A wardrobe is normally between fifty five and sixty centimetres deep, with sixty centimetres being the figure most UK ranges settle on. That depth is not arbitrary. A coat hanger measures around forty two to forty five centimetres across, a shirt or jacket adds a few centimetres more, and the rail bracket plus door clearance accounts for the rest.<\/p>\n
Fitted bedroom joinery often runs slightly deeper at sixty five centimetres, while slim or shallow units sit at forty to fifty centimetres and use a different rail arrangement. If you remember one number, remember sixty. It is the point at which clothes hang square and doors close without pressing on shoulders.<\/p>\n
Width and height are flexible. You can always add another unit or accept a lower carcase. Depth is fixed by the hanger, and hangers do not get smaller. Reduce depth by even five centimetres on a standard side to side rail and garments start to sit at an angle, which creases the shoulder line and pushes the door outward.<\/p>\n
The result is a wardrobe that never closes cleanly. Over time the door edge wears where it rubs against clothing, and hinges loosen because they are under constant load. It is the most common regret we hear about after buying a unit chosen purely to fit a tight space.<\/p>\n
Take a typical unit. Forty five centimetres for the hanger, four to six centimetres for the bulk of a jacket or coat, two centimetres for the rail and bracket, then a small clearance so nothing touches the inside face of the door. Add the thickness of the back panel and the door itself and you arrive at an external depth of around sixty centimetres.<\/p>\n
Sliding door units need a little more. The two channels sit in front of the carcase and consume roughly eight to ten centimetres, so a sliding wardrobe with sixty centimetres of usable interior will measure closer to sixty eight or seventy centimetres externally. This catches people out when planning a narrow room, so check whether a stated depth is internal or external.<\/p>\n
Where sixty centimetres genuinely will not fit, a shallow unit of forty to fifty centimetres is a valid solution provided the rail runs from front to back rather than side to side. Garments then hang along the depth, facing sideways, and you slide the row forward to browse it.<\/p>\n
You see one garment at a time instead of a whole row, and capacity per metre of wall is lower, but everything hangs correctly. This arrangement works particularly well in a narrow box room or a hallway conversion where the alternative would be no hanging space at all.<\/p>\n
Depth affects far more than the wardrobe. Add the carcase depth to the clear floor you need in front, which is around ninety centimetres to stand and look inside comfortably. That means a sixty centimetre unit really claims one hundred and fifty centimetres of the room, and if the doors are hinged you also need swing room.<\/p>\n
In a room three metres wide, a sixty centimetre wardrobe on one wall leaves two metres and forty centimetres, which comfortably takes a double bed with a little to spare on one side. In a room two metres and fifty centimetres wide, the same wardrobe makes a double bed a tight fit. Sketching this before buying is the single most useful thing you can do, and our modern wardrobes UK sale<\/a> listings state depth clearly so you can plan accurately.<\/p>\n Two door and three door hinged units: fifty two to sixty centimetres. Four door and larger runs: fifty eight to sixty five centimetres. Sliding units: sixty five to seventy centimetres externally. Corner units: measured across the diagonal, often with a usable depth around sixty centimetres at the rail. Children’s wardrobes: forty five to fifty five centimetres, which is fine because children’s garments are shorter and narrower.<\/p>\n Mirrored and high gloss fronts add a millimetre or two but nothing that affects planning. What does affect planning is the plinth and any cornice, so check whether the quoted depth includes them.<\/p>\n Shelves match the carcase depth, which means a sixty centimetre shelf is deep enough to lose things at the back. Divide deeper shelves with a vertical divider, or use two shallow boxes side by side rather than one large one. Anything placed on the back half of a deep shelf tends never to be seen again.<\/p>\n Drawers inside a wardrobe are usually shallower than the carcase to allow for runners, so expect around fifty centimetres of internal drawer depth. For folded clothes a dedicated wooden chest of drawers UK sale<\/a> is more efficient, since drawer boxes there use the full depth.<\/p>\n Measure from the wall face, not from the skirting, and note the skirting depth separately since it is typically fifteen to twenty millimetres. A wardrobe pushed against skirting sits that distance further into the room, which matters when clearances are tight.<\/p>\n Then check the swing of the bedroom door, the radiator projection and any window sill. Finally, measure the delivery route. Depth is what determines whether a built unit turns on a staircase, so flat packed construction is often the practical answer in a period property. We offer free delivery to most UK mainland postcodes across our bedroom ranges, and you can compare depths across matching pieces such as modern bedside cabinets UK<\/a> and beds within the collections at Furniture in Fashion<\/a>.