Fitted Wardrobe Costs UK — What to Charge to Build and Install Fitted Wardrobes in 2026

Quick Reference: Fitted Wardrobe Prices UK 2026

Types of Fitted Wardrobe and the Price/Quality Trade-off

The single biggest driver of price is which type of wardrobe the customer actually wants — and very often they don't know the difference until you explain it. Getting this conversation right early stops you quoting for a £700 flat-pack job and then being expected to deliver £4,000 of bespoke joinery. Here are the four main categories.

Off-the-shelf Flat-pack

These are mass-produced carcasses from the likes of IKEA PAX, Howdens, or budget online suppliers. The customer (or you) buys the units, you assemble them and fix them to the wall. There's no scribing into the room — the units sit proud and you fill gaps with end panels or filler strips. It's the cheapest option and the fastest to install, but it never looks truly built-in and the materials are thin melamine-faced chipboard.

Supply and fit a typical run sits at £400–£900. Many customers buy the flat-pack themselves and pay you labour-only — that's the £250–£600 install rate below.

Sliding-door Systems

Sliding-door wardrobes — including mirror-door systems — use a track-mounted door set across the front of a recess or a built carcass. They're popular in bedrooms with limited floor space because the doors don't swing out. Brands like Sliderobes and Spaceslide sell to-measure door kits; you fit the track, the dividers and the internal storage.

A sliding mirror-door system runs £500–£1,500 supply and fit depending on width, number of doors and the quality of the door frames and soft-close gear.

Made-to-measure Carcass

This is the middle ground: carcasses cut to the room's dimensions (usually 18mm MFC or melamine board), assembled on site or in a workshop, scribed to the walls, with hinged or sliding doors and a proper internal fit-out. It looks genuinely built-in but the construction is panel-based rather than traditional cabinetry. Most "fitted wardrobe" companies sell this tier.

Price this at £600–£1,200 per linear metre supply and fit. The spread reflects door quality, internal spec and how much scribing the room demands.

Fully Bespoke Hand-built Joinery

At the top end is true joinery: timber-framed carcasses, paint-grade MDF or hardwood-faced doors, traditional shaker or panelled fronts, cornice and skirting matched to the room, and a sprayed or hand-painted finish. This is the work that justifies a premium, takes the most skill, and carries the most labour — particularly in period properties with out-of-square walls and chimney breasts.

Bespoke joinery-built wardrobes run £1,000–£2,500+ per linear metre. Spray-finished, dressing-room-grade work in London and the South East regularly exceeds the top of that range.

How to Price: Per Linear Metre, Per Project or Day Rate

There are three ways to build a fitted wardrobe quote, and good operators use a blend depending on the job.

• Per linear metre: The industry standard for made-to-measure and bespoke work. You quote a rate per metre of run length and multiply by the wardrobe width. It's quick to communicate, easy for the customer to compare, and scales naturally — a 2m wall and a 4m wall use the same rate. Make clear whether your rate is full-height and what door and internal spec it assumes.
• Per project: Best for irregular jobs — alcoves either side of a chimney breast, sloping ceilings, or anything where a flat per-metre rate would either overcharge or leave you short. You price the whole thing as one figure built up from materials, labour days and margin.
• Day rate plus materials: Useful for labour-only installs of customer-supplied units, or as the basis for your project build-ups. A joiner day rate of £180–£280/day is typical in 2026, higher in London and the South East. Price the materials at cost plus a markup, never at trade cost.

Whichever method you lead with, build the quote from a day-rate-plus-materials calculation underneath. The per-metre rate is how you present it; the day count is how you protect your margin.

What's Included — and What Customers Forget

A fitted wardrobe price should spell out exactly what the customer gets. The single most common dispute is over what was "included." Itemise the following in every quote:

• Carcasses: The structural boxes — material, thickness and whether they're full-height.
• Doors: Hinged, sliding or mirror; style (slab, shaker, panelled); and soft-close hinges or gear.
• Internals: Hanging rails, adjustable shelves, drawer banks, shoe racks, pull-out trays. This is where spec — and cost — escalates fast.
• Scribing to walls: Cutting filler panels and end scribes so the unit fits an out-of-square room with no gaps. This is the labour customers never see and always underestimate.
• Cornice and skirting: Matching the wardrobe to the room's existing mouldings so it reads as built-in rather than bolted-on.
• Painting and finishing: Whether the price includes a sprayed or hand-painted finish, or whether the customer is finishing it themselves.
• Disposal: Removing old wardrobes, packaging and offcuts. Skip or tip runs add up — charge for them.

