How Do You Build a Wardrobe in a Recess?

To build a wardrobe in a recess you fix a level timber frame to the floor, walls and ceiling of the alcove, line it with sheet material or fit a simple carcass inside it, add rails and shelves, then hang doors on the front and scribe the edges to the plaster. The whole job rests on one thing: getting that frame level and square inside a space that almost certainly is not. Everything after that is straightforward carpentry.

Recesses are common in British homes, particularly either side of a chimney breast in Victorian and Edwardian bedrooms, and they are usually wasted. Turning one into storage costs a fraction of a full bespoke installation and it leaves the floor area of the room completely untouched. Below is the sequence we would follow, along with the points where most projects go wrong.

Start by Measuring the Recess Properly

Measure the width at floor level, at waist height and near the ceiling, then measure the depth on both sides and the height in three places. Write all nine figures down. In an older house you will often find a variation of a centimetre or more, and your narrowest measurement is the one that governs the design.

Check the floor with a spirit level across the opening and front to back. Check the walls for plumb. If the floor slopes, the frame will need packing at one end so the doors sit true. Also look for what is hidden in the alcove: a radiator pipe, a gas run, an electrical cable or a service riser. Anything you cannot move has to be boxed around, and it is far better to discover it now than after the frame is fixed.

Decide How Deep the Wardrobe Needs to Be

For clothes to hang across the wardrobe on a standard rail you need roughly 60 centimetres of internal depth once you allow for the door and the shoulder of a coat hanger. Many chimney alcoves are shallower than that, which is where projects stall.

You have two good options. Either bring the front of the wardrobe forward of the alcove so it projects into the room and gains the depth it needs, or accept the shallow depth and use a cabinet hanging rail that runs front to back, so garments hang facing sideways like they do in a shop rail. The second option holds fewer items but keeps the wardrobe flush with the chimney breast, which looks calmer. If neither suits, a shallow recess still works beautifully as shelving for folded knitwear, bags and bedding.

Build the Frame

Cut a sole plate for the floor, a head plate for the ceiling and vertical studs for each side, using planed timber of around 50 by 50 millimetres or 75 by 50 for taller runs. Fix the floor plate first, packing it until it is dead level, then plumb up from it for the side uprights. Fix into masonry with frame fixings and into timber studwork or joists with screws, finding the joists above before you fix the head plate.

Set the front uprights back from the opening by the thickness of your door and any face frame, and check the diagonals of the front opening to confirm it is square. If the diagonals differ, adjust before you go any further, because a door will always reveal a twisted frame. Add a horizontal noggin at the height where the hanging rail will sit and another wherever a fixed shelf lands, so you have solid timber to screw into later.

Line the Interior

Line the sides and back with a board such as 12 or 18 millimetre MDF, plywood or melamine faced chipboard. Melamine faced board is popular because it needs no finishing and wipes clean. Cut the boards slightly undersize and let a scribe fillet cover the joint at the wall, rather than trying to cut a perfect line against wavy plaster.

Fit the shelves on adjustable supports if you can, drilling a line of holes so you can move them later. Tastes and wardrobes change, and adjustable shelving costs almost nothing extra at this stage. Put the hanging rail at a height that suits your longest garment plus about ten centimetres of clearance, and add a shelf above it to use the space up to the ceiling.

Plan the Interior Around What You Own

Before you cut a single shelf, look honestly at your clothes. Measure the length of your hanging items, count how many shelves your folded pieces fill and think about shoes and accessories. Double hanging suits shirts, jackets and folded trousers and roughly doubles capacity in that section. Long hanging is only needed for coats and dresses, and most people need far less of it than they build.

Anything that does not need to sit in the wardrobe should not. Shoes are usually better kept near the door, and our wooden shoe storage cabinets UK sale range handles that job while freeing up the alcove for clothing. Bedding and towels can go into a blanket box at the end of the bed instead of stealing a shelf.

Doors and the Front Edge

Hinged doors are the simplest choice for a recess and give you full access. Use concealed cabinet hinges fixed to a vertical timber or to a board pilaster, and allow a consistent gap of two or three millimetres around each door. For wide openings, two doors look better proportioned than one, and they need less swing space.

