The alcove beside your chimney breast is holding a chest of drawers and a gap, and the gap is about a third of the space you paid for.
Key Takeaways From This Article
- Before: a freestanding wardrobe that leaves a wedge of dead space at the side and a shelf of dust on top.
- After: a carcass built to the alcove as measured, finishing against the cornice, with the coomb used rather than lost.
- Hanging heights, drawer depths and shelf spacings are set at the survey against what the room actually has to hold.
- Design, manufacture and installation are handled in house by the same family run team, and the quote follows the survey.
George Herkes & Son Joinery has worked across East Lothian since 1989 and holds East Lothian Trading Standards Trusted Trader accreditation, rated 5.0 from 62 reviews, and the same team that builds a wardrobe also handles bathroom designs in East Lothian when a bedroom and an en suite are done together.
Send through the room and what it has to hold, and George will come out and measure it.
Bespoke Fitted Wardrobes
What a made-to-measure carcass is built to
A fitted wardrobe is built to the room as surveyed, not to a module. Width, height and depth are taken at three points each, because a bedroom wall is rarely the same measurement at the skirting as it is at the cornice. The carcass is made to the smallest of the three and the difference is taken up in a scribe cut in the workshop, not filled on the day.
Setting out on an uneven floor
Bedroom floors in the older stock rarely run level, and a carcass stood on an out-of-level floor throws every door out of line with its neighbour. The base is packed and levelled first and the carcass is built off that datum, so the doors read as one run across the wall. Levels are taken before anything is stood up.
Carcass construction
Carcasses are built in 18mm board with a solid back panel, glued and screwed rather than cam-and-dowel. Backs are fixed into a rebate so the piece stays square under load. That is the part nobody sees and the part that decides whether the doors still line up in five years.
George Herkes & Son Joinery gives free quotes on Fitted Wardrobes throughout East Lothian. Ask George what your job involves.
Wardrobe Styles and Finishes in East Lothian
Doors
Hinged doors suit a room with space in front of them and give full access to the opening. Sliding doors suit a narrow bedroom where a swing would foul the bed, at the cost of half the opening being covered at any time. Shaker rails and stiles are cut to the door rather than bought as a panel, so the proportions answer to the room’s height.
Finishes
Painted work is built in a stable board and sprayed in the workshop, which lays flat in a way a brush does not. Clear finishes go on hardwood where the grain is the point. The finish is matched at the survey to what the room already carries, the same way it is matched on our door fitting in East Lothian.
Bedroom, Alcove, and Sloping-Space Solutions
Alcoves beside a chimney breast
Victorian and interwar bedrooms through Musselburgh, Prestonpans and Tranent almost all have a breast standing proud into the room. The alcove either side is rarely the same width as its opposite number, so the two carcasses are made as a pair of different sizes rather than one size fitted twice.
Coombed and sloping ceilings
A coomb turns the top of a wardrobe into a triangle. Hanging goes where the full height allows it, drawers and shelving go under the slope, and the carcass finishes against the coomb on a cut line rather than under it. The same setting-out applies in a new room made by a loft conversion builder in East Lothian, where the slope is the defining dimension.
Installation Process and Lead Times
The sequence
Survey first, with the room measured and the internals agreed. Drawing second. Workshop build third, with doors sprayed and left to cure. Fit last, in one visit where the room allows it. Running those out of order is what produces a wardrobe that arrives and does not go in.
What sets the lead time
The making is predictable and the room is not. Access is measured at survey along with everything else, because a carcass that will not turn a stair is a carcass rebuilt. Lead time is given after the survey rather than at the enquiry, which is how it is handled on our wardrobes fitting work in Elphinstone as well.
Made-to-Measure Design and Storage Layouts
Internals
Hanging heights are set to what is actually being hung: around 1000mm for shirts and jackets doubled up, around 1600mm for a full-length rail. Drawers go on full-extension runners so the back of the drawer is reachable. Shelf spacings are set at the survey against what the room has to hold.
What the quote covers
The quote follows the survey and covers the design, the workshop build, the finish and the fitting, not the carcass on its own. Design, manufacture and installation are handled in house and core work is not subcontracted out, so one team is accountable for the whole piece. That is ordinary joinery done in the order it needs doing, and the visit to measure costs nothing.
Planning Fitted Wardrobes in East Lothian? Get a free quote from George Herkes & Son Joinery and find out what it takes.
Fitted Wardrobes in East Lothian FAQs
Do you build wardrobes into alcoves and under sloping ceilings in older East Lothian houses?
Yes, and in this county's stock that is most of the work. A Victorian or interwar bedroom in Musselburgh, Prestonpans or Tranent usually has a chimney breast standing into the room, and the two alcoves either side are seldom the same width. They are measured separately and built as a pair of different sizes. Under a coomb the hanging goes where the height allows and the drawers go under the slope.
What is included in a fitted wardrobe quote?
The survey, the drawing, the workshop build, the finish and the fitting. It is quoted after George has measured the room rather than off a list, because the room is what decides the piece. Design, manufacture and installation are all done in house and core work is not subcontracted out, so there is one team accountable for the whole thing. The visit to measure costs nothing.
Can you match a wardrobe to the existing woodwork in a period property?
Yes. A Georgian room in Haddington carries a moulding profile no merchant stocks, so it is scribed off an existing length and cut to match in the workshop. Painted work is sprayed to the room's existing colour and clear finishes are matched on the timber rather than on a chart.
