A wall of shelving that runs from the floor slab to the ceiling looks simple in a rendering. It is one of the fastest ways for a project budget to slip, because every metre of that wall carries decisions about size, substrate, storage mix and services. If you are sourcing floor to ceiling modular systems for a villa, apartment or hospitality fit-out, the quality of your first enquiry decides how accurate the first price will be. The list below is what our estimating team works from.
Start With the Room, Not the Product
These systems are built to the space. Send the drawing before you ask for a price. A dimensioned elevation of the wall is enough to begin: overall width and clear height, plus the position of skirting, cornices, architraves, radiators, switches, sockets, doors and windows that interrupt the run.
- Floor-to-ceiling heights at both ends of the wall. In older buildings a floor can fall several centimetres along a single run, which changes how the base is packed out.
- Whether the ceiling is plasterboard, exposed slab or a grid, and whether it can take a fixing load.
- The finish line you want: does the unit stop under a cornice, or scribe up to the ceiling face?
- Obstructions in plan — radiators, pipework, a return, a column — with distances from each wall face.
A floor plan of the room also helps. It tells us whether the unit is freestanding at one end, whether it meets another joinery item such as custom built-in kitchen cabinets, and how the assembled sections can physically reach the room.
Say What Has to Live Inside It
The internal layout is where most revisions happen, so describe the contents rather than asking for generic shelving. Tell us how the space will be used day to day and we will set bay widths and shelf heights around it.
| If you are storing | What we need to know |
|---|---|
| Books and records | Spine depths, and whether shelves should be fixed or adjustable on a pitch. |
| Tableware, glassware or display pieces | Whether you want open display niches for the pieces you show and closed doors for the rest. |
| Media equipment | Device dimensions, ventilation needs, cable routes and where the screen sits relative to the seating line. |
| Linen, luggage or seasonal items | Whether deep top bays are reachable by staff or residents, and whether those bays need doors. |
| Everyday clutter | The balance of drawers versus shelves — mixed open and closed systems usually work best in living areas. |
Where the mix matters, say so plainly. A run that is 30 per cent display and 70 per cent concealed storage quotes very differently from an all-open wall, and we would rather price your actual split than guess at one.
Name the Materials and Surfaces You Want
Every custom furniture manufacturer needs a finish reference, and vague wording such as "light oak" produces three different samples. Give us one of the following for each visible surface:
- A finish code or sample photograph from our catalogue, with the surface you want on carcass, door and shelf edge treated separately if they differ.
- A competitor-free physical sample posted to our Foshan workshop, for matching.
- A design intent statement — matte, satin or high gloss; grain direction; whether edges are matched or contrasted.
Frame type is a real decision, not a detail. A metal frame modular system reads lighter against a wall and pairs well with glass and stone surfaces; an all-board build gives deeper, warmer reveals and hides service gaps more easily. Tell us which direction the design is going and we will build the quote on that basis rather than quoting both.
Also state what the unit has to survive. A library wall in a private house and a media wall used daily by hotel guests need different board choices, edge treatment and hardware quality. We supply built-in furniture for both, but the specification should not be the same.
Deal With Lighting and Services Early
Integrated lighting is the item buyers leave until last, and it is the one that forces rework. If your design calls for integrated lighting systems inside the shelving, we need this at quotation stage:
- Which bays are lit, and whether the light is a shelf-edge line, a vertical wash or a niche fitting.
- Switching and control: wall switch, sensor, or driver behind an access panel.
- Where the driver sits and how it will be reached for maintenance — a driver sealed behind a fixed panel is a future service call.
- The supply you use on site, so drivers are specified to match rather than substituted later.
The same applies to integrated cabinet lighting that continues into adjacent joinery, and to any TV, fireplace or appliance the unit has to be built around. Send the appliance data sheet with its cut-out dimensions; do not expect us to infer them.
Give Us the Project Context
The same wall quoted for one apartment and for forty identical apartments is a different exercise. Please include:
- Quantity of units or repeated typologies, with a schedule if rooms repeat.
- Project location and the delivery address, plus site access constraints — lift size, stair width, parking restrictions for a truck.
- Your programme: on-site completion date, and whether you need the joinery early to let other trades finish behind it.
- Who installs. We provide installation and after-sales support, but some contractors prefer to fit on site themselves, and that changes how we pack and label the sections.
- Your Incoterms preference — ex works, FOB or delivered to the door under our logistics and door-to-door delivery service.
For Australian work we have shipped villa joinery for projects in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Willoughby. Import terms, duties and transit arrangements are confirmed project by project with your own customs agent; we do not treat any single past shipment as a standing guarantee of timing or cost.
What We Send Back, and What Happens Next
With the information above, an indicative quotation comes back with the configuration, board and finish selection, hardware, lighting provision, packing schedule, price basis and delivery terms — so you can compare it against other quotes line by line rather than on a single bottom figure.
After that the route is short: we confirm details and drawings, produce samples of any matched finishes for your approval, then move into production with inspection before packing. Our interior design services can carry the earlier part of that process if you have a concept but no joinery drawings yet — space planning, layouts and 3D renderings first, production drawings once you have settled on the scheme.
Send drawings and a room schedule to our project team, or browse the wider range of interior fixtures and floor to ceiling shelving systems before you lock the specification.