How should I plan the inside of a wardrobe?

Most wardrobes are a single rail near the top and a shelf above it, and that arrangement wastes an enormous amount of the volume it encloses — a metre of empty air under the shirts. Planning the inside is almost entirely a matter of measuring what hangs in it and building the zones to those lengths instead of to habit.

What you'll need

• Tape measure
• A representative selection of your own clothes on hangers
• Rails, brackets, shelves and shelf pins (optional)
• Drill and fixings for internal fittings (optional)

Step by step

1. Measure your own longest and shortest garments on hangers.From the top of the hanger hook to the hem. Shirts and jackets come out around 900 to 1000mm, trousers hung full length about 1200mm, dresses and coats 1400 to 1500mm. Your own wardrobe, not a standard table.
2. Count how many of each you actually have.This decides the split between long hang and short hang. Most people are heavily weighted towards short hang and give half the wardrobe to long hang out of habit.
3. Set the short hang zone at about 1000mm.Rail to the shelf or rail below. Two of these stack into around 2000mm, which is the internal height of a typical wardrobe — so double hanging effectively doubles the capacity of that half.
4. Set the long hang zone at 1400 to 1500mm.Coats and dresses. Keep it to the width you genuinely need, because everything below a long-hang rail except about 300mm of shoe space is wasted.
5. Put a full-width shelf at the top.Around 1900mm from the floor, for the things not needed weekly — suitcases, spare bedding, seasonal clothes in boxes. Every wardrobe has this space and many leave it empty.
6. Allow 300 to 350mm at the floor for shoes and boxes.Under the long-hang zone, which is otherwise dead. Shoe racks, boxes or a drawer.
7. Get the depth right: 550 to 600mm internally.A coat on a hanger is around 550mm front to back. A shallower wardrobe forces the clothes to hang at an angle and they crush against the doors. If the space is under 500mm deep, use a side-mounted pull-out rail instead of a conventional front-to-back one — it is designed for exactly that.
8. Set the rail heights for the people using it.A top rail above about 1900mm needs a step. In a child's wardrobe, a rail at 1000 to 1200mm makes it usable by the child, which is the whole point.
9. Add drawers or baskets rather than deep shelves.Anything folded on a shelf deeper than about 300mm becomes two rows and the back one is never used. Pull-out baskets or drawers solve it.
10. Anchor the wardrobe to the wall.Tall, and heavier again once it is full — a loaded double wardrobe is 80 to 120kg. Two anchors into studs or masonry, fixed to the solid top or side of the carcass, never the back panel.

Tips

• Hang the heaviest items — coats, suits — nearest the ends of a rail where it is supported, not in the middle where it sags.
• A second rail is cheap and fits in an afternoon. If you have a metre of empty air under your shirts, that is the most storage you will ever gain for the money.
• Lighting inside a wardrobe changes how much of it gets used. A battery LED strip on the underside of the top shelf costs almost nothing.

Common mistakes

• Giving half the wardrobe to long hang out of habit — Most people own far more short-hang garments. Count them, and give long hang only the width it needs.
• Fitting equally spaced shelves instead of zones — Equal spacing fits nothing well. Build zones to the lengths of the actual clothes and the leftover air disappears.
• Building a wardrobe under 500mm deep with a conventional rail — Clothes hang at an angle and crush against the door. Use a side-mounted pull-out rail, which is made for shallow spaces.
• Leaving the top shelf out — It is the easiest capacity in the wardrobe and it costs one board. Suitcases and seasonal storage go there and free up space elsewhere in the house.

If it doesn't work

Questions people ask