Fitted Wardrobe in Loft

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Hello all!

I'm new here. I want to build a fitted wardrobe in the alcove of my bedroom which has an angle of 33º.

One of my biggest blocker is what to do with the skirting board and the plinth. I have some options:
  1. I've seen youtube videos where people use a plinth of the same height of the skirting board (19cm). I could do that but I would lose a lot of height (2.04cm the highest and 60cm the shortest).
  2. Have a lower plinth structure but I would lose 2cm per side of width.
  3. Remove the skirting board, but I don't have the right tools to cut it and I worry that I mess it up
But another doubt is do I need a plinth? Can I just put the cabinet on the floor?

Thanks!
 
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Hi and welcome.
Hard to imagine the situation, a photo would help.

Sometimes a plinth adds stability. If it's a bit "wobbly" buy a bit of pre-cut mdf and screw it to the bottom.
With no plinth, check that doors don't drag on the floor when you open them.
 
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Hi

Thanks! I've attached a picture.
By pre-cut mdf, you mean adding an extra panel and screw it to the floor?
I was thinking to build 3 cabinets with 4 panels where the top has to be cut in angle and add them on top of it?

Also, as the alcove is deep 108cm, does it make sense to push it back to touch the wall? My wife prefers it flushed and as it has to be max 80cm deep, there would be some space behind.

IMG_20201214_220406.jpg
 
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Removing that bit of skirting board will be a lot easier than building cupboards.
There might just be a couple of fixings.

I've a better idea of what you want to do now.

First. Find out what your wife wants (that's the voice of experience).
If it is somewhere to hang clothes, find out how many she wants to get in there, it'll determine the width. It's got to be not so wide that those on the left of the wardrobe don't drag on the floor when she hangs them up.
What do you want to get in the cupboards? Drawers are a better option, but are hard to make, think about a flat pack set of drawers and incorporate them.

I'd make the wardrobe bit full depth.
 
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It will have 4 doors , the 2 doors on the right will be one big cabinet around 115cm wide and the other two will be 57cm, more or less.

If I make it full depth we won't reach the bottom. May I ask why do I need to remove the skirting boards? Is it because it's better to have the panels touching the walls?
 
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It's up to you.
As long as the wall is straight, without the skirting board you can just have a baton screwed to the edge of the wall on which to support the right-hand door. Sometimes they aren't straight when plastered, but that upright needs to be.

Then you'd just need a base, top and side. I wouldn't bother with a back. But you could just use hardboard for it to save of on costs
For the left hand cupboard, again you'd just need a top, base and side.

What are you going to use?

You've a few options mdf, laminated chipboard or plywood.

Hanging doors is difficult.
The best way is to use Blum hinges,

.jpg



If you get a woodyard to cut the materials you can get them to drill the holes in the doors where you want them. They'll get them the exact distance from the edge. You can position the other half of the hinge by offering up the door and marking it. on the side. Just fit the top and bottom, the hinges just snap together, it will be easier to mark out where a third or fourth will go.

There's a problem with Blum hinges where two doors meet, as will your left hand door of the wardrobe and the right hand door of the cupboard. You can't use the same support/divider if it's the same thickness as the doors or they won't close.

What you'll need to do is fix a baton to the wardrobe side of the divider on which to hang the left hand door.

Three years ago we had a new boiler, so I was faced with restoring the kitchen cabinets as the original kitchen was fitted around a much larger boiler..

P1000773.JPG


I needed to mount a door I had made by a kitchen cabinet manufacturer on the side of the cupboard to the left of the boiler

So instead of a baton I made another "cupboard side" and screw it to the cabinet so I could mount the hinges.
So I could make a "box" for instruction books etc., to make use of the space. You can't see the left hand side of the box on which the door hangs, in this picture.

The Blum hinges fit into big round holes in the door. You'ld need at least three per door for the wardrobe.

P1000796.JPG


There's small adjustments possible on Blum hinges, both backwards and forwards and side to side, so you can make the door looks right.

You can achieve a professional looking finish with Blum hinges.




P1040654.jpg
 
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Let me suggest a radical alternative to a "wardrobe" - one which will maximise the use of the space, particularly on the left hand side and be much easier to build.

Before I try to describe it in words, or give up and post a sketch, how much space will you have in front of the doors once the room is furnished?


PS - to cut the skirting boards invest in a multitool, such as a Bosch GOP (that's a blue one, not green). Buy a used one on eBay - if it doesn't look as if it's had a hard life it will be fine. You've a choice of corded or battery - for a tool like that I'd prefer the latter. Avoid the new models with the Starlock Plus or Max system - as a DIYer you don't need tool-less blade changes, and right now Bosch and Fein have, to their shame, decided to go down the Gillette route of corporate enrichment and you can't get 3rd-party blades. :mad:

There are, I'm sure, equally good alternatives to blue Bosch tools, and I'm sure that people here can suggest models from Makita/Hitachi/Ryobi et al. Important thing is to avoid the products aimed at the DIY market (like green Bosch), and if you're going cordless to look for something where there's a family of tools which share batteries. Again, you can pick up good bargains on eBay if all the seller is offering is a bare tool with no batteries or charger.
 
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Hi,

There's a lot of space left. The Bosch multi tool is interesting.. I just bought the Jigsaw to cut the wood and build the base..
Also I found out that the floor is not straight.. it's 179º and the wooden bars don't touch the floor completely.. Maybe the bars are not even straight?! ...
I was planning to leave the skirting board.. not sure why I need to remove it!? I can have a lateral plinth that cover the 2cm gap between the side of the wardrobe and the wall.
 
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Anyway, a suggested Plan B....

So you're looking at a door (sorry, didn't bother to draw a handle)

1608677949748.jpeg


But it isn't hinged - it's attached to a frame behind, which sits on rubber-tyred castors (also not shown), and everything is sized so that the door clears the floor by a few mm (or whatever is required to cope with variations).

1608678249112.jpeg




1608678197932.jpeg



All the weight is on the wheels, not cantilevered off the door, so no worries on that score.

You can make the frame out of wood or a square-tube framing system.

You can have as many or few side/back/top/bottom panels as you want, but obviously they help rigidity.

You can configure the interiors as you see fit - I've just shown a rail, but you can have drawers, hooks for belts/ties/whatevers, shoe racks, open shelves - basically anything you can think of.

The fact that they pull out means it's easy to get in there to clean.

It makes it easy to use the full depth of the space as you don't have to access it by reaching from the front - something of huge benefit for the space at the very left hand end which would otherwise be basically inaccessible.

It means much less fettling of hinged doors which can be a right PITA if the walls aren't perpendicular or the floor isn't level - if you think about it, once you've trundled one out it will ride up and down any floor variations, whereas a door hinged on one edge can't move up and down.

You'd need some vertical partitions in the space, or guides fixed to the floor so that each unit went back into the same place each time:

1608680808527.jpeg

1608680835319.jpeg
 
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Hello

So, I made the decision to buy 18mm MDF. I appreciate it could have been done differently but that's the plan and I want to stick with it.. May I just ask what's the best screw I can use to make the boxes? Is 4x40mm good? Does it need a pilot hole? And what type of screw?

Thanks a lot!
 

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