The Wardrobe Buying Mistakes That Could Waste Valuable Bedroom Space

The wardrobe mistakes that waste the most bedroom space are buying a unit that is too deep or too wide for the room, ignoring the clearance needed for doors and drawers, choosing an interior that does not match the clothes you own, and forgetting about the height above and the floor below. Each of these leaves you with either a room that feels cramped or a wardrobe that holds less than it should. The good news is that almost all of them can be avoided with a tape measure, an honest look at your clothes and a little planning before you choose.

A wardrobe is usually the largest single piece of furniture in a bedroom, so getting it wrong has a bigger impact than almost any other purchase. When we help people choose from our range of modern wardrobes UK, the same handful of problems tends to appear. Most of them come from treating the wardrobe as a standalone purchase rather than part of a room that also holds a bed, bedside cabinets and perhaps a chest of drawers, which is why we always suggest looking at it alongside the rest of your bedroom furniture UK sale choices. Here is what the common mistakes are and how to sidestep them.

Measuring the Wall but Not the Room

Most people remember to measure the width of the wall where the wardrobe will go. Far fewer measure the space in front of it, the route into the room, or the relationship between the wardrobe and the bed. A wardrobe that fits the wall exactly can still make the room unusable if it leaves you with a narrow channel to squeeze through.

As a working guide, aim for a clear walkway of around 60 to 70 centimetres between the front of the wardrobe and the nearest piece of furniture. If you have hinged doors, add the width of a door on top of that so you can open it and still stand in front of it. Mark the footprint of the wardrobe on the floor with masking tape and live with it for a day or two. You will quickly feel whether the room still flows.

Measure the journey too. Stairs, landings, door frames and tight turns in older terraces and flats can stop a large flat packed box or a long side panel from reaching the bedroom at all.

Choosing a Wardrobe That Is Deeper Than You Need

Depth is the dimension people overlook most often. A full hanging rail needs enough depth for a coat hanger to sit across it, which is why most wardrobes are somewhere around 55 to 60 centimetres deep inside. Going much deeper than this rarely adds useful storage. It simply pushes the front of the wardrobe further into the room.

If your room is narrow, look at the external depth carefully, including any cornice, plinth or handles. A few extra centimetres across the full width of a wardrobe can make a surprising difference to how open the floor feels. Where you genuinely cannot fit a standard depth, consider a design that uses front facing hanging, or keep longer items elsewhere and use shelves and drawers instead.

Picking the Wrong Door Type for the Layout

Hinged doors need swing space. Sliding doors do not, but they only ever reveal part of the interior at once. Choosing the wrong one for your layout is a classic way to lose space you thought you had.

If the bed sits close to the wardrobe wall, or a radiator or bedroom door is in the way, hinged doors may only open part way. That effectively turns a generous wardrobe into an awkward one. In those situations, browsing sliding wardrobes UK is usually the sensible first step. On the other hand, if you have plenty of floor space and you like seeing everything together, hinged doors give you better access to every corner of the interior.

Ignoring the Space Above the Wardrobe

Ceiling height varies a lot across UK housing. Victorian and Edwardian homes often have tall ceilings, while many modern homes and loft rooms are much lower. A wardrobe that stops well short of the ceiling leaves a band of empty wall above it that tends to collect dust and stray boxes.

Where possible, choose a height that suits your ceiling. Taller wardrobes give you a high shelf for seasonal clothes, spare bedding and suitcases. If you prefer a lower unit for proportion, plan what will happen above it. A pair of matching storage boxes looks deliberate. A pile of mismatched bags does not.

In loft conversions and rooms with sloping ceilings, check the height at the point where the wardrobe will actually stand, not at the highest point of the room. Lower units across the full width of a dormer wall are often more useful than a single tall wardrobe squeezed into the one spot with full headroom.

Buying for the Clothes You Wish You Had

A wardrobe interior should reflect your real clothes. Someone with a lot of long dresses and coats needs plenty of full length hanging. Someone who lives in folded knitwear, jeans and gym clothes needs shelves and drawers. Buying a wardrobe that is almost entirely long hanging when most of your clothes are folded means wasted space at the bottom and overstuffed drawers elsewhere.

Before you choose, sort your clothes into three groups: long hanging, short hanging and folded. Short hanging items such as shirts, jackets and trousers folded over a hanger only need around a metre of drop, which means a double rail can fit twice as much into the same width. Many people find that a mix of one double hanging section, one long hanging section and a stack of shelves or drawers suits them far better than a single long rail.

Forgetting That Drawers Need Room to Open

Internal drawers are useful, but they bring their own clearance needs. A drawer inside a hinged wardrobe can catch on a door that does not open past 90 degrees. A drawer inside a sliding wardrobe may clip the door frame if it sits where two doors overlap.

