How much does it cost to assemble a wardrobe with doors?

Why a wardrobe with doors costs more than an open frame

An open frame is mostly repetition: panels, cam locks, shelves, a back panel stapled or clicked into place. Once you have assembled one section the rest follow the same pattern, and the hours scale in a straight line with size.

Doors break that pattern. Each one needs to be hung, checked against the frame, and adjusted so it closes flush and doesn't catch on the neighbouring door or the wall. That adjustment is fiddly work that doesn't scale the same way — a four-door wardrobe isn't simply twice the work of a two-door one, because the alignment between doors matters as much as each door on its own.

This is the main reason two quotes for what looks like a similar wardrobe can differ by an hour or more. A flat-pack bookshelf has almost no adjustment stage. A door does.

What's the difference between sliding and hinged doors

Hinged doors are the more forgiving of the two to fit. Each hinge has some adjustment built in — usually a screw or two per hinge to shift the door up, down, left or right — so getting a flush, even gap is a matter of patient small corrections rather than anything technical.

Sliding doors run on a track fixed to the top and sometimes the bottom of the frame, and that track has to be dead level for the doors to run smoothly and not drift open or catch. Getting the track true, especially on an uneven floor or a wall that isn't quite plumb, is where most of the extra time goes on this type of wardrobe.

Soft-close mechanisms, on either type, add a fitting step of their own. They're usually a small unit that clips onto the hinge or the track and needs to engage at the right point, otherwise the door either doesn't dampen at all or doesn't close fully. It's a small part but worth budgeting extra time for.

Mirror panels and other details that slow the work down

A mirror-fronted door weighs noticeably more than a laminated one, and it has to be handled with both care and an extra pair of hands for anything above a metre or so — lifting a full-height mirror door alone is how it ends up cracked. That alone adds time compared with a plain panel.

Mirror doors are also less forgiving of a frame that's slightly out of square, because any misalignment shows immediately as an uneven reflection line or a door that visibly leans. Fitting one properly usually means going back and checking the frame's squareness before the door goes on, rather than after.

Other details that add time in the same way: glass inserts, push-to-open panels with no visible handle, internal drawer units built into the wardrobe body, and LED strip lighting that needs a power lead routed and connected. Each is a small job on its own, but they add up across a full wardrobe.

What affects the price in a flat or a house

Access to the room matters more with wardrobes than with most furniture, simply because the panels are large. A wardrobe going into a Soviet-era panel flat with a narrow hallway and a lift that's out of service takes longer to carry in piece by piece than the same wardrobe going into a ground-floor room in a new development.

The floor and wall themselves matter too. Old wooden floors in a Kalamaja or Nõmme house are rarely perfectly level, and a sliding-door wardrobe placed on one needs shimming under the frame before the track goes in, which is extra time not obvious from the wardrobe's box.

Space to work is the other factor. A wardrobe assembled in an empty room goes faster than one assembled in a bedroom already full of furniture that has to be shifted, protected, and shifted back.

What a realistic price looks like

For a straightforward wardrobe with two or three hinged doors and no mirror or soft-close, assembly typically runs to a few hours at our hourly rate of 39 €/h, with a minimum of one hour and 30-minute steps after that. A call-out fee of 25 € applies within Tallinn and is deducted from the bill if the job goes ahead.

Sliding-door wardrobes, wardrobes with mirror panels, or ones with soft-close on every door tend to sit toward the higher end of that range, since the alignment work is the part that takes the time, not the number of screws.

For a large fitted wardrobe or a job with several units to assemble in one visit, it's worth asking for a fixed quote instead of an hourly estimate. We give one after seeing a description or photos, and it's valid for 30 days, so you know the final figure before work starts.

What's included and what's charged separately

The hourly rate covers assembly, door fitting and alignment, and disposal of the packaging if you'd like it taken away. It doesn't include the wardrobe itself, which you either supply or we can source, in which case materials bought by us carry a 10 % handling fee on top of their cost.

Any electrical connection — for LED lighting built into a wardrobe, for instance — is carried out by a qualified electrician rather than as part of general assembly, and should be flagged when you ask for a quote so it can be scheduled properly.

• Included: unpacking, assembly, door hanging and alignment, packaging removal
• Not included: the wardrobe itself, unless we source it (10 % handling fee applies)
• Not included: electrical work for lighting, done separately by a qualified electrician
• Invoiced after the job by email, itemised by hours, payable within 7 days
• 24 months' guarantee on the assembly work itself

When it's worth leaving the job to a professional

A simple two-door hinged wardrobe with basic panels is well within reach of anyone comfortable with an Allen key and a bit of patience — it's honestly not a difficult job, just a slow one if you've never hung a door before.

Where it stops being a weekend project is sliding-door systems, anything with a mirror panel, or a wardrobe that has to fit exactly into an alcove with little tolerance either side. A track that's out by even a few millimetres shows immediately every time the door is used, and a cracked mirror panel is an expensive way to learn the lesson.

If the wardrobe is part of a larger fit-out — shelving, mirrors, and matching units in the same room — it's usually more efficient to have everything measured and fitted in one visit. Our furniture assembly and our shelves and mirrors services both start from 39 €/h and can be booked together.