What Size Wardrobe Do I Need? A UK Bedroom Fit Guide

A single wardrobe is typically 50 to 90cm wide, a double 90 to 160cm, and a triple 150 to 250cm, with most freestanding wardrobes between 50 and 65cm deep and 180 to 240cm tall.

The right size for you depends less on the room's floor area and more on three things: how many people are sharing the storage, how the wardrobe (or its flat-pack box) will get up your stairs and through your doorways, and how much clearance you leave in front of it to actually open the doors.

In this article

• Quick answer: standard wardrobe sizes
• How deep does a wardrobe need to be?
• Hinged or sliding doors: the real trade-off
• Small bedrooms and sloped loft ceilings
• Getting it up the stairs: flat-pack vs pre-assembled
• How to measure your room properly
• Which wardrobe should you buy?
• FAQs

Quick answer: standard wardrobe sizes

Here's the full spread by type, so you can match a size to your room before you start browsing:

Treat these as a starting point, not a rule. A couple sharing a room is usually better served by one double wardrobe than two singles pushed together, since every wardrobe loses a chunk of its width to drawers and shelving before you even start hanging clothes.

How deep does a wardrobe need to be?

Most freestanding wardrobes are 50 to 60cm deep, and that's not an arbitrary number. It comes from needing enough room for a hanger plus the clothing on it without everything pressing against the closed doors.

As a rule of thumb, look for at least 55cm of internal depth if you'll be hanging coats, suits or anything bulky, not just shirts and dresses.

The catch is that the depth printed on a product listing is sometimes the outer case (carcass) depth, not the usable internal depth once the back panel, door and rail fittings are accounted for.

If a wardrobe is listed at exactly 50cm deep, check the description for the internal measurement before you buy, rather than assuming the full 50cm is usable hanging space.

Hinged or sliding doors: the real trade-off

Hinged doors need clearance to swing open, and 60cm is the figure most UK manufacturers build to as a practical minimum in front of the wardrobe.

If your room is tighter than that, or the wardrobe sits opposite a bed or chest of drawers with no room to spare, a sliding-door design solves the swing problem completely, since the doors run on a track instead of opening outward.

What sliding doors don't solve is access. Because the doors overlap on the same track, you can only ever open about half the wardrobe's width at once, so a wide sliding wardrobe can still feel cramped to get in and out of compared with a hinged double that opens fully.

Choose based on which constraint actually applies to your room: hinged if you have the floor space, sliding if you don't. For more on balancing door type against the rest of your bedroom layout, see our bedroom furniture buying guide.

Small bedrooms and sloped loft ceilings

In a box room or a loft conversion, the ceiling height at the wardrobe's position is usually far more limiting than the floor area. Measure the height at the exact spot the wardrobe will stand, not the room's tallest point, since a sloped ceiling can lose significant headroom within just a metre of the eaves.

A tall triple wardrobe is rarely the right call under a slope. A single or a slimmer freestanding unit, positioned where the ceiling is still close to full height, almost always fits better than trying to force a taller piece into the room and losing the top few centimetres of usable hanging space, or the doors, to the slope.

Getting it up the stairs: flat-pack vs pre-assembled

This is the step most sizing guides skip, and it's the one that causes the most stress on delivery day. A wardrobe's listed dimensions describe the finished, assembled piece, not what has to physically travel up your stairs and through your doorway to get there.

A flat-pack wardrobe is delivered as a boxed kit, and the box is almost always far narrower than the assembled wardrobe, which is exactly why flat-pack exists for tight UK staircases, narrow landings and awkward turns.

A pre-assembled or rigid wardrobe has no such shortcut: the full width, depth and height of the finished piece has to clear every doorway, landing and stair turn on the route to your bedroom.

Before you order, measure your narrowest doorway, your staircase width and any tight turn on the landing, and compare that against the box dimensions (for flat-pack) or the full assembled dimensions (for anything delivered built).

It's also worth checking whether delivery is to your room of choice or kerbside only, since a wardrobe stuck in the hallway is its own problem to solve.

How to measure your room properly

A few minutes with a tape measure avoids most sizing mistakes:

• Measure the wall at floor height, mid-height and close to the ceiling. Older UK homes are rarely perfectly square, and a wall that looks fine at floor level can be a few centimetres tighter higher up.
• Account for skirting boards and radiators. A deep Victorian skirting board or a radiator can eat several centimetres off the wall-to-wall measurement you'd otherwise use.
• Leave your door-clearance space in front of the wardrobe, worked out from the hinged or sliding guidance above, as part of the room layout, not an afterthought once the wardrobe is already in place.
• Measure your delivery route, not just the room. See the section above on getting a wardrobe up the stairs.

Which wardrobe should you buy?

Three real, in-stock options spanning box room to large bedroom:

Foldable Wardrobe with Clothes Rails and Shelves, 124 x 43 x 182cm

From £28.99

Two 15kg hanging rails and five open shelves in a tool-free frame. At 43cm deep, it's built for box rooms and tight corners rather than bulky coats.

View this wardrobe

Double Wardrobe with Hanging Rail and 2 Drawers, White and Oak, 80 x 50 x 180cm

From £138.99

A straightforward double for a standard UK bedroom, with a full-width hanging rail plus two drawers for folded clothes, so you're not relying on hanging space alone.

View this wardrobe

Modern Wardrobe with Hanging Rod, Shelf and 2 Drawers, 90 x 50 x 190cm, Dark Grey

From £190.99

Two rods, two shelves and two drawers in one 190cm-tall unit, with raised legs to keep clothes clear of the floor. The tallest of the three, suited to a bigger bedroom with the ceiling height to match.

View this wardrobe

FAQs

What is the standard wardrobe size in the UK?
Most UK wardrobes fall into three bands: single (50 to 90cm wide), double (90 to 160cm) and triple (150 to 250cm), with depths of 50 to 65cm and heights of 180 to 240cm depending on type.

How deep should a wardrobe be?
50 to 60cm is standard, with at least 55cm of internal depth recommended if you're hanging coats or anything bulkier than shirts and dresses.

What's the difference between a single, double and triple wardrobe?
It's mainly width and hanging capacity. A single suits one person or a box room, a double suits a standard shared bedroom, and a triple is for larger bedrooms needing serious storage.

Do I need extra space for a wardrobe door to open?
For hinged doors, yes. Around 60cm of clearance in front of the wardrobe is a sensible minimum. Sliding doors remove that requirement, but only ever expose about half the wardrobe's width at a time.

What's the minimum size for a walk-in wardrobe?
A comfortable walk-in needs roughly a 150cm by 150cm footprint as a minimum, enough to stand and turn between rails on at least two sides.

Will a flat-pack wardrobe fit up my stairs if a pre-assembled one won't?
Often, yes. Flat-pack arrives as a boxed kit that's typically far narrower than the finished wardrobe, so it's the safer choice for narrow UK staircases and tight landing turns. Always measure the box dimensions against your stairs and doorways before ordering.