Carpentry and built-in wardrobes in Dénia, Jávea and surroundings

How we make a bespoke wardrobe

A wardrobe begins long before the first board is cut. At the site visit we measure the opening at the top, middle and bottom, and the depth at several points: two centimetres of difference between floor and ceiling is normal in an older flat and will decide how the carcass is cut. We also look at where the sockets, skirting, radiator or an inward-opening window are.

With the measurements, we draw the interior with you. There is no standard layout: someone who hangs almost everything needs double rails; someone who folds needs shelves and drawers. We keep top cupboards for suitcases and out-of-season clothes, and think about where the handles go, or whether you want handleless fronts.

Manufacturing is done in the workshop with 19 mm laminated board and matching edging, and fitting happens on site module by module: carcasses and drawer units first, then doors and adjustment. In the house in Dénia with wardrobes in the bedrooms, living room, walk-in closet and hallway, fitting was done in several stages as the renovation progressed, and everything was finished against the parquet, walls and ceilings without any mouldings to hide the joins.

The staircase in that same house is a good example of how we work: a steel-profile structure welded in the stairwell itself, checked for level and plumb, and only then clad with solid timber treads.

Materials and finishes we recommend

• Flat fronts in the colour of the wall when the aim is for the wardrobe to disappear. In the house in Dénia, floor-to-ceiling white wardrobes that read as just another wall.
• Mirrored fronts in small bedrooms to gain light and a sense of space, as in one of the bedrooms in the full renovation in Dénia.
• Natural timber for frames, mouldings and cladding in houses with exposed beams, like the villa in Gandía, where we cased the door and window jambs and lintels to match the roof.
• Sliding doors when the passage is narrow or the furniture sits right in front: they take up no space when opened. In Gandía, oak sliding doors in the openings through the stone wall.
• Adjustable hinges on every door and soft-close runners on drawers. This is the one part where we never cut corners.
• Light-toned interiors so you can see what is inside without switching anything on, and an LED strip when the wardrobe is deep or the closet has no window.

If the budget is limited, we keep the quality of the carcass and hardware and simplify the interior (fewer drawers, more shelves), which can always be completed later.

Common mistakes we avoid

1. Measuring once, at a single point. An opening that "measures 240" may be 238 at the bottom and 243 at the top. The wardrobe is made for both.
2. Doors up to the ceiling with no adjustment clearance: they rub as soon as the house settles or the parquet moves with the humidity.
3. Drawers at floor level that will not open because of the skirting or a rug, or rails at a height only one person in the house can reach.
4. Unventilated wardrobes on external walls in coastal homes: the clothes smell of damp. We leave a vent or a gap behind when the wall calls for it.
5. A kitchen fitted on an unlevelled floor: drawers that will not close and a worktop on a slope. We level the units one by one before fixing them, as in the kitchen with an island in Calpe.

Indicative timescales

• Bedroom wardrobe: 2 to 4 weeks to manufacture and 1 or 2 days to fit.
• Several wardrobes and a walk-in closet in a home: a week of fitting once manufactured.
• Casing frames and mouldings throughout a house: 3 to 5 days on site, depending on the number of openings.
• Kitchen fitting: 2 to 4 days, plus the worktop when it arrives from the stone supplier.
• Welded and clad staircase: about a week between structure, levelling and timber.

Bespoke carpentry in homes in Dénia, Jávea and Gandía

In coastal apartments, space is what is missing. A floor-to-ceiling wardrobe in the hallway, another above the bathroom door or a unit under the stairs give storage the home never had, without taking up more floor area. In the small bathroom in Dénia, a made-to-measure cabinet beside the shower solved where to keep towels without adding a piece of furniture that got in the way.

Humidity and salt air on the seafront are hard on solid timber and cheap hardware: that is why we recommend good-quality laminated boards, treated steel hardware and a ventilated gap on walls facing outside.

In villas in Jávea, Benissa or inland from Gandía, with sloping ceilings, beams and stone walls, nothing is standard. That is where a catalogue piece will not fit and bespoke carpentry earns its place: wardrobes under the pitch of the roof, frames cased in natural timber and sliding doors that do not narrow the passage.

If you live abroad, we send you photos of the carcass being fitted and the doors adjusted before we sign the job off as finished. Tell us which space you want to make use of and we will come and measure it with no obligation.