Fitted wardrobes are assumed to be about doors and finishes, and once you are in the room it turns out they are about depth, access and where the flue runs.
The Short Version
- Alcoves either side of a chimney breast are rarely the same depth, and a fitted run hides the difference.
- Everything is measured on site, built and sprayed in the workshop, then fitted by the same team.
- Layouts are drawn from what goes in them, so hanging, shelving and drawers land where they are used.
- Access is checked before anything is cut, which matters in the four in a block flats around Ormiston Road.
George Herkes & Son Joinery has worked across East Lothian since 1989, holds East Lothian Trading Standards Trusted Trader accreditation and is rated 5.0 from 62 reviews, and the same team that handles bespoke joinery building in Tranent measures, makes and fits every wardrobe.
Send a photo of the bedroom and the rough sizes, and George will come out and measure it properly.
Bespoke Fitted Wardrobes
The alcove beside a chimney breast is almost never the same depth on both sides of the room. In the interwar houses around Tranent, including the 520 built by the town co-operative society, one side often takes a flue and the other does not. A matched pair of shop bought wardrobes will sit proud on one wall and leave a shadow gap on the other.
A fitted run is built to the two depths it actually has and made to read as one piece from the door. The face frames line through, the doors are hung to a common reveal, and the difference disappears into the carcass where nobody looks. Symmetry is a finish, not a measurement. Getting there means the two carcasses are built to different depths on purpose and the face frames are made to a single line.
Thinking about Fitted Wardrobes in Tranent? A free quote from George Herkes & Son Joinery costs you nothing but the phone call.
Materials, Craftsmanship, and Manufacturing
Hand painted MDF and veneered board behave differently in a solid walled house, and a bedroom on a north gable moves more than a boxroom in the middle of a terrace. Doors made from the wrong sheet will telegraph the frame within a year.
Carcasses are built from eighteen millimetre board with dowelled joints and glue blocks at the corners. Shaker doors are made from hand painted MDF because it holds a crisp arris and stays flat. Where a room asks for grain, oak veneer is laid with the figure running through the run rather than door by door. The same workshop and the same hardware go into who does wardrobes fitting in Elphinstone work. Materials are chosen for the wall they meet, and the sheet is specified at drawing stage rather than picked up on the day.
Made-to-Measure Design and Storage Layouts in Tranent
Most people ask for more hanging space and then find the room needs shelves. Bedrooms in the low rise stock off Ormiston Road have a usable width of not much more than an alcove, so a full depth wardrobe eats the floor while the upper half sits empty.
Layouts are drawn from what goes in them. Long hanging for coats and dresses, double hanging for shirts and folded stacks, drawers where the depth allows. The upper box takes the seasonal things nobody wants at eye level. Design, manufacture and installation all sit under the same joinery service so nothing is passed between trades. The layout follows the contents, so the drawing is settled once you have said what actually needs to go in.
Installation Process and Lead Times
Access decides the sequence in a two storey four in a block flat, because a finished carcass has to come up a common stair and round a landing.
Survey and drawing
The room is measured at three heights, since walls in older Tranent housing rarely stay parallel from skirting to cornice. Drawings go back for approval before anything is cut.
Workshop build
Carcasses, doors and drawers are made and finished off site. Sprayed doors are flatted between coats and stacked to cure, which is the part that cannot be rushed.
Fitting day
Dust sheets and floor protection go down first. Carcasses are scribed to the wall, packed level and fixed into the masonry, then doors are hung and adjusted last so the reveals match.
Wardrobe Styles and Finishes
A shaker door on a 1924 miners’ terrace on Lammermoor Terrace reads differently from a slab door in a postwar flat, and the moulding profile is what does it. Copying the room’s existing architrave into the door frame ties the new work to the old.
Sliding doors suit a narrow room where a hinged leaf would foul the bed. Hinged doors give full access to the interior and take a deeper handle. Finishes run from hand painted colour to clear lacquered oak, with soft close hinges as standard on both. The door style is the last decision, not the first, because the carcass and the interior are what the room is judged on a year later.
Thinking about Fitted Wardrobes in Tranent? A free quote from George Herkes & Son Joinery costs you nothing but the phone call.
People Also Ask: Fitted Wardrobes in Tranent
Will fitted wardrobes work in the alcoves in my Tranent house?
Almost always, and the alcoves are usually where they belong. The two sides of a chimney breast are rarely the same depth in the older Tranent stock, so the run is built to the depths the room actually has and made to read as one piece from the doorway.
Can you fit wardrobes into a sloping ceiling or a box room?
Yes. Sloping ceilings take hanging rails at the high side and drawers under the low side, so the awkward end of the room does the storage rather than sitting empty. Box rooms are usually a full height run on one wall with a shallower return.
How much do fitted wardrobes cost?
It depends on the run length, the door style and the interior layout, so the figure comes from the survey rather than from a price list. The quote is free, written, and itemised before any work is booked. Our guide How much do carpenters charge for built-in wardrobes? goes through this properly.
How long does it take from first visit to fitted?
The survey and drawings come first and go back to you for approval, then the run is built and sprayed in the workshop, then fitted. Lead time is confirmed in writing with the quote once the design is settled.
Can you get a finished wardrobe up the stair in a four in a block flat?
Access is checked at survey stage for exactly that reason. Around the Ormiston Road schemes a carcass has to come up a common stair and round a landing, so anything that will not turn the corner is built in sections and assembled in the room.
Do you take the old wardrobes away?
Yes, the old units come out and go with us on the day, and floor protection and dust sheets go down before anything is lifted.
