Custom wardrobes, made for Melbourne homes.

Almost every wardrobe brief comes down to one question: build the storage into the wall, or give up floor area for a room you walk into. The plan usually decides it for you, and the two answers change the layout, the internals and the quote in different ways.

A built-in robe takes the storage to the wall and gives the floor back to the bedroom. Full-height doors carry it to the ceiling, so the top of the wardrobe stops being dead space and the room keeps one clean line. The decisions it forces are all about that wall: how wide the run can be, how the fronts open in the space you have, and how the cabinetry meets a bulkhead, a skirting line, a window reveal or a corner. We resolve those as one fitted element rather than pushing a standard cupboard against the wall and filling the gaps around it.

Behind the fronts the depth is set by the wall, so the internals have to be planned tightly. Long hang, short hang, folded items, shoes and accessories are allocated opening by opening before the exterior is resolved, and a shared robe is set out as two routines rather than one. The fronts can then be detailed to recede into the wall or to read as a piece of furniture.

You can see it in the work on this page: full-height white wardrobe doors at Henry House, a full-height oak wardrobe wall at 91 Alexandra in South Yarra, and a built-in robe in a bedroom at Meraki House.

What drives the quote is the scope of that run: its width and height, how many fronts it carries, the internals behind them and the site conditions we have to resolve. We quote the layout, materials and fittings in your brief, and detailed 3D design follows once the quote is approved.

A walk-in buys you visibility. Everything can be on show and within reach, which is why it suits larger collections and shared routines. What it costs you is floor area, so this is the decision to make with the plan in front of you.

A walk-in takes that area from the bedroom, the ensuite or the hallway, so the first thing we set out is the aisle. Clear movement through the middle matters as much as the amount of cabinetry on each side, because a walk-in that is too tight to turn around in holds less than the built-in it replaced. The shape follows from there: a single run along one usable wall, storage facing storage on two sides, or an L-shaped or U-shaped arrangement that brings the corners into the plan and gives the deeper areas a useful purpose.

The internals differ because you can see them. Open hanging, shelving on more than one wall and drawers you can stand square to replace the tight, door-by-door allocation a built-in needs, and there is usually room for a dressing table, a nook or a full-length mirror. Part of the wardrobe can still sit behind fronts: open storage keeps pieces in view, enclosed fronts keep the room quieter, and a walk-in can use both.

The robes photographed on this page are built-in, and the internals carry straight across. The oak robe with open shelving at 91 Alexandra shows hanging and shelving planned to be seen, and our My Reno Rules bedrooms build a dressing nook and a dressing table into the joinery.

What drives the quote is how many walls carry cabinetry, how much of it is open rather than behind fronts, and the fittings and lighting in the brief. We quote the layout, materials and fittings you settle on, after a free consultation to scope it. Our guide to planning a custom walk-in wardrobe in Melbourne covers the inventory and the layout options before you book.