is reflected in the quote, but it is also the difference between a wardrobe that looks intentional and one that looks like it was forced into a space it does not fit. ## Electrics: what we do and what we do not We are often asked to build in internal lighting, USB points or sockets inside a wardrobe or dressing area. We are happy to design for it, but the actual electrical work is carried out by a qualified electrician we work with, not by us directly, because that is not our trade and we are not going to pretend otherwise. If your wardrobe design includes lighting or power, factor in the electrician's time alongside the joinery cost, and let us know early so the carcass can be built with the right cable routes and access points from the start, rather than chased out afterwards. ## How to read a wardrobe quote When you get a written quote, whether from us or anyone else, check it actually states the carcass material, the door construction, whether the finish is sprayed or site-painted, and what the internal layout includes. A number with none of that detail behind it is very hard to compare against anything else. We give a free site visit, then a CAD design showing exactly what is being proposed, followed by a written fixed-price quote within 72 hours. That order matters: you see the drawing and understand the specification before you see the price, so the number means something. ## Frequently asked What is the biggest factor in fitted wardrobe cost?Door style and finish are usually the single biggest factor in fitted wardrobe cost, followed by carcass material and internal layout complexity. A simple slab door in site-painted MDF costs far less than a panelled, sprayed door with a full internal fit-out of drawers, shelving and hanging sections, so the design decisions you make up front have more impact on price than almost anything else. Is a sprayed finish worth paying more for?A sprayed finish is worth paying more for because it produces a harder, more even paint film with no brush marks, applied in a controlled workshop away from site dust. Site-painted doors are cheaper but wear faster, particularly around handles and edges, so the extra cost of spraying is really paying for longevity rather than a cosmetic upgrade. Why do fitted wardrobes cost more in old houses?Fitted wardrobes cost more in older houses because the carcasses have to be scribed to walls, floors and ceilings that are rarely straight, which takes extra survey and fitting time compared with a modern, square room. Features like chimney breasts and sloped ceilings under a loft conversion add further design and setting-out work that a standard flat-pack wardrobe never has to deal with. Do you supply and fit internal wardrobe lighting?We design and build the carcass to accommodate internal wardrobe lighting, including cable routes and fixing points, but the electrical work itself is carried out by a qualified electrician we work with rather than in-house. If you want lighting or power inside a wardrobe, tell us at survey stage so the joinery can be built around it from the start. How do I get an accurate price for my wardrobe?The most accurate way to price a fitted wardrobe is a free site visit followed by a CAD design and a written fixed-price quote, which we return within 72 hours of the visit. Because the quote follows the drawing, it reflects the exact carcass, door style, finish and internal layout you have agreed to, rather than a rough estimate based on room size alone. ## Related services - Fitted Wardrobes - Fitted Bedrooms & Furniture ## More from the workshop - Kitchen Fitting ### Kitchen Fitting: What to Expect from a Fit-Only Installation A fit-only kitchen installation means you supply the units and we handle the fitting, sequencing and detailing. Here is exactly how that runs from start to finish. - Alcove Shelving ### Alcove Shelving Ideas for Period Homes in Oxfordshire Alcoves in period homes are rarely square, rarely identical either side of the chimney breast, and rarely straightforward to fit. Here is how good alcove joinery handles that. - Garden Rooms ### Garden Room Planning Permission in Oxfordshire: What You Need to Know Most garden rooms in South Oxfordshire fall under permitted development, but size, position and conservation status can change that fast. Here is what actually decides it. ## Get a fixed-price wardrobe quote Book a free site visit and we will send a written fixed-price quote within 72 hours, based on a CAD design you have already seen and agreed. 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