The straightforward method is to fix timber battens to the inside faces of the wardrobe, then rest a cut shelf on top of them. Measure the internal width, cut a shelf board 2mm to 3mm under that measurement so it drops in without forcing, screw a batten to each side wall at the height you want, and place the shelf on the battens. For wider wardrobes, add a batten across the back as well to stop the middle of the shelf sagging. Most people can fit two or three shelves this way in an afternoon with a drill, a saw, a level and a tape measure.<\/p>\n
Before cutting anything, work out what the shelves are for. Folded jumpers and t shirts need roughly 300mm to 350mm of clear height per shelf. Handbags and boxed items need more. Shoes want around 200mm for flat pairs and 300mm for boots standing upright.<\/p>\n
Then look at what you are giving up. A shelf across the full width removes hanging space, so the usual approach is to shelve one section and leave the rest as rail. In a two door wardrobe, shelving roughly a third of the width and keeping two thirds for hanging suits most people. The dead space beneath short garments such as shirts and jackets is the obvious place to start, since a rail at full height above a stack of shelves wastes nothing.<\/p>\n
Mark your intended heights in pencil on the inside of the wardrobe and live with the marks for a day. It is much easier to change a pencil line than a screwed batten.<\/p>\n
You will need a cordless drill with a suitable bit, a hand saw or circular saw, a tape measure, a spirit level, a pencil and a screwdriver. For materials, 18mm MDF or plywood makes a solid shelf, and 25mm by 25mm softwood batten is ample for support in a domestic wardrobe. Screws should be long enough to bite properly into the batten and the carcass side without breaking through the outside face, which usually means 30mm to 40mm depending on board thickness.<\/p>\n
Melamine faced board is worth considering for the shelf itself, as the finished surface matches most wardrobe interiors and needs no painting. If you cut it, score the melamine along the cut line first with a knife to reduce chipping.<\/p>\n
Measure and mark the shelf height on both side walls, then check the marks are level with each other using the spirit level. Do not measure from the wardrobe base if the wardrobe is standing on an uneven floor, as the base may not be level. Measure from the marks themselves and trust the level.<\/p>\n
Hold the batten to the line, mark the screw positions, then drill pilot holes through the batten. Pilot holes matter here, since driving screws straight into MDF or chipboard without them causes splitting. Fix each batten with at least two screws, three for battens longer than 500mm.<\/p>\n
Set the battens back slightly from the front edge if you want the shelf to sit flush with the carcass front, or run them the full depth if the shelf will be visible anyway. Keep an eye on where existing carcass fixings and hinge plates sit so you are not screwing into them.<\/p>\n
Measure the internal width at the height where the shelf will sit rather than at the top or bottom of the wardrobe, because carcass sides are rarely perfectly parallel. Take the measurement at both front and back and use the smaller figure, then subtract 2mm to 3mm.<\/p>\n
Cut the shelf, then dry fit it before doing anything else. If it binds, plane or sand the edge rather than forcing it, since forcing a tight shelf can bow the wardrobe sides and throw the doors out of alignment. Once it drops in cleanly, you can either leave it resting on the battens, which makes it removable, or fix it with two screws through the shelf into each batten for a permanent job.<\/p>\n
For wardrobes wider than about 900mm, a shelf resting only on side battens will deflect in the middle under weight. Add a batten along the back wall to support the rear edge, or fit a central vertical divider running between shelves. The divider approach has the useful side effect of stopping folded stacks toppling sideways.<\/p>\n
Not every wardrobe needs a permanent modification, and rented properties often rule it out. Shelf systems using adjustable pins fit into a row of 5mm holes drilled in the carcass sides, which allows repositioning later. Drilling a row of holes is more work up front but gives flexibility if your storage needs change.<\/p>\n
Freestanding wire or fabric shelf units sit inside the wardrobe and need no fixings at all. They hold less and look less tidy, but they can be lifted out and taken with you. Hanging shelf organisers that clip over the rail are the least intrusive option, though they take rail space and are only suitable for light items.<\/p>\n
If you find yourself adding a great deal of shelving, it may be that the wardrobe is the wrong shape for what you own. Many designs in our modern wardrobes UK sale<\/a> range come with shelved sections built in, which is more robust than retrofitting. Wider 3 doors wardrobe UK sale<\/a> designs commonly divide the interior into a shelved bay alongside hanging space, which is exactly the arrangement most people end up building themselves.<\/p>\n An 18mm board on side battens will carry folded clothes across a span of up to about 800mm without noticeable sag. Beyond that, support the back edge or reduce the span with a divider. Books and boxed items are considerably heavier than clothing, so if that is the plan, treat the span limit as 600mm.<\/p>\n Keep heavy items on lower shelves. Weight high up makes a tall wardrobe less stable, and freestanding wardrobes in particular are worth fixing to the wall with a bracket where children are around. The same principle applies to any tall storage, whether that is a wardrobe or a modern bookcases UK sale<\/a> unit elsewhere in the house.