Bespoke Wardrobe Doors

A wardrobe carcass is, in most cases, a fairly plain box. What decides whether the finished piece looks considered or simply functional is almost entirely down to the doors — their style, their proportions, and how well the finish and hardware suit the room around them. We treat door design as its own stage of the project, distinct from the carcass and interior layout, because it deserves that level of attention.

Shaker doors, with a simple recessed or raised panel inside a frame, remain a dependable choice because the frame proportions can be adjusted cleanly to almost any door height or width, and they suit both period and more contemporary rooms depending on how they are painted or finished. Flat-panel doors, without a visible frame, give a plainer, more architectural surface that reads well in rooms with simpler existing joinery. Fully panelled doors, with more elaborate framing or moulding, suit grander or more traditional rooms where the wardrobe is intended to match existing panelling elsewhere.

Painted, timber and veneered finishes each change how a door reads from across the room. A painted shaker door in a colour matched to existing skirting or woodwork tends to disappear into the room's scheme, while a timber or veneered door introduces grain and tone that can either match or deliberately contrast with the rest of the furniture. We work through samples during design so the finish is chosen with the room in front of us, rather than from a swatch alone.

Handles and hinges are specified against the finished door style rather than treated as an afterthought. A slim brass bar handle suits a flat or shaker door differently to a recessed edge pull, and the choice affects how the door is actually gripped and opened day to day, not just how it looks in a photograph. Hinge type and quantity are set against door height and weight, since a taller or heavier door needs more support than a standard one.

Door heights and widths are, in turn, set against the room's architecture rather than a standard size. A run beneath a lower ceiling, beside a window reveal, or interrupted by a chimney breast will each call for different door widths to keep the proportions looking settled, and we work these out against the actual wall rather than dividing a length mechanically into equal doors.

The room's existing architecture — its skirting height, cornice profile, and the proportions of its windows and doors — gives a useful starting point for wardrobe door design, since matching or deliberately departing from those proportions is a more considered decision than arriving at a door style independently of the room.

Taken together, these decisions are what separate a wardrobe that looks like it was chosen from a catalogue from one that looks like it was designed for the room it stands in, which is the entire purpose of specifying bespoke doors in the first place.

Part of our fitted wardrobes collection