It is easy to buy flat-pack bedroom furniture. Just buy them as a package, or piece by piece, get them delivered to your home, unpack, then assemble in the desired location in your bedroom. As long as someone is home to sign for the delivery, you are good to go. But it is not so straightforward when you buy fitted bedroom furniture.
Firstly, custom fitted wardrobes are more expensive than the flat-pack alternatives. They are more expensive in terms of purchase price, and they also need to be installed by a trained “technician”, who may also need to prepare the wall for the installation, which is an extra cost. Unlike buying flat-pack furniture, you are not likely to get a one-day turnaround. Secondly, fitted wardrobes are less flexible. Once you have them fixed to a particular place, it is not practical to move them away. For example, let us say that you have your bedroom fitted wardrobe with mirrored doors fixed against the north wall of your bedroom. But you discover that every morning, it reflects the sunlight into your eyes, waking you up way too early. Unfortunately, you cannot move it over to the east wall … not unless you rip everything out of the north wall and specially prepare the east wall to take the wardrobe.
Of course, if you need to maximize the use of space in your bedroom, you do not have a choice but to get fitted bedroom furniture. But before you go shopping, you need to do these two things:
- Draw a simple floorplan of your bedroom. Make sure you take note of the doors and windows, as well as edges and corners of the room, and any irregular shapes, obstacles or protrusions. Write down the length, width and height of your bedroom.
- Take detailed photographs of your bedroom and make sure you know which photo goes with which part of the floorplan.
While these two steps are not exactly essential, they do two important things for you. When you finally go shopping and find something you like, it shows the salesman that you are serious and not just a window shopper wasting his time. Even if your budget is too small, he will be more willing to spend time trying to help you find a bedroom fitted wardrobe that is suitable for your needs. Having the floorplan and photos of your bedroom also lets the salesman check immediately whether or not the design you selected is appropriate (i.e. whether the furniture shop has it in stock).
It is common these days to go online to look for furniture. However, this is not a good idea for custom fitted wardrobe. The main reason is that online shops focus on cost-cutting (especially by reducing manpower). They normally cannot provide the technicians needed to install this kind of furniture for you. If you do not have the expertise to do it yourself, you may have to spend extra time and money finding and hiring someone who can. Besides, you will have to live with the fitted wardrobes you are buying for a long, long time. When you buy from an online shop, you cannot see what you are buying. All you get are some photos, which is never a good way to buy something expensive. When you buy from your local furniture shop, at least you can see what you are getting on the floor of the showroom.
Buying fitted bedroom furniture is not as easy or straightforward as buying flat-pack furniture. However, if you are sure it is what you want, then you need to make some proper preparations ahead of your shopping expedition.