To make a wardrobe you build a rectangular carcass from sheet material, usually 18mm MDF or plywood, join the sides to a top and base, brace the assembly with a thin back panel, fit a hanging rail and shelves inside, then add doors. The whole job breaks down into four stages: setting out and cutting, assembling the box, fitting the interior, and hanging the doors. For a standard double wardrobe that is a weekend of work with basic tools, and the result can be tailored precisely to the room in a way no ready made unit will be.
The rest of this guide covers each stage in the order you would actually do it, with the dimensions that matter and the errors that cause the most rework.
Almost every problem in a home built wardrobe traces back to depth. Clothes on hangers need 580mm to 600mm of clear internal depth to hang square. Any shallower and shoulders press against the doors, which creases everything and eventually damages the door faces. Add the thickness of the door and any door frame and your external depth lands around 620mm to 650mm.
Height depends on what you are storing. Allow 1000mm to 1100mm for a double hang of shirts and jackets, or 1400mm to 1500mm for coats and long dresses. Most people want both, which is why the classic layout is a tall hanging bay on one side and a shorter hanging bay with shelves above and below on the other.
Width is limited by two things: the space available and how far a shelf can span before it sags. In 18mm MDF, keep shelf spans under 800mm without support. Beyond that, add a central divider, which conveniently also lets you split the interior into two functional bays.
Measure the room properly before finalising anything. Check ceiling height in several places, check whether the floor is level, and confirm the assembled carcass will actually fit through the door of the room. Building a wardrobe in a downstairs workshop and discovering it will not turn the corner on the stairs is a genuinely common mistake. If the room is tight, consider building in two stacked sections instead of one tall box.
For most home built wardrobes, 18mm MDF is the practical choice. It is dimensionally stable, cuts cleanly, takes paint beautifully, and it is cheaper than plywood. Its weaknesses are weight and moisture: a full sheet is heavy, and standard MDF swells if it gets wet, so use moisture resistant board in a bathroom or against a cold external wall.
Birch plywood at 18mm is stronger, lighter and holds screws better near edges, and the exposed edge grain looks attractive if you want a natural finish. It costs noticeably more and the faces can have small voids that need filling before painting.
Melamine faced chipboard is worth mentioning because it needs no finishing at all inside. It chips easily when cut without the right blade and it does not hold screws well, but for the interior of a wardrobe that will be painted white anyway, it saves a lot of finishing time.
Get your sheets cut to size where you buy them if you can. A merchant panel saw is more accurate than most home setups, and sheets cut to a list are far easier to transport than full 2440mm by 1220mm boards. Take a written cutting list and check every piece against it before you leave.
The standard construction is simple: two full height sides, a top and a base fitted between them, and a back panel. Whether the base sits on the floor or is raised on a plinth is a design choice. A plinth of 80mm to 100mm keeps the base off a slightly damp floor, allows for skirting, and makes the wardrobe easier to level.
Join the panels with any of three methods. Screws through the sides into the edges of the top and base are quickest: drill pilot holes, countersink, and fill the heads afterwards. Cam locks and dowels give an invisible joint and are worth learning if you plan to build more than one. Pocket hole screws are fast and strong and hide the fixings inside the carcass.
Whatever you use, add glue. Wood glue in a butt joint into MDF edge is not as strong as into face grain, but it still adds significant stiffness and prevents the joint working loose.
Assemble on a flat surface. A garage floor is usually flatter than a bedroom floor, and building on a twisted surface builds the twist into the carcass. Once the four main panels are joined, check the diagonals: measure corner to corner both ways, and adjust until the two measurements match. Only then fix the back panel, because the back is what locks the box square.
Use 6mm MDF or plywood for the back. It contributes nothing to load bearing but everything to rigidity. Cut it to the exact outside dimensions of the carcass, check the carcass is square, then pin or screw the panel around all four edges at roughly 150mm centres.
If the wardrobe will stand against an external wall, leave a ventilation gap by fixing thin battens to the rear before pushing it back. Cold walls cause condensation, and condensation inside a closed wardrobe full of fabric is how musty smells begin.
Now the box is square, plan the inside. Mark shelf and rail positions on both side panels together so they match: clamp the two sides face to face and mark across both at once, which guarantees shelves sit level.
