St Michael's Chapel, Chapel Hill
A small medieval chapel sits on the crag at the top of Chapel Hill. It is a scheduled monument with a rock floor, and the walk up is steep but short.
Learn more about St Michael's Chapel, Chapel Hill on Google MapsFitted Wardrobes In Torre
Is the only wardrobe that fits your Torre bedroom the one you have not found yet?
Wardrobes made for high-ceilinged bedrooms, split-villa flats and attic rooms in the streets around Torre station
Bedrooms in Torre were laid out for a washstand, a bed and a fireplace. Storage was a chest of drawers and some hooks behind the door. So the rooms in the terraces off Bampfylde Road and Vansittart Road are often tall and slim, with a chimney breast taking a bite out of one wall, and none of that suits a flat-pack carcass. We measure the room at several heights, because Victorian plaster rarely runs true, then build the wardrobe in our workshop to fit it. It goes up to the ceiling, round the breast and into the recesses, with nothing left as a dust shelf.
Book A Wardrobe Measure In Torre
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
Tall, slim bedrooms in Torre
Torre bedrooms were laid out for a washstand, a bed and a fireplace. They're often tall and narrow, with a chimney breast taking a big share of one wall.
Luke has worked in joinery since childhood, and the trade is in his family. Using height well in a slim room is something you learn on the job. Luke and the team build up rather than out where the room asks for it.
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Torre
Bedrooms built before anyone owned many clothes
Most of Torre went up between the railway's arrival in 1848 and the end of the century, and the bedrooms show it. Ceilings upstairs are lower than in the front parlour but still generous. Walls are lime plaster on stone or on lath. Many rooms have a fireplace that has been boarded over, with an alcove on each side of different widths. Those alcoves are where a fitted wardrobe earns its keep, because a freestanding one either blocks the breast or sits awkwardly in front of it.
Then there are the villas along Avenue Road that became hotels and later flats. Their bedrooms have stud partitions put in at odd angles, boxed soil pipes and doors that open the wrong way for a wardrobe. We draw round all of that. If you are replacing the windows in the same room, or putting the shutters back, our page on timber windows and doors in Torre covers that side.
The Case For It
Why a made wardrobe suits a Torre bedroom
Each alcove drawn on its own
The recesses beside a Torre chimney breast differ in width and depth. We measure them separately, then set the doors so the faces line up across the room even when the openings behind them do not.
Height used to the ceiling
A tall room loses half a metre above a stock wardrobe. Ours run up to the ceiling with top cupboards for suitcases and winter duvets, reachable with a step.
Fixed into what is solid
Lath and plaster will not hold a heavy carcass on plugs. We find the studs, the masonry or the floor joists during the survey and fix to those.
Shallow where a room is narrow
Where a full 600mm depth would leave no room to walk past the bed, we build a shallower wardrobe with front-facing hanging rails. It loses little capacity and the room still works.
Doors that suit the house
Painted panelled doors that echo the room's original four-panel doors, or plain slab doors for a more modern finish. Either way the mouldings match what is in the room already.
Built to come apart cleanly
For tenants and leaseholders we can fix carcasses to battens so the wardrobe comes out without wrecking the plaster. Landlords in Torre often ask for exactly this.
Before You Choose
Picking a wardrobe maker for an old Torre house
Watch what the person quoting does in the room. If they take one width and one height, they are pricing a box. If they measure at the skirting, at shoulder height and at the ceiling, and ask what the chimney breast is doing, they are pricing your bedroom.
Then ask how the wardrobe will meet the walls. In a Torre house the plaster bellies out, and the floor often slopes towards the front of the house. A maker should scribe the end panels and the plinth to that, rather than fill the gaps with trim. Ask to see a photo of a scribed edge from a previous job.
Last, ask about the inside before the doors. Hanging heights, drawer depths and where the shoes go decide whether you like the wardrobe in ten years. Our fitted wardrobes page sets out the sizes we work to.
Compared
Torre bedrooms: four storage routes compared
This is how the options usually work out in a Torre bedroom with a chimney breast, a picture rail and walls that are not quite plumb.
| Made to measure | Modular range | Sliding-door system | Freestanding wardrobe | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Uses both alcoves | Yes, each sized separately | With fillers | Rarely | Only one, if it fits |
| Deals with a sloping floor | Plinth scribed to it | Adjustable feet | Track must be levelled | Wedges under it |
| Reaches a tall ceiling | All the way up | Infill panel above | Track height limited | Leaves a gap |
| Respects picture rail and cornice | Stopped or returned neatly | Often cut round | Usually cut | Not affected |
| Suits a rented flat | Batten-fixed option | Fixed in place | Fixed in place | Yes |
| Rough spend | £2,500 upwards | Less, with compromises | Least fitted option | Lowest |
Our Process
Building a fitted wardrobe for a Torre room
Seven stages take a Torre wardrobe from tape measure to finished room. The slowest part is the making; the fitting is usually a day or two.
