Shaldon Wildlife Trust
Ken and Trudi Smith started a children's zoo in the 1960s that became Shaldon Wildlife Trust. It sits in about an acre of woodland on Ness Drive.
Learn more about Shaldon Wildlife Trust on Google MapsFitted Wardrobes In Shaldon
Bedroom in a crooked Middle Street cottage, or above a bow-fronted shop in Shaldon?
Wardrobes made for the late-1600s cottages, the houses round the Green and the upstairs rooms of Fore Street and the Strand
Bedrooms in Shaldon come in three broad kinds. In the old core around Middle Street, Crown Square and Dagmar Street, the cottages date from the late 1600s, and nothing in them is square. Around the Green, the houses sea captains and tradesmen built or enlarged tend to have more regular rooms, some with a chimney breast and a recess either side. Above the shops and houses on Fore Street and the Strand, rooms can be oddly shaped where a bow front was built out below. A wardrobe from a catalogue suits none of them. We measure each room and the stair that leads to it, then build the wardrobe in our workshop just over the hill and bring it in by hand.
Measure My Shaldon Bedroom
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
Nothing square in a 1600s cottage
Shaldon's oldest cottages date from the late 1600s, and their bedrooms have no square corners at all. Houses round the Green and above Fore Street bring their own quirks.
Luke started doing joinery as a child, and it's a family trade. Scribing a wardrobe to walls that wander is one of those skills you only really learn by doing it, over and over. He and the team make the room look straight even when it isn't.
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Shaldon
Three parts of the village, three kinds of room
The cottages in the old core grew along the foot of a cliff in a tight, crooked pattern, and their bedrooms follow it. Walls lean, floors slope and the ceiling may be lower at one end than the other. A wardrobe here is scribed on every edge. Around the Green, where Lord Clifford's net-drying ground is now a bowling green, the captains' houses are more regular, and where there is a chimney breast a pair of alcove wardrobes often suits them.
On Fore Street, the Strand and Marine Parade, built after the land in front of the old village was filled in from 1827, many upstairs rooms sit over shops or bow fronts. Several of those houses are second homes or lets. Whatever kind of house it is, the outside matters to the conservation area, and our page on timber windows and doors in Shaldon covers bow windows and sashes.
The Case For It
Why a made wardrobe suits a Shaldon bedroom
Scribed on every side
In the old cottages, the wardrobe's edges are cut to the wall, floor and ceiling, so it sits tight despite the slopes.
Alcoves round the Green
Where a captain's house has recesses beside the chimney, each becomes a wardrobe built to its own size.
Odd shapes over shops
Upstairs rooms with angled walls or a step in the floor get wardrobes drawn to their actual shape.
Shallow where needed
In the smallest bedrooms, shallower wardrobes with forward-facing rails keep room to walk past the bed.
Suits lets and second homes
For a cottage that is let part of the year, we use strong hinges and finishes that are easy to touch up.
Built to be carried in
Sections are sized to pass narrow doors and tight stair turns, then joined in the room.
Before You Choose
Choosing a wardrobe maker for a Shaldon cottage
Ask whether the maker has measured the stair and doorways as well as the room. In the old core, that route decides how big each section can be.
Ask how the wardrobe will meet a sloping floor and leaning walls. Scribing is the right answer. Packing the gaps with filler strips is the shortcut.
If the cottage is listed, ask whether the maker thinks consent will be needed for a fixed wardrobe, and whether a freestanding piece might be simpler. Our fitted wardrobes page covers interior options once the design is settled.
Compared
Wardrobes for Shaldon's different houses
The right wardrobe depends on which part of Shaldon you live in. This is how we usually approach each one.
| Old-core cottage | House round the Green | Room above a shop or bow | Second home or let | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Typical layout | Single scribed run | Pair of alcove wardrobes | Shaped to the room | Compact with luggage space |
| Main challenge | Nothing square | Unequal recesses | Angled walls | Heavy use |
| Depth | Often shallow | Full depth | Varies | Standard |
| Finish | Painted | Painted to match woodwork | Painted | Hard-wearing |
| Delivery | Small sections | Sections | Sections | Sections |
| Relative cost | Middle | Lower middle | Middle | Lower middle |
Our Process
Making a wardrobe for a Shaldon home
A Shaldon wardrobe goes through these seven steps. The survey covers the route in as carefully as the bedroom.
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Room and route
We measure the bedroom at several heights and every doorway and turn on the way to it.
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Talking about use
Full-time home, second home or let: each changes the interior and the hardware.
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Drawing
A plan and elevation showing the scribed edges, the sections and the door style.
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Materials rested
Boards and timber rest in the workshop before cutting, which matters in a damp riverside village.
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Made in sections
Built and assembled at Barton, then split into pieces sized for your stair.
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Finished
Painted or lacquered before delivery, with every face sealed.
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Carried in and scribed
We bring the sections in by hand, assemble them and scribe them to the room, then call back once the heating season is over.
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 Shaldon
£2,500 – £12,000
typical fitted wardrobe run
Shaldon wardrobes are mostly small, so they sit in the lower to middle part of our range. Rooms that need scribing on every side, or wardrobes split into many sections for a tight stair, cost more for their size. The joinery cost guide gives wider ranges.
Guide range only, VAT included. Your figure comes from the measured visit and the drawing you sign off.
What moves the priceParking near Middle Street
The old core around Middle Street and Crown Square has little parking, so everything is carried in from wherever the van can stop.
Crooked rooms
Scribing to leaning walls and sloping floors takes more fitting time than a square room.
Number of sections
A tight stair may mean more, smaller sections, which adds workshop time.
Questions
Shaldon wardrobe questions
- Does a fitted wardrobe in Shaldon need consent?
- Only if the building is listed. Shaldon's conservation area, designated in 1974 and managed by Teignbridge District Council, mainly controls the outside. With close to eighty listed buildings in the village, though, many cottages are listed, and fixed joinery inside can need listed building consent. Teignbridge's Shaldon conservation area appraisal is the place to start.
- Can you fit a wardrobe in a crooked Middle Street cottage?
- Yes. We build it straight and scribe the edges and plinth to the room, so it looks right even where nothing else is level.
- Is damp a problem for wardrobes in Shaldon?
- Upstairs, rarely. In ground-floor rooms near the river we raise the wardrobe on a sealed plinth and leave an air gap behind it.
- Can a wardrobe go in a room above a bow-fronted shop?
- Yes. We measure the room's real shape, including any angled walls, and draw the wardrobe to fit it.
- Do you make wardrobes for Shaldon holiday lets?
- Yes. We use strong hinges and wipe-clean finishes and add space for a suitcase, so guests have somewhere to unpack.
- What is the timescale for a Shaldon cottage wardrobe?
- Allow six to nine weeks of making after approval. Fitting a cottage wardrobe usually takes a day.
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 Shaldon
Shaldon has a lot to see for a small village. Three places within a short walk:
Ness Cove And The Smugglers Tunnel
A ruined lime kiln stands by the entrance to the Smugglers Tunnel, which leads down to Ness Cove below the Ness House hotel.
Learn more about Ness Cove And The Smugglers Tunnel on Google Maps
Homeyards Botanical Gardens
Homeyards Botanical Gardens were laid out in the late 1920s and early 1930s, with views across the estuary from the steep hillside.
Learn more about Homeyards Botanical Gardens on Google MapsShaldon On The Map
Coverage
Areas We Cover
We work in Shaldon and in Teignmouth across the river, plus all the places below.
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
Measure the stair, then the room
Send us a photo of the bedroom and the stair up to it. We will measure both and design a wardrobe that fits through and fits in.