<\/p>\n Leave a small gap at the back of deep shelves rather than fitting them tight against the back panel. It makes cleaning easier and allows a little air movement, which helps keep stored fabrics fresh in cooler UK bedrooms.<\/p>\n Sand the front edge of a cut shelf and either paint it or apply iron on edging tape. A raw MDF edge picks up dirt and snags fabric, and edging takes ten minutes.<\/p>\n Once fitted, resist stacking shelves too high. Folded stacks above roughly 250mm become unstable and you end up pulling from the middle and collapsing the lot. Two shorter stacks side by side work far better than one tall one, which is another argument for a central divider.<\/p>\n Shoes are worth keeping off clothing shelves entirely, since they bring in dirt and moisture. A separate shoe storage cabinets UK sale<\/a> unit handles that better. If you are adding shelves as part of a wider bedroom refresh, our modern bedroom furniture UK sale<\/a> collection covers matching pieces, and Furniture in Fashion<\/a> lists internal dimensions on wardrobe products so you can check whether a shelved layout comes as standard before you reach for the saw.<\/p>\n Most wardrobes are not empty boxes, and the existing fittings dictate where shelves can go. Look for the hinge mounting plates on the carcass sides, the rail sockets, and any cam fixings holding the carcass together. A batten screwed over one of these either will not sit flat or will foul the hinge when the door closes.<\/p>\n Set shelf heights to clear these obstructions before finalising your measurements. If a batten has to cross a fixing, notch the batten around it rather than packing it out, since packing leaves the shelf unsupported at that point.<\/p>\n Check the back panel thickness too. Thin 6mm backs will not hold a screw on their own, so a back batten needs to be fixed into the carcass sides at its ends rather than relying on the panel itself.<\/p>\n Fixed battens are stronger, quicker and cheaper, and they suit a shelf whose purpose will not change. Adjustable shelf pins in a drilled row take longer to set out but let you move a shelf later, which is worth the extra work in a child’s room where storage needs change every few years.<\/p>\n If you go adjustable, drill the holes in a paired row using a length of pegboard or a shop bought jig as a template. Holes drilled by eye will be marginally out, and a shelf sitting on four pins at slightly different heights will rock.<\/p>\n Either way, dry fit everything before committing. A shelf that binds at the front but drops in at the back usually means the carcass sides are not parallel, which is easier to correct with a couple of millimetres off the shelf than by forcing the wardrobe into shape.<\/p>\n 18mm MDF, plywood or melamine faced board is suitable for folded clothing. Thinner 12mm board will sag across anything but a very short span, and 25mm is only necessary for heavy loads such as books.<\/p>\n Allow 300mm to 350mm of clear height for folded clothing, around 200mm for flat shoes and 300mm or more for boots. Varying the spacing to suit what goes on each shelf is more useful than making them all equal.<\/p>\n Yes. Freestanding wire or fabric shelf units and hanging organisers that clip over the rail need no fixings, which suits rented properties. They hold less weight than a fixed shelf on battens.<\/p>\n An 18mm board on side battens handles roughly 800mm of folded clothing without visible sag. Wider than that needs a batten along the back edge or a central vertical divider.<\/p>\n A shelf cut tight has to be forced in, which can bow the wardrobe sides and push the doors out of alignment. Cutting 2mm to 3mm under the measured width lets it drop in cleanly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fitting shelves into a wardrobe is a batten and board job that most people can complete in an afternoon with basic tools. This guide covers deciding shelf heights around what you actually store, choosing board and batten sizes, marking and fixing battens level in a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":57320,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3334],"tags":[361,5587,5588,70],"class_list":["post-57319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-how-to-guide-for-your-home","tag-bedroom-storage","tag-diy-guide","tag-wardrobe-shelves","tag-wardrobes"],"acf":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furnitureinfashion.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furnitureinfashion.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furnitureinfashion.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furnitureinfashion.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furnitureinfashion.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.furnitureinfashion.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furnitureinfashion.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furnitureinfashion.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furnitureinfashion.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furnitureinfashion.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Getting the load right<\/h3>\n
Finishing and using the shelves well<\/h3>\n
Working around what is already inside<\/h3>\n
Deciding between fixed and adjustable<\/h3>\n
Frequently Asked Questions<\/h3>\n
What thickness board should I use for a wardrobe shelf?<\/h3>\n
How far apart should wardrobe shelves be?<\/h3>\n
Can I fit shelves without screwing into the wardrobe?<\/h3>\n
How wide can a wardrobe shelf span without support?<\/h3>\n
Why should the shelf be cut slightly narrower than the opening?<\/h3>\n