Sliding doors work in a recess too, but they need the alcove to be wide enough that one panel does not block too much of the interior. If floor space in front is tight, they are worth the extra effort. Looking through our modern sliding wardrobes UK designs is a quick way to see how track and panel proportions work in practice before you commit to a track system.

Finish the front edge where the wardrobe meets the plaster with a slim scribe or with decorator caulk, then paint. Painting the door fronts the same colour as the surrounding wall makes the wardrobe recede visually, which is a useful trick in a small bedroom.

Lighting and Ventilation

An alcove wardrobe on an outside wall can get cold, and cold plus enclosed can mean damp. Leave a small ventilation gap at the back or top, avoid pressing garments hard against an external wall and do not seal the unit completely airtight.

Battery operated strip lights on a movement sensor are the easiest way to light the interior and need no electrician. If you want mains lighting, plan the cable route before you line the frame.

Where DIY Projects Usually Go Wrong

The three recurring problems are an unlevel floor plate, a front opening that is out of square and doors ordered to a single measurement taken at one height. All three show in the finished doors, which is the part everybody looks at. Take the extra half hour at frame stage and the rest of the build becomes forgiving.

The other common issue is overbuilding. People fill an alcove with fixed drawers and dividers, then find their needs shift. Keep some of the interior open and let freestanding pieces do the flexible work. A slim unit from our modern wooden chest of drawers UK collection can sit beside the wardrobe and be rearranged whenever the room changes, which fitted joinery never allows.

Costing Your Own Alcove Build

An alcove wardrobe is one of the few storage projects where doing the work yourself saves a genuinely large proportion of the cost, because the materials are modest and the labour is the expensive part of any fitted installation. A frame of planed timber, two or three sheets of board, a rail, a handful of shelf supports and a pair of doors covers most single alcove builds.

Order sheet material cut to size at the merchant if you can. It costs a little more per board but the cuts are square and clean, which matters enormously when the panel has to sit tight against a wall. Buy slightly more timber than your list suggests, since a warped length or a mismeasured stud is almost inevitable and a second trip breaks the rhythm of the job.

A Sensible Order of Work

Clear the room and lift or protect the flooring first. Then mark out, fix the floor plate, plumb the uprights, fix the head plate, add the noggins, line the interior, drill for shelf supports, fit the rail, hang the doors, scribe the edges and finally decorate. Doing it in that sequence means you never have to work around something you have already finished.

Allow two days for a first attempt rather than one, and split them so the frame is complete before you stop. A part built frame left overnight is far easier to resume than a part hung door. If you are working in an occupied bedroom, plan where the mattress will sit while you work, because dust travels further than you expect.

Finally, take photographs of the frame before you line it. Knowing exactly where the studs, noggins and any hidden pipework sit is invaluable a year later when you want to add a shelf or run a cable for internal lighting. If, after all the measuring, the alcove simply is not workable, our full modern wardrobes UK sale range offers freestanding options in sizes that suit tight bedrooms, and we deliver with free delivery to most UK mainland postcodes. You can see the wider collection at Furniture in Fashion.

Frequently Asked Questions

How deep does a recess need to be for a wardrobe?

Around 60 centimetres of internal depth allows clothes to hang normally on a rail. Shallower alcoves still work if you use a front to back rail or treat the space as shelving instead.

Do I need planning permission or building regulations approval?

Fitted storage inside an existing room does not normally require either. Take care not to block or restrict access to services, and never enclose a boiler, meter or fixed ventilation.

Can I build a recess wardrobe without power tools?

You will want a drill at minimum, ideally with a driver, plus a saw and a spirit level. Many timber merchants will cut sheet material to size, which removes the hardest cutting from the job.

Should the doors match the walls or the furniture?

In a small room, matching the walls makes the wardrobe visually disappear. In a larger room, matching your other bedroom pieces creates a more furnished look. Both are valid approaches.

How do I stop clothes smelling musty in an alcove wardrobe?

Allow a little airflow, keep garments from touching a cold external wall and avoid packing the rail tightly. Storing anything slightly damp is the usual cause of the problem.