Planning an Alcove Wardrobe Beside a Chimney Breast

Why a chimney alcove is not a flat recess

A catalogue wardrobe assumes a flat wall, a level floor and a true rectangle. A chimney breast rarely offers any of those. The two alcoves are often different widths. The plaster can belly and the breast can lean. One width, taken at eye level, is how a finished door ends up short of the wall or tight against the breast.

Shelves can stop shy of the worst of that and still look intentional. A wardrobe door cannot. The front has to meet the breast, the side wall and the skirting in a line you see every morning. Fillers and scribes are the job, not a trim added at the end.

Six practical steps

Do this while the alcove is empty enough to see the plaster, the skirting and the floor.

• Measure width at the skirting, at hanging-rail height, and just below the ceiling. The smallest of the three is the usable width.
• Measure clear depth from the back wall to the front of the skirting, and again to the face of the breast if the breast projects into the opening.
• Note whether the breast is a live flue, an old chimney, a boxed duct, or only plaster. If you are not sure, leave it accessible.
• List what hangs, what folds, and what can sit high. Do not give the whole alcove to long coats if the household mostly owns shirts and knitwear.
• Mark the door swing, or the slide of a door, on the floor with tape. Include the bed, the radiator and the entrance door.
• Photograph each alcove from the foot of the bed and from the doorway, with a tape in the shot. Say which side is which.

Width, the breast, and the fillers

Write three widths for each alcove, not one. If the top is narrower than the skirting, a carcass built to the bottom reading will not pass the top. If the bottom is narrower, a carcass built to the top reading will not sit on the floor. The smallest reading sets the carcass. Fillers take up the difference so the front still looks continuous.

Do not bury the side of the wardrobe in the breast. A scribed filler follows the plaster. Forcing the carcass hard against a bowed breast twists the doors. The outer wall of a terrace is often out of plumb as well.

Depth is separate from width. Measure a coat on the hanger you use, from the hook to the front of the garment, and compare that with the clear depth left after the back, the door and the skirting. The depth guide covers that choice. This note does not set a millimetre standard.

Hanging, shelves, and what must stay reachable

Give daily clothes the full-height part of the alcove, where a rail can sit without the breast cutting the hang. Folded knitwear and out-of-season clothes can take the tighter side, or a shelf above a short rail. Shoe shelves only earn a place if the pairs you own clear the shelf above when the door is shut.

Sockets, a radiator valve, a vent or an old fireplace opening have to stay reachable. If the breast might contain a flue or a gas appliance, do not treat it as dead space. Keep it outside the carcass, or leave a proper access, and take advice from a competent person before anything is enclosed.

Doors, skirting, and the room in front

Hinged doors need a clear arc. In a small Island bedroom that arc often meets the bed, a radiator or the entrance door. Sliding doors steal internal depth instead of floor space. Mark either choice on the floor before you commit.

Skirting stops the plinth sitting tight to the back wall. Scribe the plinth around it, stop the skirting where the carcass starts, or set the carcass forward and accept a shallower interior. Decide that before the depth is frozen.

A top filler only works if the ceiling is the line you want. Coving, a picture rail, or a ceiling that rises toward the window is common. Follow the lowest line with the doors, and let a separate filler take the rest.

• Door type, marked on the floor against the bed and the entrance door.
• Skirting projection on the back wall and the breast.
• Ceiling line, coving, or picture rail at the top of the alcove.
• Which alcove is for daily hanging, and which can be shelves.

What this guide does not decide

These notes scope an alcove wardrobe. They do not set a price or a lead time. Both vary with the recess, the fronts and the interior, and they are confirmed after a measure. Ask for a quote rather than a catalogue figure.

They also do not decide whether a breast is safe to build against. A live flue, a gas fire, or a chimney you cannot identify stays outside the carcass until someone competent has said otherwise. Lighting inside the wardrobe, if you want it, is a separate decision from the carcass.