Why Are Fitted Wardrobes So Expensive? The Truth...

We take a look at the true costs of having a fitted wardrobe and if it's as expensive as you might think, plus we run through some pros and cons of haing a new built-in wardrobe at all.

Thinking about a fitted wardrobe

When considering a fitted wardrobe for your home there's a number of different factors that you need to take into consideration and that you may already be thinking of now. We define a fitted wardrobe as being a storage solution that is made to measure for the space that it sits in, giving the impression that it was 'built in' to the room, with bespoke internal options.

Customers who are planning a fitted bedroom and looking into the options will be wondering whether a full carcass or front frame is better, or wondering how deep fitted wardrobes should be and many other questions.

But of course, we all know that everything comes down to pounds, shillings and pence when it comes to home improvements and so there are two very common questions that people often turn to search engines or our bedroom designers to ask... how much do fitted wardrobes cost and, following that research, why are fitted wardrobes so expensive?

We decided to help answer those questions so you can decide if built in wardrobes are worth it for you and your home.

How did we get here?

Well before we can address that question, we have to wonder how you arrived at it in the first place. For some people, they've seen wardrobes in retailers like IKEA, Argos and John Lewis and seen a relatively large-sized wardrobe for a few hundred pounds... that could be the foundation for your question.

Alternatively, perhaps you've been thinking about some fitted bedroom furniture for a while and have contacted one of the larger, more well-known 'high street' fitted wardrobe brands. They'll have sent a designer to your home who may have tried to push you into a deal on the day. They will likely have put together a quote that starts at an eye-watering figure, then added two or three discounts and promotions on there to bring the price down... often by more than 50%!

Now, we all know that these discounts and deals are suspicious... no company can afford to do a half price sale unless they were making a small fortune before or they are absolutely desperate, right? It's a bit of a misleading con, which has been cleverly designed to trick you into thinking you're getting a great deal so you buy immediately.

But what if the heavily discounted quote is still huge? We've seen 3 metre fitted wardrobe quotes come to over £5000 before! 

So from there, those customers are wondering what the difference is between some freestanding storage compared to a built-in wardrobe and whether the increase in cost is worth it for them.

So, why are fitted wardrobes so expensive?

Quite simply, fitted wardrobes cost so much because you're getting a bespoke product that's made to measure for your space and unique to your exact requirements. This means that you're getting a completely customised storage solution for your bedroom which is tailored to our exact needs.

Naturally, everyone is different and every customer we speak to has different requirements for their wardrobes... some people have lots of long dresses and ballgowns that need tall hanging space, others have suits or want shoe displays.

Some customers opt for fitted wardrobes with tv space so they can integrate their clothes storage with their television area or dressing table, or even over-bed wardrobes that encompass the bed and bedside tables.

With freestanding or basic flat-pack furniture, you're stuck with whatever internal options the manufacturer has chosen. If you opt for bespoke built-in wardrobes, you can have whatever you want, right down to the millimetre.

Are they actually that pricey?

As you'd expect, the price varies wildly from one retailer to another. The well-known household names can be very expensive indeed, because your money goes into pricey marketing campaigns, paying for the designer's commission, paying for the surveyor and then the fitters... even though they use third party fitters and don't employ their own!

Many of these retailers will charge over £1000 per linear metre! 

This brings us neatly to our solution (this is our article after all, we can't resist the shameless plug!). We allow customers to measure their own space and send us their requirements. We put build the wardrobes and send them out, totally made to measure down to the millimetre, flat-packed. The customer can then build the furniture themselves or hire a third party fitter for a couple of hundred pounds to complete the job.

At Online Bedrooms, depending on your internal configuration, we're anywhere between £530 - £770 per linear metre which represents a huge saving.

Often, we will be less than half the price of the big retailers... but with the highest quality 18mm cabinetry, high-spec components as standard and an industry-leading 15 year guarantee, too. We almost always save customers at least £1500.

Plus, you might be sitting and thinking "how long do fitted wardrobes take to fit?" And the answer is... around a day!

We think it's worth it... but now it's over to you.

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