Cost Drivers — What Pushes the Price Up

Two wardrobes of the same width can differ by thousands. Before you price, walk the room and check for the things that add labour or material cost:

• Sloping ceilings: Loft conversions and attic bedrooms mean angled tops and bespoke door heights — every panel is a one-off cut. Add labour generously.
• Chimney breasts and alcoves: Wardrobes that wrap around or fill alcoves require returns, separate carcasses and a lot of scribing. Rarely a clean per-metre job.
• Out-of-square walls: Period properties are almost never plumb or level. Scribing into bowed plaster eats hours.
• Material grade: Paint-grade MDF is cheaper than veneered board; veneer is cheaper than solid hardwood. The jump from MFC to solid timber doors can double a job.
• Soft-close everything: Soft-close hinges and drawer runners are now expected on mid and upper-tier work — factor the hardware cost in.
• Internal lighting: LED strips, sensor-activated rail lights and a fused spur or low-voltage driver add material and, if mains, an electrician.
• Finish: A sprayed finish needs masking, a dust-controlled environment and multiple coats. Hand-painting on site is slower still. Either way, finishing is often the most underestimated time on the whole job.

Worked Example: 3m Bespoke Alcove Wardrobe

Let's price a fully bespoke, paint-grade MDF wardrobe filling a 3m alcove in a Victorian bedroom — floor-to-ceiling, shaker doors, soft-close, hand-painted on site. This is a genuine joinery build, not a flat-pack.

• Materials: 18mm MR MDF for carcasses and doors, framing timber, MDF mouldings for the shaker rails, hanging rails, adjustable shelf hardware, soft-close hinges, a drawer bank with runners, fixings, primer and paint — roughly £900–£1,200 at your cost-plus pricing.
• Labour — build and install: Cutting and assembling carcasses, fitting them into an out-of-square alcove, scribing the returns, hanging and adjusting shaker doors, fitting the internals. Budget 3–4 days for a careful one-person build, say £700–£1,000 at day rate.
• Labour — finishing: Filling, sanding, caulking the scribes, priming and two to three coats of paint by hand. This is easily 1.5–2 days on its own — £300–£550. Customers never see this coming; you must.
• Margin: On top of materials and labour, add your business margin — typically 20–30% — to cover overheads, profit, snagging and the inevitable return visit.

Add it up: materials around £1,050, labour around £1,300, finishing around £400 — call it £2,750 in cost — then margin takes the customer price to roughly £3,400–£3,700. On a 3m run that's about £1,150–£1,250 per linear metre, which sits right in the bespoke band. If you'd quoted this at a made-to-measure £700/metre rate, you'd have lost money on the finishing alone.

How to Quote Profitably

The wardrobe jobs that go wrong almost always go wrong because the fitter priced the visible carpentry and forgot the invisible time. Protect your margin with these habits:

• Count finishing as real days. Filling, caulking, priming and painting a bespoke unit is frequently a third of the total labour. Build it into the day count, not as an afterthought.
• Price scribing time honestly. An out-of-square period room can add half a day of careful fitting versus a square new-build. Survey the walls before you commit a number.
• Mark up materials properly. Buying at trade and charging at trade gives the customer your discount for free. Charge cost-plus and let the markup contribute to overheads.
• Quote the spec, not just the price. Itemise carcasses, doors, internals, finish and disposal so a customer comparing you to a cheaper quote can see what they're actually getting.
• Add a contingency on period property. Hidden pipework, uneven floors and bowed walls are the norm, not the exception. A 10–15% contingency line keeps surprises off your own margin.
• Take a deposit for materials. Bespoke materials are job-specific and non-returnable. A materials deposit protects you if the customer pulls out mid-build.

Get the type conversation right, build every quote up from days and materials, and never let the scribing and finishing time disappear into a round number — that's the difference between a fitted wardrobe job that funds your business and one that quietly costs you.