The short answer
Most of the time on a bespoke wardrobe is spent before anyone arrives with tools. Making usually takes four to eight weeks once drawings are signed, and the fitting itself is normally measured in days rather than weeks. The part that varies most is the design stage, because that depends on how quickly choices about doors, interiors and finishes are settled.
It helps to think of the job as four stages: survey, drawings, workshop and site. Each has its own pace, and delays in one tend to ripple into the next.
Stage one: the survey visit
We visit to measure the room properly, recording openings at several heights, checking whether floors fall and ceilings dip, and noting sockets, pipework and radiators. This visit is also where we talk about how you use the room, which clothes you keep, and whether the wardrobe needs to sit with existing period detail.
Booking this first appointment is usually the quickest step. What slows things later is missing information: an unconfirmed ceiling height after a renovation, or a radiator that might move. If building work is still under way, we prefer to survey once walls are plastered, since measuring bare brick and then plaster going on changes the numbers.
Stage two: drawings and choices
From the survey we prepare plans and elevations showing carcass positions, door divisions and the internal layout. You review them, ask for changes, and we revise. Samples of paint colours, veneers and hardware are agreed at this stage too.
This is where most programmes stretch. A decision about sliding versus hinged doors, or a wait for a paint sample to be viewed in daylight, can add a week or two. Clients who arrive with a clear list of what must go in the wardrobe, and a sense of the finish they like, tend to move through drawings fastest.
- Know roughly how much long and short hanging you need
- Decide early whether you want internal lighting, so wiring can be planned
- Confirm the flooring that will be down when we fit
- Collect photos of finishes you like, even from other rooms
Stage three: making in the workshop
Once drawings are signed, the wardrobe is built in our workshop. Panels are cut, carcasses assembled, doors made and finished, and interiors fitted out. Sprayed lacquer needs time to cure between coats, and veneered doors need careful matching across a run, so the finish is often what sets the pace of manufacture.
Nothing about this stage happens in your home, which is the main reason bespoke joinery causes far less disruption than people expect. While the pieces are being made, you can carry on using the room.
Stage four: fitting and adjustment
The finished components are delivered and installed by the joiners who made them. Carcasses are levelled, fixed back, and scribed to the walls; doors are hung and adjusted so gaps run even; drawers and pull-outs are set up to run smoothly. A single wardrobe run is typically fitted in one to three days, with larger schemes taking longer.
We then leave the timber to settle into the room's heating and humidity. Doors can move very slightly in the first season, and a return visit to fine-tune hinges is a normal part of good joinery rather than a sign of a fault.
What makes a wardrobe take longer
Scale is the obvious factor, but it is rarely the biggest. Complicated shapes such as sloping ceilings or curved walls add drawing and making time. Specialist finishes, glazed doors with bespoke framing, and fitted lighting all extend the programme a little. Coordinating with other trades matters too: if decorators, electricians or floor fitters are working in the same room, the wardrobe has to slot into their sequence.
The most reliable way to shorten the overall timeline is to involve us early, ideally while a renovation is still being planned. That allows the survey and drawings to happen in parallel with other work, so the wardrobe is ready to fit as soon as the room is.
Frequently asked questions
- Can you fit a wardrobe before the room is decorated?
- Yes, and it often makes sense. We fit after plastering and before the final coat of paint, so decorators can finish neatly up to the joinery.
- Will I be without a bedroom during the work?
- Usually only for the fitting days, because the making happens off site in our workshop.
- Is a walk-in wardrobe much slower than a single run?
- It involves more pieces and more fitting time, but the stages are the same. The design stage tends to be longer because there are more decisions to make.
Planning a project like this?
SH Joinery surveys every room before quoting, so you get a fixed price against a written specification rather than an estimate. Send us your drawings, photographs or rough sizes and we will come back with an honest view of what your project involves.