News & Guides

A wardrobe goes in against an external wall, everything looks fine, and a year later there's a musty smell in the room. Clothes at the back feel slightly damp. Take the back panel off and there it is: black spotting on the wall, sometimes on the unit itself. This is one of the most common problems with fitted furniture in Irish homes, and it's almost never caused by the furniture. It's caused by where the furniture sits and what happens to the air behind it.

Two wardrobes can look identical on the day they're installed. Same finish, same handles, same clean lines. The difference shows up somewhere between year three and year ten, and it has almost nothing to do with the parts you can see.

Most fitted furniture still relies heavily on shelves. They're cheaper to build, quicker to install, and they're what people expect to see inside a cupboard. But for the way most storage actually gets used, a deep drawer does the same job better in most situations. Once people live with proper drawers, they rarely want to go back to shelves.

Most people choose a colour from a small sample. A door swatch, a paint card, a section of finish held up in a showroom. It looks right in that moment, so the decision gets made. Then the furniture arrives, the units go in, and the colour looks different. Sometimes only slightly. Sometimes enough to be a genuine disappointment.