Floor-to-ceiling wardrobes: getting the details right

In a room with a 2.7-metre ceiling, a standard 2.1-metre wardrobe leaves 600 millimetres of dead air above it. Across a three-metre run that is nearly two cubic metres of storage - roughly all of a household's luggage, spare bedding and out-of-season coats - lost to dust.

Full-height joinery also reads as architecture rather than furniture. Taken up to the cornice, it looks like part of the building; stopped short, it looks like a box someone left in the room.

Almost no London ceiling is level. Over three metres, a twenty to thirty millimetre fall is ordinary, and in older properties more. The solution is a scribe: the carcass is built square and slightly under height, then a separate scribe fillet or cornice is cut to follow the actual ceiling line.

Where the ceiling is very irregular or the wardrobe meets an original cornice, a shadow gap is the cleaner answer. A deliberate ten to fifteen millimetre recess reads as a designed line, whereas a tapering wedge of filler reads as a mistake.

A single full-height door in a 2.7-metre room is tall, heavy and prone to twisting. The usual approach is a tall main door with a separate top-box door above, split at a consistent height across the run - often aligned with a picture rail or a door head.

If a single tall door is required for the look, specify a heavier-duty hinge set with more hinges per leaf and check that the carcass has enough material to take them. Doors above about 2.2 metres also need slightly wider clearance gaps to allow for seasonal movement.

High storage only works if you can get to it. Options include a pull-down wardrobe lift that brings a rail to chest height, a shallow top-box with lift-out baskets, or simply designing the top zone for infrequent items and keeping a step in the room.

Whatever you choose, make the top boxes shallow enough to see into and light enough to lift. A 600-millimetre-deep top box packed with heavy boxes is a hazard nobody uses twice.

Tall carcasses need proper restraint. They should be fixed back to the wall through the carcass sides or a hanging rail, into masonry with appropriate anchors or into studwork at verified centres. Adjustable feet let the run be levelled before it is fixed, which is essential on a sloping floor.

In flats and period houses, check what is behind the plaster before drilling: chases with cables, gas pipework and lath and plaster all change how the run is fixed.

Full-height joinery is a big surface, so colour choice matters. Painting the wardrobes the same colour as the walls makes them recede and keeps a small bedroom calm. A contrasting colour makes them a feature and works better on one wall than on three.

Sprayed finishes are the right choice for large flat areas because they leave no brush marks across a two-and-a-half-metre door. Ask for the doors to be sprayed off-site and hung after decoration where possible.

A sealed full-height run against a cold external wall can trap moisture. Where that is a risk, leave an air gap behind the carcass, avoid fitting hard against a solid uninsulated wall, and use vented plinths or small vents in the top boxes.

In flats with high humidity, avoid storing damp clothing in a closed bay and consider a louvred panel in one door. It costs almost nothing at design stage and prevents a musty wardrobe later.

Full-height wardrobes typically cost ten to twenty per cent more per linear metre than standard-height equivalents, because there is more material, more door area to spray and more scribing on site. Indicatively that is around £1,400-£2,400 per metre for painted work with a simple interior.

Programme is similar to any fitted wardrobe: four to eight weeks in the workshop, then two to four days on site, with the extra time going into scribing and door adjustment.