<\/p>\n Depth decides more than whether a hanger fits. At sixty centimetres you can hang a winter coat and still close the door, keep a shelf of folded jumpers without them tipping forward, and fit a shoe rack in the base with the toes facing out. At fifty centimetres each of those becomes a compromise.<\/p>\n Bulky items are the real test. A padded jacket can measure fifteen centimetres across the shoulders on its own, so two of them side by side will press against the door of a shallow unit. If you own several, treat sixty centimetres as a minimum rather than a target, or give the coats their own section with a little extra room.<\/p>\n Sixty five centimetres, common in fitted joinery, buys noticeably easier access. Clothes hang clear of the door, you can slide hangers along the rail without catching, and there is room behind the rail for a shallow basket. In a main bedroom used by two people, that extra five centimetres removes a daily irritation.<\/p>\n Beyond sixty five centimetres, returns fall away quickly. The rail cannot use the extra space, so it becomes dead depth at the back of a shelf where things go missing. Very deep wardrobes only make sense where the interior is planned around it, for instance with pull out rails or a double depth shoe arrangement.<\/p>\n Buying on width alone is the most frequent error. A wide shallow wardrobe looks generous in a photograph and disappoints in use, because hangers sit at an angle across the whole run rather than in one section. Width without depth does not give you usable hanging.<\/p>\n Ignoring the plinth and cornice is the second. Both can add ten to twenty millimetres to the stated carcase depth, which matters when planning to the centimetre. The third is forgetting the door swing on a hinged unit, since a door needs roughly its own width in clear floor to open fully, and that space has to come from somewhere.<\/p>\n Mark the depth on the floor with masking tape before you order anything. Run a line at sixty centimetres from the wall, then live with it for a day or two. Walk the route you take each morning, open the bedroom door, and pull out the drawer of any furniture that will sit nearby.<\/p>\n This takes five minutes and it answers the question far better than measurements on paper. If the tape line makes the room feel tight, a shallow unit with a front to back rail is the better choice. If you barely notice it, buy the full depth and enjoy the easier access every day.<\/p>\n Around sixty centimetres, with most ranges falling between fifty five and sixty. Fitted joinery is sometimes sixty five centimetres for extra hanging comfort.<\/p>\n Only with a front to back rail. On a standard side to side rail, fifty centimetres forces hangers to sit at an angle and prevents doors closing properly.<\/p>\n Yes. The door channels sit in front of the carcase and take around eight to ten centimetres, so allow closer to seventy centimetres externally for the same interior.<\/p>\n Between forty five and fifty five centimetres works well, since children’s clothes are shorter and narrower. Set the rail low so it can be reached independently.<\/p>\n Around ninety centimetres to stand and view the interior comfortably, plus the width of any hinged door if it opens into that space.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Depth is the one wardrobe measurement you cannot negotiate, because it is set by the width of a coat hanger rather than by design preference. Most UK wardrobes measure between fifty five and sixty centimetres, and this guide explains exactly how that figure is arrived…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":57667,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1147,5648,2739,5565],"class_list":["post-57666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bedroom-furniture","tag-bedroom-planning","tag-hanging-space","tag-wardrobe-depth","tag-wardrobe-dimensions"],"acf":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furnitureinfashion.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57666","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=57666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.furnitureinfashion.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furnitureinfashion.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furnitureinfashion.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furnitureinfashion.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furnitureinfashion.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Depth by Wardrobe Type<\/h3>\n
Interior Depth and Shelves<\/h3>\n
Measuring Your Space Correctly<\/h3>\n
How Depth Affects What You Can Store<\/h3>\n
When Extra Depth Is Worth Paying For<\/h3>\n
Common Depth Mistakes<\/h3>\n
A Quick Way to Test Depth Before Buying<\/h3>\n
Frequently Asked Questions<\/h3>\n
What is the standard depth of a wardrobe in the UK?<\/h3>\n
Is fifty centimetres deep enough for a wardrobe?<\/h3>\n
Do sliding wardrobes need more depth?<\/h3>\n
How deep should a children’s wardrobe be?<\/h3>\n
How much clear floor do I need in front of a wardrobe?<\/h3>\n