The Golden Hind
A full-size Golden Hind has been moored in the inner harbour since 1963, when the ship built for a TV series stayed on.
Learn more about The Golden Hind on Google MapsFitted Wardrobes In Brixham
Letting out a Brixham cottage where the guests have nowhere to unpack?
Wardrobes for two-up two-down cottages above the harbour, for summer lets and for the people who have moved here to live
A fisherman's cottage in Brixham was never meant to hold much. Two rooms to a floor, low ceilings, limestone rubble walls and a stair that takes a bite out of the landing. Many of these houses are now holiday lets or homes for people who have moved to the town, and both kinds of owner run into the same problem upstairs: there is nowhere to put clothes that does not block the bed or the window. We design fitted wardrobes for Brixham cottages that work with what little space there is, using recesses, the area over the stair and the full height of the room. Each one is built at our Barton workshop in sections small enough to come up the harbour steps.
Measure My Brixham Cottage
Tell us roughly what you have in mind and we will arrange a time to come and measure. A photo of the space on your phone is usually enough to start with.
The Joiner Behind It
Storage for a fisherman's cottage
A Brixham cottage was never built to hold much. Low ceilings, rubble walls and a stair that bites into the landing leave little room for a wardrobe that works.
Joinery runs in Luke's family, and he has been at it since childhood. Finding storage in a room like that is about experience rather than rules. Luke and the team measure every wall twice before drawing anything.
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- Measured Design Visit
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Brixham
Cottages built for crews, now lived in by everyone
When Brixham's fishermen pioneered deep-sea trawling in the eighteenth century, the town grew fast and the new houses climbed King Street, Furzeham and the slopes towards Berry Head. They were built close together for families who spent their days at sea, with small bedrooms and few cupboards. Their walls are often grey Devonian limestone, which takes a good fixing once you are into sound stone but can be uneven and, near the harbour, slightly damp.
For a summer let, the brief is simple: guests need hanging space, a shelf or two and somewhere to stand a suitcase. For a permanent home, it is a full wardrobe that holds a year's clothes without making the room feel smaller. The same cottages usually need their seaward windows looked at too, which our page on timber windows and doors in Brixham covers.
The Case For It
What a fitted wardrobe does for a Brixham cottage
Room for guests to unpack
A compact wardrobe with rails, shelves and a luggage space makes a holiday let feel ready, not improvised.
Height used, not floor
Wardrobes run up to the low cottage ceiling, so storage comes from height rather than from the floor area.
The stair bulkhead put to work
Where the stair rises through a bedroom, a cupboard built over it turns an awkward box into storage.
Fixed into sound stone
We find good stone behind the plaster and fix there, avoiding loose rubble and damp spots.
Tough enough for lets
Solid edges, strong hinges and finishes that can be touched up between bookings.
Designed for the steps
Every carcass is sized to come up the harbour steps and through a narrow front door.
Before You Choose
What to check before ordering a Brixham wardrobe
Tell the maker whether the cottage is a let or a home. The hardware, finish and interior should be different, and a quote that ignores the difference is a guess.
Ask about the walls. A limestone cottage near the harbour can have damp patches, and a wardrobe tight against a damp wall will spoil clothes. A careful maker will check with a meter and leave an air gap where needed.
Ask how the wardrobe will reach the bedroom. If your door opens off a flight of steps, the maker needs to measure the route as well as the room. Our fitted wardrobes page covers interior options once that is settled.
Compared
Wardrobes for a Brixham let or home
Owners of Brixham cottages tend to choose between these four. The comparison is for a small upstairs bedroom.
| Holiday let wardrobe | Full home wardrobe | Over-stair cupboard | Freestanding wardrobe | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Purpose | A week's clothes and a case | A year's clothes | Extra storage | General |
| Floor space used | Small | Moderate | None | Moderate |
| Gets up the steps | In sections | In sections | In sections | Often not |
| Finish | Hard-wearing | Painted to suit | Painted | Varies |
| Damp wall handling | Air gap, sealed back | Air gap, sealed back | Sealed | Can be pulled away |
| Relative cost | Lower | Middle | Lower | Lowest |
Our Process
How we make wardrobes for Brixham cottages
Every Brixham wardrobe follows these seven steps. Access is planned at the first visit.
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Survey and route
We measure the bedroom, the stair and every step and doorway from the nearest road.
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Damp and walls checked
Limestone walls are tested for damp and solid fixing points.
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Design for use
We set out the interior for a let or a home, and draw it with the bed and door shown.
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Materials conditioned
Boards and timber settle in the workshop before machining.
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Built in sections
The wardrobe is made and assembled at Barton, then split into carryable pieces.
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Finished
Painted or lacquered before delivery, with a hard-wearing finish for lets.
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Carried up and fitted
We carry the sections in, assemble and scribe them in the room. For lets, we fit between bookings and check back after the season.
Reassurance
What We Stand Behind
- Timber moved before it was cut
- Boards come into the workshop and sit there before anything is machined. Cutting a wide oak panel on the day it arrives is how you end up with a door that has cupped by Easter. In a bay where spring humidity runs high, that waiting period is not optional.
