Can someone help advise me on my plan to build a fitted wardrobe in a bedroom.

[nightowlkb]

Hi All,

Can someone help advise me on my plan to build a fitted wardrobe in a bedroom. I intend to put to the left of a chimney breast (see picture), and I have a few questions.

Question 1: I intend to buy 2 spacepro shaker doors from b&q and an end piece. (https://www.diy.com/departments/sha...wardrobe-door-h-2220-mm-w-762mm/964874_BQ.prd) The space they are going to fit in is 1430mm wide. Both of these doors come to 1524mm which will leave an overlap of 90mm. Would that look wierd? If that is not the done thing, i have 2 alternate ways i figure i could approach it.
A) I could continue the track the extra 90mm past the chimney breast so the doors do not overlap. (the wardrobe will be proud from the front face of the chimney breast by about 300mm anyway, so i dont think you will tell it coninues past the start of the breast until you open it.)
B) There is a narrower door i could go for instead which is 610mm. They would come to 1220mm total, so i would need to fill in 105mm empty space at each side with Contiboard or something.

Question 2: Regardless which size door i pick, they are all 2220mm tall, and the floor to ceiling height of the room is 2530mm. So i am going to have to suspend the top track from the ceiling. I have found these: https://www.screwfix.com/p/spacepro-opening-height-reducer/7141r which i could use, or i could build some sort of timber frame if that is better? I guess i would have to use contiboard to fill in the gap, unless you guys know of something better to use?

Sidenote: One other thing i could do is run the wardrobe accross the entire back wall if you think that would be better, though i dont have the length measurements for that to hand as i'm writing this at work. I initially opted against this as the space between the doors and the front of the chimney breast would be about 100mm which from a storage perspective isnt going to be useful for much except storing trinkets and what not.

I downloaded the fitting instructions from The screwfix website, accessible from the following link if that helps:

http://www.free-instruction-manuals.com/pdf/pa_1815979.pdf

 

[Doghouse Riley]

My first question is what is above the plaster on the ceiling?
If it's just plasterboard, it might not hold the fixings you intend to buy. They could start to wobble after a bit.
Why not just baton out the gap with some 2 X 2" timber and attach the door runners to that? You can face up the gap between the top of the doors and the ceiling with a bit of plasterboard or laminate fixed to the timber.

I think they sell that laminated board in 300mm widths, by 2500mm. So that might be ideal for the return to the chimney breast.
It's possible the plastering of the chimney breast might not be perfect. But if you place the board up against it and then mark off where the doors would then be positioned, you shouldn't have to trim it. But it wont be quite tall enough.

When I built a big wardrobe with sliding doors. I started with a plywood plinth for the base on timber batons and fixed the bottom rail to the front edge. The height of this plinth was determined by the height of the doors, so the top runner could be attached to a length of 3" X 1" timber, wide enough to take the two tracks and screwed the timber straight to the ceiling.

 

[nightowlkb]

@Doghouse Riley under the plaster there is just plasterboards screwed directly to the ceiling joists. The joists run from left to right on the picture. Where i want to ideally place the doors however, is inbetween 2 joists. one of them would be too far back and the other too far forward. There is 2 joists within the area where the wardrobe will be, do you think i could attach the batons to those and have it extend over the end of the second one by 8 inches or so? or would that not be enough support?
do you have a link to the kind of laminate you are referring to? google brings up a lot of different pictures.
I like the idea of the plinth, that will reduce the height i need to fill for the top.

 

[Doghouse Riley]

@Doghouse Riley under the plaster there is just plasterboards screwed directly to the ceiling joists. The joists run from left to right on the picture. Where i want to ideally place the doors however, is inbetween 2 joists. one of them would be too far back and the other too far forward. There is 2 joists within the area where the wardrobe will be, do you think i could attach the batons to those and have it extend over the end of the second one by 8 inches or so? or would that not be enough support?
do you have a link to the kind of laminate you are referring to? google brings up a lot of different pictures.
I like the idea of the plinth, that will reduce the height i need to fill for the top.

I think what you are suggesting will be fine. A long as you can get two secure fixings through the baton into the joists, it'll be OK.

I'd also suggest a small piece of baton to return to the chimey breast forming an elongated "L" shape. If this is secured to the end of baton and the edge of the chimney breast, that would give additional support. You'll need to be be fixing your 300mm wide return of Contiplas or whatever. You could fix this to the chimney breast with two or three brackets. Or better still a long piece of two by one screwed to the breast. I'd also put a bit down the length, in far enough so it won't affect either door from butting up against it when either is fully closed. This will strengthen this fillet. Chip board is quite brittle when its of these dimensions.
The ceiling baton should be made long enough for you to get a fixing to it with the top of the fillet. Have this fillet flush up to the ceiling and get a small piece to fill the gap at the bottom where it won't notice so much.
B&Q sell this laminated chipboard and the measurements I quoted is one of their standard sizes.

 

[nightowlkb]

@Doghouse Riley your plinth idea has had my brain ticking over with ideas lol. i think im going to put skirting board over the plinth at the bottom, that would raise the base by 119mm if i match it to whats in the room already. That leaves me with just 191mm to make up at the top.

while looking at images on the internet too, i think im going to run the wardrobes over the entire back wall, as it looks better on all the pictures ive seen. then I could cover most of the gap left at the top with coving. The full back wall would require 4 762mm doors over a space of 3470mm. that would leave 211mm of space each side. Perhaps i could fix battons/studs to the 2 walls and put laminate/conti boards over the top. More importantly, my good lady prefers this idea as well so it will keep her happy lol.

Thankyou for your suggestions on this, it has been really helpful. Il let you know how it turns out!