Planning the inside of a sliding-door wardrobe
Published
An interior layout is planned from your belongings, not by eye: first count how much long hanging clothing you own, how much folded, how many pairs of shoes and sets of bedding — and only then divide the wardrobe into sections. A wardrobe with too many shelves and one short rail looks perfectly fine and is awkward to use every single day.
The heights everything depends on
These are working guidelines rather than standards: section heights are chosen around them so clothes hang freely and never touch the bottom.
Long hanging clothes
Coats, dresses, raincoats. Their section has to be tall, otherwise hems rest on the base, crease and collect dust. If you own little long clothing the section can be narrow — but it still needs to exist.
- guideline height — from 140 cm of clear space
- one rail only, a second will not fit
- a tall basket or box sits well underneath
Short hanging clothes
Shirts, jackets, skirts. Here two rails can sit one above the other, doubling the hanging space within the same metre of width — the most commonly missed opportunity in wardrobes.
- guideline section height — around 90–100 cm
- two rails in one bay genuinely doubles capacity
Folded clothes on shelves
Jumpers, t-shirts, jeans. A shelf taller than 40 cm turns into a heap: the top items press down on the lower ones, and nothing can be taken from the middle without the pile collapsing.
- practical shelf height — roughly 30–40 cm
- a deep shelf without a basket always loses its back row
Drawers and small items
Underwear, socks, belts, documents. Anything that will not stack needs a drawer, otherwise it lives in carrier bags on a shelf. Drawers belong at a comfortable height, not right at the bottom.
- a drawer at hip height is the most usable
- the lowest drawer suits seasonal things, not daily ones
Four mistakes you notice within a month
More shelves than anyone needs
A shelf costs less than a rail with fittings, so standard designs always include more of them. Real life runs the other way: most people own more hanging clothes than folded ones.
Every section the same width
A symmetrical wardrobe looks good on a drawing, but belongings are not symmetrical: coats need one tall bay, underwear a narrow one with drawers, bedding a wide and deep one.
A top box nobody can reach
The upper tier to the ceiling is for seasonal storage: suitcases, a winter duvet. Put everyday things up there and they simply stop being used.
Shoes on an ordinary shelf
Shoes dirty a shelf and stand unevenly. They deserve a separate lower bay, ideally with sloped shelves or pull-out trays, so you see the whole pair instead of one toe.
How to work out your own layout in fifteen minutes
Open your current wardrobe and simply count: hangers of long clothing, hangers of short clothing, stacks of folded items, pairs of shoes, sets of bedding. Those five numbers produce a better plan than any standard design.
Then add headroom: possessions grow over the years while the wardrobe does not. Quote those five numbers at the measuring visit and the conversation will be about your belongings rather than a standard grid of shelves.
The short answers
How many rails does a wardrobe for two people need?
Usually three: one tall rail for long clothing and two stacked rails for short items. That provides more hanging space than four shelves across the same width, and hanging space is exactly what a shared wardrobe runs out of first.
Can the interior be changed later?
Shelves and rails can be moved if the carcase was built for adjustable shelves, meaning there is a row of holes in the side panel. Drawers are harder to relocate because they need runners and their own clear dimensions. So plan drawers from the start and leave shelves adjustable.
How deep does a wardrobe need to be for hangers?
Clothes on a standard hanger need roughly 60 cm of carcase depth. In anything narrower hangers have to face along the wardrobe rather than across it, which cuts hanging capacity noticeably — so a shallow wardrobe is better planned around shelves and drawers.
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Where to start
We can come out, count your belongings with you and lay the wardrobe out around them rather than around a standard.
Contacts
Call us or leave a request for a quote — we will call you back, clarify the details and arrange the measurements.
- Phone or another contact
- +380 67 498 42 46
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- +380 67 498 42 46
- MEBLI DIM KUZMENKO
- _andriy_kyzmenko_
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- смт Макарів, Київська область, вул. Димитрія Ростовського 31,1
- Where we work
- Makariv · Kyiv · Kyiv region
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