The same applies to any freestanding drawers in the room. A chest of drawers placed opposite the wardrobe needs space for both the drawer to open and for you to stand in front of it. If you are planning external pieces, take a look at our modern clothes storage UK options, which include slimmer pieces designed for tighter rooms.

Overlooking the Floor Beneath and Around the Wardrobe

A wardrobe raised on legs feels lighter and makes cleaning easier, but the gap underneath can become a magnet for shoes and clutter. A wardrobe with a plinth base sits flush to the floor and keeps the area tidy, though it can feel heavier visually. Neither is wrong. The mistake is not deciding in advance how the space below will be used.

Think about skirting boards too. In older homes, deep skirting or a picture rail can stop a wardrobe from sitting flat against the wall, creating a gap at the back. Check the depth of your skirting and whether the wardrobe has a cut out or can be positioned to account for it.

Buying a Wardrobe in Isolation

It is easy to fall for a single wardrobe and only later realise it does not sit well with your bed, bedside cabinets or chest of drawers. Clashing finishes and mismatched heights can make a room feel busy, which in turn makes it feel smaller.

Look at the bedroom as a whole. Choosing pieces from the same collection, or at least the same colour family, makes it easier to coordinate finishes and heights. A consistent palette across the room calms the space and lets a large wardrobe sit quietly rather than dominate.

Underestimating Storage Needs Over Time

Bedrooms change. A spare room becomes a nursery, a single person becomes a couple, or a home office moves in. A wardrobe that only just fits your clothes today will feel tight within a year or two. Where the room allows, choose a little more capacity than you strictly need, or pick a design that can be extended with a matching unit later.

Equally, do not oversize for the sake of it in a small room. A slightly smaller wardrobe combined with under bed storage, an ottoman or a blanket box can provide the same capacity without overwhelming the space.

Choosing a Finish That Shrinks the Room

Dark, heavy finishes absorb light and can make a wardrobe look larger than it is, particularly in a small north facing room. Pale wood, soft whites, light greys and mirrored panels reflect more light and help the wardrobe recede. This does not mean dark finishes are off limits. In a larger, brighter room, a deep walnut or charcoal wardrobe can look rich and grounded. The point is to match the finish to the size and light of the room.

If you are weighing up material choices, our guide to where to spend and save on UK pine wardrobes explains which features are worth paying attention to. For smaller second bedrooms, our ideas on wardrobes for UK guest bedrooms show how compact designs can still work hard.

Putting the Wardrobe in the Wrong Place

Even a well sized wardrobe can waste space if it sits on the wrong wall. The most common error is placing it where it blocks natural light or crowds the door. A tall unit next to a window casts the room into shadow on one side, and a wardrobe close to the bedroom door makes the entrance feel pinched every time you walk in.

In most rooms, the best position is a solid wall without a window, radiator or door, ideally one that you face less often from the bed. Chimney breast alcoves in older homes are worth considering, because a wardrobe that fills an alcove uses space that would otherwise hold very little. In rooms with a bay window, avoid letting a wardrobe intrude into the bay, which is usually the brightest and most pleasant part of the room.

Think about the view from the doorway too. A large wardrobe directly opposite the door is the first thing you see and can make a room feel smaller than it is. Placing it on a side wall, where it is seen at an angle, often lets the room feel more open while holding exactly the same amount.

Finally, check sockets and switches. A wardrobe pushed across a double socket can leave you hunting for power for bedside lamps and chargers, which tends to bring trailing cables and extension leads into a room that should feel calm.

A Quick Checklist Before You Choose

• Measure wall width, ceiling height and the depth of any skirting or picture rail.
• Measure the clear floor space in front of the wardrobe, including door swing.
• Check access routes, including stairs, landings and door frames.
• Sort your clothes into long hanging, short hanging and folded.
• Decide whether hinged or sliding doors suit the layout.
• Check that internal and external drawers can open fully.
• Consider how the wardrobe will sit alongside the rest of your bedroom furniture.

Taking an hour to work through these points can save years of living with a wardrobe that never quite fits. You can explore the full range of bedroom storage at Furniture in Fashion, with free delivery to most UK mainland postcodes.

Frequently Asked Questions

How deep should a wardrobe be?

Most wardrobes with a side to side hanging rail are around 55 to 60 centimetres deep inside, which allows a standard coat hanger to sit comfortably. Going much deeper rarely adds useful space and can make a small room feel tight.

How much space should I leave in front of a wardrobe?

A clear walkway of around 60 to 70 centimetres is a sensible minimum. With hinged doors, add the width of a door so you can open it fully and stand in front of it.

Is it better to have more hanging space or more shelves?

It depends entirely on your clothes. Sort what you own into long hanging, short hanging and folded items, then choose an interior that matches. Most people benefit from a mix rather than a single long rail.

Should a wardrobe reach the ceiling?

Not necessarily, but a taller wardrobe makes use of space that would otherwise be wasted. If you choose a lower unit, plan how the space above it will be used so it does not become a clutter zone.