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Should fitted wardrobes go in before or after carpet?
Fitted wardrobes are normally installed before carpet is laid, with the carpet then fitted up to the base of the units. Plastering, electrical work and any radiator moves should be finished first. Where furniture is hand-painted on site, the painting happens after the carpentry as a separate visit — so the decorating schedule needs to allow for it. Confirm the sequence at your design visit, as it changes with flooring type.
Getting the order of works wrong is one of the more expensive mistakes in a room renovation, and it is almost always avoidable. It costs you twice over: once paying for something to be redone, and once living with a compromise because two trades arrived in the wrong sequence.
Fitted furniture sits awkwardly in the middle of most schedules. It is not first fix and it is not quite finishing. Here is where to place it.
The general principle
Fitted furniture goes in after the structure and surfaces are settled, and before the soft finishes.
Everything that changes the shape of the room — walls, plaster, electrical positions, radiator moves — has to be done first, because those are the dimensions your furniture will be built to. Everything soft and final — carpet, touch-ups, styling — comes afterwards, because it has to fit around what has been built.
Structural work and plastering
Anything that alters the room’s dimensions comes first: walls moved, chimney breasts dealt with, loft conversion carpentry, ceilings altered.
Plastering matters more than people expect. Fitted furniture is measured to the wall it will meet, and a wall that gains several millimetres of skim after measuring is a wall the unit no longer meets cleanly.
Electrical and heating first fix
Sockets, switches, lighting and radiator positions need deciding before the furniture is designed around them — not after.
This is worth planning properly rather than leaving to chance. Humphries builds wardrobes with internal LED lighting that comes on automatically as the doors open, and works alongside your electrician to get power where it needs to be. Humphries does not carry out electrical work itself, so your electrician needs booking at the right point in the schedule. The same applies to moving a radiator: that is a plumbing job, and it has to happen before the furniture is measured, not after it is built.
Design visit and measuring
Once the room has reached its final dimensions, the design visit happens. A designer measures the space, discusses what you actually need to store, and a full 3D drawings package is produced so you can see the design before anything is made.
Booking this too early — while walls are still being altered — means measuring a room that will not exist by the time the furniture is built.
Skirting
If you are replacing skirting, do it before the furniture goes in. Fitted units are built to meet the skirting present at the time of installation, and replacing it afterwards means cutting around finished joinery.
If you are keeping existing skirting, say so at the design visit. Period mouldings can be worked with — traditional wardrobes can be built with ornate beading on the doors and cornice crowning the top, and a super-custom matching option is available at a premium where the detail needs to be exact.
Wall painting — main coats
Get the walls to their finished colour before the furniture arrives. Painting a wall behind and around a fitted wardrobe afterwards is slow, awkward work and rarely looks as good.
Keep some paint back for touching up after installation.
Carpentry installation
This is when the units are built and fitted in place.
Be realistic about what that involves. As the About page states directly: all the workshop work that can be done in advance is done in advance, but because of the nature of fitted work there is still a lot of cutting that has to be done on site. That is the trade-off that makes a unit sit properly against your walls — and it is why the room needs to be genuinely available, rather than being worked in by another trade at the same time.
Hand-painting — a separate visit
This is the step most schedules miss.
If you have chosen a hand-painted finish, the painting happens on site after the carpenters have finished, as a separate visit. Humphries brought hand-painting in-house specifically to control this standard — cutting in by brush, final finish laid off with a roller.
Two things follow. Your room is committed to the project for longer than the carpentry alone. And your own decorator should not be booked to finish the room until the furniture painting is done.
If you choose a wood grain-effect laminate finish instead, this step disappears entirely — laminate units arrive fully finished and require no on-site painting at all. That is a genuine scheduling advantage if your timeline is tight, and it is worth weighing alongside the aesthetic.
Carpet and flooring
Carpet is normally laid last, fitted up to the base of the units. Laying it first means an expensive new carpet being cut around, worked on top of and walked over by trades for weeks.
Hard flooring is less clear-cut and depends on the floor type and how the units meet it. Raise it at the design visit rather than assuming either way.
Humphries does not fit flooring. The work is wardrobes, cupboards, shelves and closely related items — flooring, internal doors, windows and partition walling are not offered. So this is your flooring contractor’s call, made with your carpenter’s input.
Touch-ups and styling
Wall touch-ups where needed, then the room is finally yours.
Two things worth planning for
Dates can move. Humphries is upfront about this: sometimes start dates need adjusting and unexpected issues arise, and the stated approach is to keep you fully in the loop rather than let you find out late. Build a little slack around your furniture dates rather than booking the carpet fitter for the following morning.
Get your trades talking to each other. The most common cause of a sequencing problem is not a bad decision — it is two contractors who never spoke. Mention your furniture dates to your decorator and your flooring fitter, and mention their dates at your design visit.
FAQs
Should carpet be fitted before or after built-in wardrobes?
Carpet is normally laid after the wardrobes are installed, fitted up to the base of the units. Confirm with your carpenter, as the answer can differ for hard flooring.
Should I decorate before or after fitted wardrobes?
Main wall coats before, touch-ups after. If your furniture is hand-painted, that painting is a separate on-site visit after the carpentry, so your decorator should finish afterwards.
Do I need to replace skirting before fitted furniture goes in?
Yes, if you are replacing it. Units are built to meet the skirting present at the time of installation.
When should the electrician come?
Before the furniture is designed and measured. Humphries works alongside your electrician for internal wardrobe lighting but does not carry out electrical work.
Does Humphries Cabinets fit flooring or internal doors?
No. The work is wardrobes, cupboards, shelves and similar items. Flooring, internal doors, windows and partition walling are not offered.
Planning a renovation and not sure where the furniture fits in the schedule? Book a free design visit and we’ll talk it through. Call 020 8259 4871 or request a free quote.
