Almost everyone chooses the doors first and the inside last. It is the wrong way round, because the doors are what you look at and the internals are what you use every single morning.
This guide covers the measurements that actually matter: hanging heights, drawer depths, shelf spacing and where shoes really ought to go. All of it is what we set out on a design visit, and none of it is complicated once you have seen the numbers.
Why Do The Internals Matter More Than The Doors?
Because a wardrobe with the wrong internal layout is just an expensive cupboard.
A single full-height hanging rail is the default in most freestanding wardrobes, and it is close to the least efficient use of the space there is. Shirts and jackets only need about a metre of drop. Hang them on a rail set at two metres and you have created a metre of empty air underneath that fills up with bags, boxes and things nobody can reach.
Divide that same run into two rails and you have doubled the hanging capacity without adding a single millimetre to the wardrobe. That is the whole argument for planning the inside properly, and it costs very little to get right at the design stage.
What Hanging Heights Do You Actually Need?
These are the working figures we use. They are based on real garments rather than catalogue averages, and they leave enough clearance that nothing trails on the shelf below.
One rule worth knowing: a rail above roughly 2,000mm is out of comfortable reach for most people. Anything higher wants a pull-down rail, or it should be shelving for things you touch twice a year.
How Deep Should A Fitted Wardrobe Be?
600mm externally, which gives roughly 550mm inside. That is the figure a coat hanger dictates.
A standard hanger is around 450mm wide. Add the thickness of what is on it, plus clearance so nothing rubs on the back panel or catches on the door, and 550mm of internal depth is what you need for garments to hang square to the wall.
Go shallower than about 530mm and hangers have to sit at an angle, which creases shoulders and makes the rail hard to slide along. If your room genuinely cannot give up 600mm, the honest answer is not a shallow wardrobe with a normal rail. It is a run with the rail mounted front to back rather than side to side, so garments face sideways. It holds less per metre, but everything still hangs properly.
Drawers Or Shelves?
Both, and the split matters more than the totals. Here is the honest case for each.
Drawers earn their place for small things
Socks, underwear, swimwear, gym kit. Anything that becomes an avalanche on a shelf belongs in a drawer. A 150mm internal depth suits socks and underwear, 200mm to 250mm suits folded t-shirts, and 300mm or deeper takes jumpers and bedding.
Shelves are better for stacks
Knitwear, jeans and folded trousers sit happily on a shelf, and you can see the whole stack at once. Allow 300mm to 350mm between shelves for folded knitwear. Much more and the stack topples, much less and you cannot get your hand in.
A practical starting point for a double wardrobe: one bank of four drawers, two or three shelves above it, and the rest given to hanging. Adjust from there once you have counted what you actually own rather than what you imagine you own.
Where Should Shoes Go?
At the bottom, on angled shelves, not in a heap on the floor of the wardrobe.
Allow roughly 180mm to 200mm of height per row for everyday shoes, and around 250mm if boots are going in flat. Angling the shelf by ten or fifteen degrees means you see the toe of every pair at a glance rather than a row of identical heels.
Tall boots are the exception and want hanging space rather than shelving, because standing them upright for months creases the ankle. A short hanging section with boot clips solves it, and it uses the awkward bit of space beside a drawer bank rather nicely.
Which Accessories Are Genuinely Worth It?
Some of these get used every day. Others get chosen at the design stage and never touched again. This is our honest split after fitting a lot of wardrobes.
Worth it
Soft-close on every drawer. Sensor LED that comes on when the door opens. Pull-down rails where the ceiling is high. Shallow velvet-lined trays for jewellery and watches.
Depends on you
Tie and belt racks, which are wonderful if you wear them and dead space if you do not. Trouser rails. Valet rods, which are genuinely useful if you plan outfits the night before.
Usually skipped
Built-in ironing boards, which sound clever and are almost never used. Deep corner carousels, which lose more space than they save. Integrated laundry bins, unless the wardrobe is nowhere near the landing.
How Do You Plan The Layout?
Four steps, and the first one is the one people skip.
Count what you own
Measure the run of clothes currently hanging, in metres. Count drawers you actually fill. Planning for an imaginary wardrobe is the commonest mistake there is.
Split long from short
Separate the things needing a full 1,500mm drop from everything else. Usually it is a much smaller proportion than people expect, and that frees up a lot for double hanging.
Put daily things at eye level
Between roughly 800mm and 1,700mm from the floor is the comfortable zone. Everyday clothes live there. Suitcases and Christmas decorations go above.
Leave room to grow
Plan to fill about eighty per cent. A wardrobe packed to capacity on fitting day is a wardrobe that stops working within a year.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Happens In A Corner?
Corners lose space unless they are designed as corners from the start.
Where two runs meet at ninety degrees, the last 550mm of one run sits behind the other. Left alone, that becomes a void you can see but not reach, and it is the single most wasted pocket in a fitted bedroom.
There are three sensible answers. A dedicated corner unit with an angled front, which gives you shelving you can actually see into. A short front-to-back hanging section, which turns the depth into an advantage because garments face sideways. Or accepting the void and using it for long-term storage behind a hinged door, which is honest and costs nothing.
What does not work is a standard carousel borrowed from kitchen design. Clothes are not tins, and they snag.
Which Clothes Should Hang And Which Should Fold?
Getting this right shrinks the amount of hanging you need, which usually shrinks the wardrobe you need.
Hang these
Shirts, blouses, jackets, suits, dresses, coats and anything in linen or a fabric that creases if you look at it. Also anything tailored, because a shoulder seam never recovers from being folded for six months.
Fold these
Knitwear of any kind, which stretches out of shape on a hanger. Jeans and heavy cotton trousers. T-shirts, activewear and most jersey. All of it stacks happily and takes a fraction of the space.
People routinely hang about a third more than they need to. Move the knitwear and the jeans onto shelves and a run that looked too small usually turns out to be about right.
The Mistakes We See Most Often
None of these are disasters, and all of them are avoidable at the drawing stage.
- One long rail across the whole run. The commonest and the costliest. It wastes roughly a metre of height under everything short.
- Drawers too deep. A 400mm drawer sounds generous and behaves like a well. Things at the bottom are never seen again.
- Shelves too far apart. Anything over about 400mm and the stack slumps sideways.
- Forgetting the door swing. A drawer behind a hinged door cannot open until the door is fully back against the wall. Worth checking on the plan.
- No lighting. The inside of a wardrobe is always in its own shadow. A strip of sensor LED costs very little while the furniture is being made and is close to impossible to retrofit neatly.
Bring us the numbers and we will do the rest.
On a free design visit we measure the room, go through what you own and set the internals out properly before anything is made. If you would like to think about doors as well, our guide to sliding versus hinged doors is a good companion to this one, and choosing finishes and colours covers the look. When you are ready, book a free design visit.
