Many flats have a recess in the hallway, the bedroom or a former storage space. At first sight it is an ideal place for a wardrobe: the side walls are already there, the furniture does not stick out into the room and the doors sit flush with the wall. In practice, though, a recess is rarely perfectly square, and its depth is sometimes too shallow for a standard wardrobe. A good result depends on accurate measuring and a construction suited to the recess.
Measuring: not one point but several
Measuring the width in just one place is the most common mistake. Because of plaster thickness, walls can differ at the top, middle and bottom. Width is therefore measured at no fewer than three heights, and height at the left, centre and right. Depth is checked on each side wall separately, because the back wall is sometimes at an angle.
Comparing the diagonals shows whether the recess is square. If the difference is large, the wardrobe is made to the smallest dimension and the remaining gaps are closed with filler panels. Floor and ceiling levels matter too: with sliding door systems, the top and bottom tracks must be parallel for the doors to run properly.
Only measure once all the finishing is done: walls plastered and painted, floor laid and skirting fitted. Even the thickness of the floor finish alters how tall the wardrobe can be.
How uneven walls are compensated
Furniture makers have several ways to hide the imperfections of a recess:
- Side filler panels: they close the uneven gap between carcass and wall and are scribed on site to the shape of the wall.
- A top cornice or panel: it hides an uneven ceiling and also covers the top track of sliding doors.
- Adjustable legs and a plinth: they level out floor differences, and the plinth hides the legs.
Sometimes a carcass-free wardrobe is offered, where the interior shelves are fixed directly to the recess walls. It gains a little space but requires straight, solid walls; on an uneven wall the shelves will look crooked. A wardrobe with its own carcass gives straight lines inside regardless of wall condition and can later be dismantled and moved.
Interior layout by depth
Hanging clothes across the width on shoulder hangers requires a certain depth. If the recess is shallow, there are alternatives:
- A pull-out hanging rail: in a shallow cabinet, clothes hang parallel to the door rather than perpendicular, and the mechanism pulls forward.
- A layout of shelves and drawers for folded clothes: in a shallow recess this is the most efficient solution.
- In a hallway recess: angled shoe shelves, open compartments for bags and hats, and the deepest part of the recess for coats.
A deep recess brings the opposite problem: items at the back are hard to reach. Here pull-out baskets, full-extension drawers or a seasonal storage zone at the back of the recess are planned.
Doors: sliding or hinged
Door choice for an alcove wardrobe depends on the free space in front. Where a hallway is narrow, open hinged doors get in the way, which makes sliding doors the practical answer; Aristo and RaumPlus systems can split the recess into two or more leaves. Since sliding leaves always cover part of the interior, line up the drawer blocks with the door panels so none ends up hidden behind the point where two leaves overlap.
If there is enough room in front, hinged doors reveal the whole interior at once and can look like a wall panel. Handleless matt fronts in the wall colour make the recess almost invisible. In a hallway, a mirrored front is both functional and makes the space feel larger.
Light and ventilation
A recess is usually the darkest spot in a room. LED lighting inside the wardrobe that switches on when a door opens, or concealed lighting at the top of the recess, makes finding things easier. The position of the power supply should be noted during measuring so that room for the cable is planned in the carcass.
An alcove on an outside wall turns cold in winter, and moisture can condense behind the wardrobe. A slim air space between the back panel and the plaster, plus vents at top and bottom, keeps damp and mould at bay.
Check before ordering
- Have width, height and depth been measured at several points?
- Are floor and wall works completely finished?
- Is the depth enough to hang clothes across, or is an alternative rail needed?
- Does the door type suit the passage in front?
- If the recess is on an external wall, is a ventilation gap planned?
Zaferoglu Mebel builds recess wardrobes to size and its own fitters install them free of charge. Checking how uneven the walls are and how deep the alcove is during the measuring visit tells you which filler strips and interior layout will work.