Shelves can sit on timber battens, on shelf pins in drilled holes, or in housings routed into the sides. Battens are the easiest and strongest. Shelf pins let you move shelves later, which is genuinely useful as storage needs change. Housings look the neatest but need a router and a jig.
For the hanging rail, use a proper wardrobe rail of 25mm diameter with end sockets rather than dowel. Dowel of that diameter bends under a full load of winter coats. Set the rail 50mm to 60mm forward of the back panel so hangers do not catch, and fit a mid support bracket on any span over 1000mm.
Think about the details that make a wardrobe pleasant to use rather than merely functional. A shelf at the very top for suitcases and bedding. A shallow shelf at eye height for folded jumpers. A pull out rail for belts and ties. Drawers at the base if you would rather not add a separate chest to the room. If you would rather buy that part than build it, a matching modern chest of drawers UK sale beside the wardrobe often works out simpler than fitting drawer runners inside a home built carcass.
Doors are the visible part and they deserve the most care. There are three routes.
Slab doors cut from the same 18mm board are the simplest. Cut them 2mm to 3mm undersize on each dimension to give a consistent gap, and edge the exposed sides carefully because a chipped door edge is very visible. Hang them on concealed cup hinges, which need a 35mm forstner bit for the cup recess and allow adjustment in three directions after fitting.
Shaker style doors add a frame and a recessed panel, or more simply a slab door with a moulding applied to create the frame effect. The applied moulding version gives most of the look for a fraction of the work.
Sliding doors avoid swing space entirely, which matters in a narrow room. They need a top and bottom track and they cost you around 100mm of internal depth, so factor that into your carcass depth from the start. Making sliding doors that run smoothly is genuinely harder than making hinged ones, and it is the one part of a home build where buying a ready made system pays for itself. Our modern sliding wardrobes UK range is worth comparing before you commit to building tracks from scratch.
Fill every screw hole and any dents with a fine surface filler, sand flush with 180 grit, then sand the whole carcass and doors with 240 grit. MDF edges drink paint, so seal them first with a diluted coat of primer or a dedicated MDF edge sealer, sand back when dry, then prime everything.
Two thin topcoats of acrylic eggshell give a hard wearing finish with low odour, which matters when you are painting inside a bedroom. Sand lightly between coats with 320 grit. Leave the doors flat for a day after the final coat before hanging them.
Honestly, it depends on the room. Building makes clear sense when the space is awkward: a sloping ceiling, a chimney breast alcove, an unusual width, or a requirement to go right to the ceiling. In those situations nothing off the shelf will fit properly and a made to measure carcass is the only way to use the full space.
Where the wall is flat and the dimensions are ordinary, the sums look different. Sheet material, hinges, rails, paint and a weekend of labour add up, and the finish on a factory made unit is usually better than a first attempt at home. There is a wide range of furniture on sale with free UK delivery to most UK mainland postcodes, so the practical comparison is not as one sided as it once was. Our modern wardrobes UK sale selection covers most standard bedroom widths, and it is worth measuring against those sizes before deciding to build.
A middle path many people take is to build the awkward part and buy the standard part: a made to measure unit into the alcove, and a bought piece for the main wall. That keeps the tailoring where it matters. At Furniture in Fashion we stock coordinating bedroom ranges precisely so a mixed approach still reads as one scheme, and you can shop modern furniture UK alongside whatever you build yourself. If you are pricing up a full bedroom refit, the modern bedroom furniture sets UK sale option is often more economical than assembling pieces individually.
Use 18mm MDF or plywood for the sides, top, base and shelves, with 6mm board for the back panel. Anything thinner than 18mm will flex under load and will not hold fixings reliably.
Allow 580mm to 600mm of clear internal depth so clothes hang square on the rail. With door thickness, external depth usually works out around 620mm to 650mm.
For shirts and jackets, set the rail so there is 1000mm to 1100mm of clear space below it. For long coats and dresses, allow 1400mm to 1500mm.
A straightforward double wardrobe takes most people a weekend for the build plus a further day or two spread over the finishing, allowing for paint drying times between coats.
Yes. Have the sheets cut to size at the merchant, join the panels with pocket hole or through screws, and support shelves on timber battens. A drill, a jigsaw and a circular saw with a guide will handle the rest.
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