A recessed panel wardrobe is one of the easiest built-in pieces to specify badly. The door looks simple — a flat frame around a sunken centre panel — so buyers and even design teams often send enquiries with only a width, a height and a colour reference. The wardrobe that comes back is technically "as requested" and still wrong: the reveal between frame and panel is off, the drawer fronts do not line up with the doors, the carcass has been made for a floor that is not level, and the finish that looked neutral on a sample card reads warm against the skirting. This guide sets out the specification blocks a made-to-measure recessed panel wardrobe actually needs, in the order a factory will use them.

Start with the door drawing, not the mood board

Recessed and shaker panel wardrobe doors are defined by geometry that has to be drawn, not described. Before anything else, lock down four numbers on a single door elevation:

• Rail and stile width — the width of the frame members around the panel, measured on the finished face.
• Panel rebate depth — how far the centre panel sits back from the frame face. This is what creates the shadow line, and it is the detail most often left unspecified.
• Moulding profile — square-edged, eased or routed; whether the inside edge is a simple step or a decorative moulding.
• Panel material and thickness — solid timber, MDF or a board with a decorative surface, and its thickness, since the rebate has to suit the board you choose.

If you are ordering for a classic paneled solid wood wardrobe, add movement to the list. A solid centre panel expands and contracts with seasonal humidity, so the panel has to be fitted so it can move within the rebate instead of being glued rigid on all four edges. Confirm with the factory how the panel is retained and how much float is allowed. A specification that says "solid wood panel, glued" will produce a door that cracks in a heated winter.

Specify the carcass around the door, not inside it

The door is the visible part; the carcass is the part that decides whether the wardrobe survives daily use. In your specification sheet, keep the carcass as its own section:

Write dimensions as two sets: the nominal opening and the finished wardrobe size after scribes and plinth. Most installation arguments start because a drawing shows a neat rectangle and a site with a 12 mm out-of-plumb wall.

Close the gap between drawing and site

Three site measurements belong on every made-to-measure order, taken at more than one point each: floor level across the full run, ceiling-to-floor height at each end, and the depth available once doors, radiators and switch plates are accounted for. Note the wall construction as well — stud, brick, plasterboard or tile — because it decides the fixings the installer carries and whether a recessed niche has to be framed out first.

Where the wardrobe is part of a broader built-in package, send the same sheet for every unit so door styles, finish codes and hardware stay consistent across rooms. Project teams that specify wardrobes, custom built-in kitchen cabinets and panelling on one document usually find the finish list reconciles itself, and the factory can flag where a single finish has to be repeated on different board types.

Fix the finish with a written reference

Colour names do not survive an email exchange. In the finish block, record the supplier's paint or laminate code, the sheen level, and whether the interior of the carcass carries the same finish as the doors or a lighter one. For painted paneled wardrobes, state how many coats and whether edges and the back of the door are finished to the same standard; that is where builds differ most visibly once the doors are on site. Veneered and melamine options need a grain direction note for the doors, because a run of recessed doors with mismatched grain cannot be corrected after installation.

What to send with the enquiry

A complete package takes an hour to assemble and saves a round of clarification on every unit: a room elevation with the two dimension sets, the door elevation with the four geometry numbers, the carcass table above completed, the finish codes, the hardware schedule, and photographs of the actual opening with a tape measure in shot. Ask the factory to return a shop drawing that shows the panel rebate and the drawer front alignment at full scale, before production starts. If you want the joinery coordinated with the rest of the fit-out, send an enquiry and our project team will review your drawings against the production details and confirm what each unit needs before the order is placed.