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Measuring the room
Widths at three heights, depths into each recess, the ceiling height at both ends and the fall across the floor. We also note where the sockets, radiator and light switch sit.
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Planning the inside
We ask what you own: long coats, shirts, folded jumpers, shoes. Rails and drawers are placed to suit, and the drawing shows each one.
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Drawing for approval
An elevation and plan with every dimension marked, plus the door style and finish. Changes are free at this stage and expensive after it.
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Boards and timber conditioned
Materials sit in the workshop before machining, so they settle before they are cut. That keeps painted doors flat once they are in a heated Torre bedroom.
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Made and assembled in the workshop
Carcasses, doors and drawers are cut, assembled and hung on the bench, then taken apart for delivery. Problems show up here, not in your bedroom.
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Painted before it leaves
Doors and visible panels are sprayed or hand-painted off site. Any final touch-up after scribing is done on the day, with dust sheets down.
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Scribed in and signed off
Skirting is lifted, carcasses go in level, end panels are cut to the wall and the skirting is returned round the base. We check every door with you before we leave.
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 Torre
£2,500 – £12,000
typical fitted wardrobe run
Most Torre wardrobes fall in the middle of our range. A pair of alcove wardrobes in a back bedroom sits towards the lower end. A full wall in a main bedroom with drawers, a dressing table and painted panelled doors sits higher. Tall rooms use more board than people expect. A fixed price follows the measured visit.
Guide range only, VAT included. Your figure comes from the measured visit and the drawing you sign off.
What moves the priceCeiling height
Going full height in a tall Torre bedroom adds a row of top cupboards and more board. It is usually worth it, because that space is otherwise wasted.
Getting in and out
Narrow staircases in the Bampfylde Road and Vansittart Road terraces mean carcasses are made in smaller sections. Flats in the Avenue Road villas may add a shared stair and a freeholder's agreement.
Walls and floors
The more a wall bows or a floor slopes, the more scribing time goes into the fitting day. We price that from the survey, so it is in the quote rather than a surprise.
Questions
Torre wardrobe questions
- Do I need permission for a fitted wardrobe in a Torre house?
- Not for an ordinary house, even inside the Torre conservation area, because conservation area controls are mainly about the outside. The exception is a listed building, where fixed joinery inside can need listed building consent from Torbay Council. If you rent or lease, check with the landlord or freeholder too. Torbay Council's listed building consent guidance explains when it applies.
- My Torre bedroom has a boarded-up fireplace. Can the wardrobe go over it?
- It can, but we would rather build into the alcoves either side and leave the breast clear. That keeps the room's shape and leaves the fireplace there for whoever wants to open it again. If you need every centimetre, we can run across the breast with a shallower section.
- The walls in my room are lath and plaster. Is that a problem?
- Not if the fixings go into the timber studs or the masonry rather than the plaster. We locate them during the survey. Where there is nothing solid in the right place, we fit a timber batten across several studs and fix the wardrobe to that.
- Can you build wardrobes in an attic room in Torre?
- Yes. Some Torre terraces have had their roof space converted, which leaves a sloping ceiling down to a low wall. We cut the carcasses to the slope, put drawers and shoe storage on the low side and full-length hanging where the height allows.
- How long does a wardrobe take from first visit to fitting?
- Usually six to nine weeks, most of which is the making. Fitting a pair of alcove wardrobes takes about a day. A full wall with a dressing area may take two or three.
- Can the wardrobe doors match my original Victorian doors?
- Yes. Many Torre houses still have their four-panel doors and moulded architraves. We take the moulding profile and the panel layout and repeat them, so the wardrobe looks as though it was always part of the room.
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 Torre
Between measuring visits we often end up walking round Torre. These three are within reach of the station on foot.
Upton Park
The park beside the Town Hall opened its bowling green in 1928 and fed American troops before D-Day. It now has woodland play and restored netball courts.
Learn more about Upton Park on Google Maps
All Saints Church, Bampfylde Road
Pearson built this grey limestone church on Bampfylde Road with Bath stone dressings. Two listed red telephone kiosks stand outside its wall.
Learn more about All Saints Church, Bampfylde Road on Google MapsTorre On The Map
Coverage
Areas We Cover
We fit wardrobes in Torre and in every part of Torquay listed here, plus the towns around Torbay and up the Teign.
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
Tell us about the awkward bedroom
Send a photo of the wall and rough measurements if you have them. We will come and measure properly, then send a drawing and a fixed price for the wardrobe.