Single Wall Walk-In Wardrobes in London
One run of open storage down one wall of a narrow room, an alcove or the end of a bedroom — the walk-in for a space that has one good wall.
The single wall, in plan
One 600mm-deep run along the longest wall, with a walkway of at least 900mm in front of it. The room needs to be 1.5 metres wide to work and 1.8 metres to feel comfortable; its length sets how much storage you get. The entry sits at one end so the walkway is never blocked.
Minimum room 1.5m wide × 2.5m long · Comfortable 1.8m × 3.0m · Run depth 600mm · Walkway 900mm or more
Getting a single wall right
Six things a designer checks before a single-wall walk-in is drawn.
Which wall
The longest unbroken wall, not the one nearest the door. A window or a radiator halfway along costs you a bay.
The walkway
Nine hundred millimetres is the least you can dress in; a metre lets a drawer open with you standing at it. Below that the run becomes a corridor.
Where the door is
At one end. A door in the middle of the facing wall wastes the walkway either side of its swing.
Order along the run
Long hanging at the far end, daily things nearest the door, drawers at waist height where you stand.
Lighting
A strip under every shelf and a vertical strip on the end panels. A single run is lit from itself, not from the ceiling behind you.
A mirror
On the wall opposite the run, or on the back of the door — a single wall has nowhere else to put one.
Room sizes for a single wall walk-in
A guide, not a rule — your designer measures the room and adapts the layout to it.
| Room | What it holds | Walkway |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum · 1.5m × 2.5m | One 600mm run of four bays: hang, double hang, shelves, shoes | 900mm — you can dress, not turn |
| Comfortable · 1.8m × 3.0m Most rooms | Five bays with a drawer bank and a lit end panel | 1.2m — a drawer opens with you at it |
| Generous · 2.0m × 4.0m+ | Six or more bays, a dressing table cut into the run, a bench opposite | 1.4m — room for a second person |
One wall, in elevation
A single run is divided by height and use. Long hanging at one end, double hanging in the middle for shirts and trousers, shelves and a drawer bank where you stand, and shoes at the base. With one wall the order matters, because everything is reached from the same walkway.
Hanging 950mm clear per tier, 1936mm for a double hang · Drawers 600mm bank of three · Shelves 250–300mm apart
Planning a single wall walk-in
Five decisions, in the order your designer makes them.
The single wall, built
The Beaumont is a single wall with a dressing area built into it — a lit mirror in a matt black surround at one end, a nine-drawer bank under the window, and hanging beside it. It is the layout for a room where one wall is the whole wardrobe.
A single wall is also the layout that fits an alcove, a landing or the end of a long bedroom, where a walk-in room does not exist but a walk-in wall does.
See the Beaumont walk-inGuides from our designers
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Read the guideTrusted by London homeowners
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Questions about the Single Wall layout.
About 1.5 metres at the least: a 600mm run and a 900mm walkway in front of it. At 1.8 metres the walkway becomes a dressing space rather than a corridor, and at 2.0 metres there is room for a bench or a mirror on the facing wall. The length of the room sets how much storage you get, not whether the layout works.
If you can stand in front of the whole run with the door closed behind you, yes. The difference from a fitted wardrobe is that there are no doors on the storage — the room is the wardrobe. It is the walk-in for a narrow room, an alcove or a landing, where an L or a parallel layout would not fit.
At one end of the run, so the walkway stays clear along its whole length. A door in the middle of the facing wall takes a metre of walkway either side of its swing; a sliding or pocket door removes the problem altogether and is worth considering in a narrow room.
By how often you reach for it. The bay nearest the door takes the things you wear daily at hand height; long hanging goes at the far end where it is walked past rather than through; drawers sit at waist height where you stand to dress; shoes go at the base. A single wall works when the walk along it follows the morning.
Yes — cut into the run, as the Beaumont does, with a lit mirror in the wall of storage and a knee space beneath it. It costs one bay of hanging and gives you a dressing room. A mirror on the facing wall is the alternative where the run is short.
From the run itself: an LED strip under every shelf and a vertical strip in the front edge of each end panel, on one dimmer. A ceiling light behind you puts your own shadow on the clothes, which is why a single-wall walk-in with no lighting of its own always looks like a cupboard.
One wall. One design visit.
Our designer measures the wall, counts what you own and draws the run to it — free, at your home, with the walk-in samples.