- Scribed to your walls, not shimmed to them
- Older Torquay walls are rarely square and almost never plumb. Every fitted piece is scribed to the actual surface on site. If you can see daylight behind a filler strip, the job was measured once and hoped over.
- Ironmongery rated for the job it is doing
- A drawer in a holiday flat gets pulled open forty times a week in August. We fit runners and hinges specified for that, and we tell you which ones we used, so in eight years you can buy the same part rather than replacing a whole unit.
- If it moves, we come back
- Solid timber is a material that responds to the room it lives in, and occasionally something needs easing in its first year. That visit is part of the job, not a callout. Say so and we will book it.
Budget
Fitted wardrobe costs in Brixham
£2,500 – £12,000
typical fitted wardrobe run
Brixham cottage wardrobes are small, so most sit at the lower end of our range. Carrying up steps and splitting a wardrobe into extra sections adds time. Wardrobes for permanent homes cost more than simpler holiday-let versions. Our cost guide gives the wider ranges.
Guide range only, VAT included. Your figure comes from the measured visit and the drawing you sign off.
What moves the priceSteps from King Street and Furzeham
Houses reached only by steps from King Street or up towards Furzeham take longer to deliver to, as everything is carried by hand.
Extra sections
A wardrobe split into more pieces for a narrow door adds a little workshop time.
Let or home
A simple let wardrobe costs less than a full home wardrobe with drawers and internal fittings.
Questions
Brixham wardrobe questions
- Does a fitted wardrobe in a listed Brixham cottage need consent?
- It can. Listed building consent from Torbay Council covers internal alterations as well as outside work, and there are 108 listed buildings in the Brixham Town conservation area alone. An unlisted cottage needs no permission for a wardrobe. If yours is listed, read the Brixham Town Conservation Area Appraisal and talk to the council first.
- Can you get a wardrobe up the steps to my Brixham cottage?
- Yes. We measure the route and make the wardrobe in sections that two people can carry up and turn through your door.
- Is damp a problem for wardrobes near Brixham harbour?
- Limestone walls close to the water can be damp. We check them, seal the back of the wardrobe and leave an air gap on outside walls.
- What should a holiday-let wardrobe include?
- Hanging for a week's clothes, a couple of shelves, spare hangers and somewhere for a suitcase. Strong hinges and a finish that can be touched up help it last.
- Can you build over the stair in a Brixham bedroom?
- Usually. A cupboard over the stair bulkhead uses space that is otherwise wasted, as long as the headroom on the stair below is kept.
- Can you fit between bookings?
- Yes. Everything is made in advance, so fitting a cottage wardrobe takes a day or less.
Feedback
What Customers Say
Rated 5 out of 5
“Our bedroom is in one of the old Warberries villas and the back wall bows by about an inch and a half across four metres. Two national firms measured it, quoted, then went quiet. These came, measured, and said it needed scribing rather than filling. The wardrobes go right into the corner and there is no gap anywhere. My husband keeps running his hand down the join.”
Rated 5 out of 5
“We run a bar on the harbourside and needed the counter and back fittings replaced without losing a summer weekend. They built the lot off site, came in on a Sunday night and had us trading by Tuesday lunchtime. Knowing the whole thing was made before they ever shut our doors is what sold it.”
Rated 5 out of 5
“Sash windows on the front elevation, and we are in a conservation area so it had to be timber and it had to match. They took a profile off the original, made new boxes in accoya, and the planning side went through without a query. From the pavement you genuinely cannot tell which is which.”
Rated 5 out of 5
“Two alcoves either side of the chimney, and they turned out to be 40mm different in width, which explains why the flat-pack ones we tried first never sat right. Made as a pair but to two different sets of measurements. Small thing, but it is the difference between looking fitted and looking bought.”
Rated 5 out of 5
“We let our place out over the season so everything gets hammered. I asked them to over-specify the drawer runners and they did, and told me exactly which ones so I can order spares. Three summers in, nothing has sagged. The last kitchen we had did not last two.”
Local
What To Do In Brixham
Brixham is a working fishing port with plenty to see. Three places near the harbour:
Berry Head National Nature Reserve
Two forts on Berry Head were built against a French invasion that never came. The Torbay Coast and Countryside Trust runs a café inside the walls.
Learn more about Berry Head National Nature Reserve on Google Maps
Brixham Heritage Museum
Over two floors of small rooms, the heritage museum covers fishing, policing and the old fire brigade's uniforms.
Learn more about Brixham Heritage Museum on Google MapsBrixham On The Map
Coverage
Areas We Cover
Brixham is one of the towns we cover across Torbay. Here is every area we serve.
Across Torquay
- Wellswood
- The Warberries
- The Lincombes
- Chelston
- Babbacombe
- St Marychurch
- Cockington
- Shiphay
- Torre
- Ellacombe
- Livermead
- Maidencombe
And across South Devon
Or go straight to a service
Find space in a small cottage
Send a photo of the bedroom and one of the way in from the road. We will measure both and design a wardrobe that fits.