Essential Children’s Wardrobes UK Shopper Guide

Children’s Wardrobes – UK Guide

Why is choosing a kids wardrobe that complicated?!

Getting a good wardrobe for your little one’s bedroom needn’t be complicated. Hopefully this quick guide will get you up to speed with what you want, what you don’t want and some of the options you might want to think about.

Kids wardrobes come in all kinds of weird and wonderful designs (Above: Brian & Dany Portable Cartoon Clothes Closet – Amazon UK)

Drawers or no drawers!

Let’s start with a simple, if major, decision about the new wardrobe – do you get a nice big one with full height doors? Or is it better to have a wardrobe with drawers beneath it. One thing you’ll have to think about is space – are you going to get a separate chest of drawers? If not then you’re probably better off getting a child’s wardrobe with some kind of drawers in it.

Undies, pajamas and the indefinite combination of kids socks are much easier to manage if you’ve got at least one or  two drawers. If you’re going the whole hog and getting a separate set of drawers then you can choose – hanging space or even more drawers. If you’re just getting a wardrobe – drawers are your friend.

Common materials

Most of the wardrobes I’ve seen or reviewed are made from solid pine, MDF or a combination of the two. There are also more off-beat ones that are made with plastic and canvas (like the ones that you sort of build out of blocks). But you’re mainly looking at furniture flat pack favorite MDF and heavy solid pine.

Normally there’ll be some self assembly required, unless you’re lucky enough to get a pre-built one. But aside from the size, wardrobes aren’t actually too tricky to put together.

Don’t make this mistake with size…

A surprisingly common mistake to make when picking the perfect wardrobe is not to measure up properly. And I’m not just talking about measuring the space you have and that sort of thing. No, one of the problems a lot of buyers have, and this is just something inherit with buying on the inter-webs, is finding they bought a children’s wardrobe that’s TEENY when they put it together.

Take measurements seriously and get your handy tape measure out. Don’t get caught out buying something that looks awesome but is not right for the job.

There are some unique children’s wardrobes with modern funky designs (Cuckooland)

Don’t do what we did (a problem with drawers)

We spent ages picking our little girl’s wardrobe and we thought we’d done a good job. But oh my goodness did we make a mistake that comes back to bite us on a daily basis. We got a really good quality solid pine wardrobe, with nice big drawers underneath. The problem is that the drawers don’t have any kind of closing slides or mechanism to make the movement easy.

Instead, they kind of grind in and out, making the most awful FINGERS-DOWN-THE-BLACKBOARD noise you could imaging. I hate getting socks and PJs out of there. The rest is fine, but man, those heavy drawers take some getting in and out. Check the size of the drawers carefully too – you have less space on thicker solid wood drawers. And make sure they are smooth to open.

What are some other common wardrobe buyer mistakes?

While a wardrobe isn’t exactly the most complicated product and there’s not THAT much that can go wrong, there’s some common GOTCHAs that do catch people out.

1. Check the wood surfaces before you assemble it. Chances are you won’t want to return it if there’s any dents or scratches after you have spent time putting it together. Check this before you start assembling. It’s common to have a chip or a mark and you can easily return it.
2. What’s the back panel made of? A lot of the time, especially on cheap kids wardrobes, the back panel will be that awful flimsy chipboard type affair. While not always the case, it’s usually a bad sign. Check that all the sides of the wardrobe are wood (or MDF) and that there’s nothing flimsy about the wardrobe. Usually 3 stars or less on Amazon suggests serious problems with the build quality.

A good children’s wardrobe should be…

The holy grail of wardrobe buying for kids is a mix of:

1. A GOOD price!
2. Good quality, sturdy
3. Style – it’s got to look appealing too

Quick fire tips on assembly

Children’s wardrobes are not too tricky to assemble by yourself. But here’s a quick few pointers of things that might help.

1. As with any self-build, stay organized! Lay out all the bits and you’ll take half the hard work out of the job.
2. Check for missing parts. It’s normally the little bits that go missing – screws, hinges, little pins. Check its all there and get any missing parts sent out. Don’t bother sending the whole thing back, just ask the manufacturer or seller to send you anything that’s missing.
3. Don’t scratch any flat surfaces during the build. It’s best if you can build on a soft surface like carpet. It’s SO easy to scrape a lovely flat surface. And look out for rogue screws digging into flat wood surfaces too.
4. If all else fails – call the handy man! Facebook groups are a great place to ask for recommendations of local services who will put your new child’s wardrobe together cheaply.
5. Be careful on taking it to bits any time in the future. If you move house or need to disassemble your child’s wardrobe any time, think about whether it’s completely necessary. I’ve read a few horror stories of not being able to get it back together again. Some wardrobes don’t seem to like this and are designed for a one-off assembly!